Rupa writes about her life and work with Paneurhythmy taught by Peter Deunov
You could imagine my surprise when reading the Osho News and seeing Peter Deunov’s (Beinsa Douno’s) prophecy of these current times. There is nothing in my world as precious as finding two of the paths that I so love – find each other. And who would have ever guessed that it would be a teaching of Beinsa Douno that would be honored in an Osho News article. You can be sure I shared the gift with my Paneurhythmy, Osho and Sufi friends, while within this woman’s heart, the strands of my life’s paths joined in joy and integration. The outer world reflecting my inner world is a confirmation that I take with great celebration.
I have been dancing and teaching Paneurhythmy for almost 20 years now, trained by a light-filled woman from Bulgaria named Ernestina Staleva. When she passed away at age 90 (still practicing this dance until her final illness), I silently promised her that I would continue to do and share this practice until I drop this body. We dance in Brattleboro and Putney Vermont every Sunday and Wednesday at 8:00am, and if asked, I give workshops on this amazing practice.
Paneurhythmy is a 28 step almost hour long movement series, it traces the evolution of a seeker to a spiritual peek with three dances, culminating with a movement sequence called the Sunrise, and then brings the dancer to earth to live in harmony with the divine, with the earth and each other. The entire practice is a healing for the self, the community, the earth and all beings. It balances love with wisdom, spirit with matter, and always points always toward Truth and a religion of love.
Personally, this dance has brought such joy into my soul, teaching me year after year and filling me with light and love. It is elegantly simple, almost ‘follow the leader’. The first time I did it a little voice inside me told me that one day I would teach it. I wondered how I would ever be able to remember the sequence to lead and teach this amazing practice. It took me some years and the careful instruction of Erna to get it so that I could pass it on.
‘When Dance Becomes Prayer’ is a workshop that I offer, and where I can bring the Paneurhythmy along with Osho meditations and Sufi zikr and whirling to others. I see these as three wisdom strands that inform my heart as a beautiful way to teach prayer and meditation through movement.
Rupa took sannyas in 1975 and soon after founded the Satgit Rajneesh Meditation Center in NYC. Attracted to movement and dance as a way to listen within, she became an Alexander Technique Teacher, a Rubenfeld Synergist, and after moving to Vermont in 1986 became an initiated ‘Whirling Dervish’ in the lineage of Jalaluddin Rumi, and a lover of the sacred dance of Beinsa Douno, the Paneurhythmy. rupa@together.net – www.rupacousins.com
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