What is Dance of No Name?

A beautiful journey within…
An Art of expressing your true self &
Dance your authentic being.
A wonderful way to celebrate your uniqueness…

DONN is based on 7 different forms.

7 forms in DONN are:

1-Open space

2-Spiral

3-Breaking

4-Grounding

5-Snaking

6-Contact

7-Surrender

The idea came to me first because of a persian poem called “ The pilgrimage of birds” or it exactly translated from the farsi words is “ the seven valleys of Love’ ‘ by Attar Neishaboori, which I’m very fond of.

In the story there is a gathering of thousands of different birds from around the world. Their quest is to find the one altimate bird called “ Simorgh” in Farsi the word Simorgh itself means 30 bird but it’s a metaphor for the “ mythical flying creature like Phoenix in Greek mythology”.

So they go on this pilgrimage to reach the Simorgh ,it’s a long and hard journey. They need to pass throughSeven gateways to reach the first city where they were told the Simorgh will be there…

On the way many gave up, some died, some turned into another way and only 30 of them remained who reached the first city. But no sign of the ultimate bird the Simorgh was there… There was a big lake and as they were all searching, all 30 birds looked inside the lake and saw their own reflection and here they saw the “ Simorgh” the 30 birds…

The story is referring to the Love within ourselves , to find God there is no pilgrimage which takes you to him, you just have to go back to your own heart and this Ultimate love is within yourself.

To me Dance is a way to go back to our own heart and all 7 cities are hidden inside our own being… the journey within ourselves takes us back home to our own heart…

“””If your spirit is not fit to see the Simurgh, neither will your heart be a bright mirror, fit to reflect him. It is true that no eye is able to contemplate and marvel at his beauty, nor is it capable of understanding; one cannot feel towards the Simurgh as one feels towards the beauty of this world. But by his abounding grace he has given us a mirror to reflect himself, and this mirror is the heart. Look into your heart and there you will see his image.

Farid ud-Din Attar, The conference of birds””””

But the metaphor of “ The seven city “ Or “ The seven doorways” which is mostly refer to a spiritual journey one take to evolve in one’s awareness and reach the higher self, has been repeated in many philosophical ideas and worldwide literature such as :

• Odyssey by Homer : Tales of Odysseus relate to a life journey and all its obstacles trying to get HOME.
• The divine comedy by Dante : The journey of Travelling through Hell, Purgatory then heaven making his way back to GOD.
• The pilgrim’s progress by John Bunyan : One’s pilgrimage through life reaching GOD.
• The Seven stages of man’s life, called The Seven ages of Man by William Shakespear ( The Helpless infant, The Whining schoolboy,The emotional Lover, The devoted soldier, The wise judge and The old man).
• Rostam’s seven heroid trial ( Haft khan Rostam) by Persian Sufi and poet Ferdosi in his epic poem “ Shahnameh” : The story is about the Iranian mythological Hero a persian hercules named “ Rostam” undergoing the seven tests finding the demons to free the great king Keykavoos. The journey is about the ongoing fight of humans with the demons for salvation.
• The seven beauties ( Haft Paykar ) by persian poet Nezami Ganjavi : It’s about the path of self knowledge. The Haft Peikar tells the story of the Sasanian ruler and Emperor ,Bahram Gur and his progress toward wisdom. The symbolyc adventures and stories are told in 7 romantic tales by the 7 beauties , the seven brides coming from different corners of the world. Each bride and her story is represented by a color and constitutes a stage of Love in the sufi tradition, similar to Attar’s conference of Birds. The evolution from impurity to purity.

The seven valleys , attar talks about “ Haft Vadi” are :

1- TALAB ( Quest)

2-ESHGH ( Love)

3-MAREFAT (Understanding)

4-ESTEGHNA ( Independence)

5-TOHID ( unity)

6-HEIRAT ( Astonishment)

7-FAGHR & FANA ( Nothingness)

There is also Seven stages of soul journey into spiritual awakening in sufism :

1- TOBEH ( Repentance )

2- WARA (Watchfulness)

3- ZOHD ( Renunciation)

4- FAGHR ( Poverty,Referring to letting go of worldly desires)

5- SABR ( Patience)

6- TAWAKOL ( Trust)

7- REZA ( Satisfaction)

After these 7 stages we reach a stage called ( HAL) which means reaching the spiritual state and becoming ONE with the ultimate truth, becoming one with the Ocean.

Mowlana Jallal Edin Muhammad Balkhi also known as RUMI, the well known Persian poet and Sufi mystic from 13th century , was inspired by two perisan sufis and poets before him;One was Hakim Sanai and the other, Attar Neishaboori. In the spiritual path he refers to Sanai as the EYE and to Attar as the SOUL.

He refers to the 7 valley, of Attar as the

“ Seven valley of Love” .

As he beautifully recited in his poems :

In its original text in Farsi language is read like that:

“ Haft Shahre Eshgh ra Attar gasht,

Ma hanuz andar khame yek kucheim”

Translated in english will be :

“ Attar visited the 7 cities of Love, we are still at the bend of one alley”.

In the sufi tradition there is also a music instrument called “ NEY”.

Ney is a reed flute.

It has 7 holes in it, and These 7 holes are the same Metaphor as the 7 valleys of Love.

Through these 7 doorways God can whisper into the soul.

And for that, one needs to first be empty like a hollow bamboo ( Ney) and Let God in.

The metaphor of the NEY is that , Letting go of the Ego , of the identity and instead open the possibility for God to come in.

In the sufi tradition just as The 7 doorways in NEY , it is said that God whispers to us through the Seven openings in our face.

The 7 opening through which god whispers its songs to us are :

Our ears 2.

Our eyes 2.

Our nostrils 2.

Our mouth 1.

It makes 7 openings to connect to the divine. By seeing, breathing, listening & speaking of truth.

As you can see, The “seven stages”as referred in persian mysticism and many other cultures in Theosophy, is needed to reach the stage of Godliness or Absolute Freedom and merging with the Almighty.

There is also the “ 7 Chakras” originated in the Vedic texts from India.

The 7 chakras are the 7 main energy centres in the body.

The energy travels from the Base chakra, passing through all other chakras in order to reach the 7th Chakra above the head which is the state of Pure consciousness.

The seven main chakras are :

1-base chakra (Muladhara)

2-Sacral chakra (Swadhisthana)

3-Solar plexus chakra ( Manipura)

4-Heart chakra ( Anahata)

5-Throat chakra ( Vishuddha)

6-Third eye chakra ( Ajna)

7-Crown chakra ( Sahasrara)

One more interesting research I did was about the 7 colors of the rainbow and how 7 started to be known as a lucky number in western cultures as well. The root goes to the research of the 6th century greek philosopher, Pythagoras, founder of Pythagoreanism based on mathematics and mysticism. He was passionate about numbers and according to him “ All things are numbers”. He was applying numbers to real life phenomena. He is credited with discovering the fact that musical notes ( there are 7 distinct notes in the musical scale) could be translated into mathematical equations. Pythgoras influenced other philosophers and thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato.

Hence, now we have Seven days of the week, Seven liberal arts,Seven humanities, seven wonders of the world, Seven deadly sins in christianity.

The Seven classical planets visible to the naked eye are : (Sun, Moon, Mercury,Venus,Mars,Jupiter and Saturn)

The Seven candles of the jewish Menorah symbolize the creation in Judaism. This Symbol is used in ancient temples which represents, The Seven days of creation described in the first story in Torah .The 6 Lamps in a row represent human knowledge and the central lamp stands for the light of God called “ Sabbath”.

The Seven days of creation Described in Torah are :

1- Yom Rishon ( Light and Dark)

2- Yom Sheni ( Water and Air )

3- Yom Shlishi ( Land and Plants)

4- Yom Revi’i ( Sun,Moon and Stars)

5- Yom Chamishi ( Fish and Birds)

6- Yom Shishi ( Land,Animals and People)

7- Yom Shabbat ( Rest )

Also in ancient Egypt, there were Seven paths to heaven.

The Seven realm is also known In the Mithraism or Mithraic mysteries , a religion inspired by Iranian worship of the ancient Persian God Mithra also called “ Mehr ”, One of the most ancient religions existed in the world, thousands of years before the christ even before the Zorostria and Vedic lineage. It is believed that the soul reaches to the stage of Mithra or Mehr ( the gate of heaven) through seven planetary realms.

The Seven realms in Mithraism are :

1- Raven ( Corax) : The messenger , under the rule of the planet Mercury, represented by the element Air.

2- Bridegroom ( Nymphes) : The silent one , planet Venus, element Water.

3-Soldier ( Miles) : The warrior , planet Mars, element Earth.

4-Lion ( Leo) : The guardian, planet Jupiter, element Fire.

5-Persian( Perses) : The spiritual , planet Luna.

6- The sun messenger ( Heliodromus) :The Illuminated , planet Sun.

7- The father ( Pather) : ( Godliness ) Mithra itself ,planet Saturn.

And I end my research here by an iranian proverb which says:

Cats have Seven lives! ?

To me Dance Of No Name, is an instrument to reach the stage of Freedom through dance.

The 7 forms guide us into the discovery of different ways of movements in our body in order to free ourselves from limitations and repeating patterns…

It’s a roadmap leading us to surrender to the rhythm of life and find our own authentic way of dance…

We pass through the 7 forms and reach the state of “ Meditation” , Silence.

This is a journey for any souls who love to express themselves through their temple known as the Body, in its most authentic and realistic way… This is a journey leading you back to your own heart…

“Live your life like a DANCE.

So that when you leave this planet, anybody who comes after us, finds that the people who have been here, were not ordinary people.

They have left flowers & fragrances.

They have left the echoes of their songs & their dances.

They have left their footprints in 24 Karat Gold.

Leave your Mark…

You may be gone but your LAUGHTER may remind behind.

You may be gone but your DANCE can remind behind.

You may be gone but the way you lived will go on creating its vibrations.

&

They will remind the people of the future with gratitude that they are the inheritance of a great planet & a great race of human beings…” OSHO

DONN is my footprint in this life journey and I hope you enjoy the journey along with me…