To Truly Dance Is To Worship Truly: Stray Thoughts On The Spirituality Of Sinulog Festival

It is indeed very difficult for the rigid, overly serious, formalistic and constricted religionists to admit and realize that true worship is simply to become a dancer of God and to dance for God. Watching the Sinulog dance offerings of various contingents of devotees performed in the vicinity of the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino made me realize that genuine spirituality is simply to dance with wild abandon at the court of the Beloved Lord. For me, true spirituality happens when one annihilates one’s self-absorption and self-preoccupation: in short, exterminating one’s own sense of self-importance to a more sublime activity, nobler cause, or to a higher Self. Spirituality happens when one throws out all inhibitions characterizing self-introspection and narcissistic self-consciousness to simply focus on the Beloved Who is the Supreme Desideratum of Life. Forgetting our puny “selves” and our petty “egos” can be achieved in the very act of the dance; when we truly and with one-pointedness and unflinching contemplation dance with our whole heart, soul, body, mind and being to the One Who is the subject of our everlasting love.

Dancing frees us from thoughts about ego and our self-brooding or self-consciousness; thereby allowing us to become one with the music, the rhythm, the tempo of the dance and one with the dance itself. Dancing brings us in union with the cadence of the dance—to the liberating experience and to the exhilarating ecstasy of the Dance itself. Indeed, one cannot truly dance with grace and joyful abandon if one continually thinks of one’s own self while dancing. You have not truly danced when you are aware of your own self, your own hang-ups, inferiority complexes, embarrassments, and your own self-projections while going through the motions of dancing. You have only danced in the real sense of dancing when you, the music, the rhythm and the dance have become one; with no separation whatsoever among them! Dancing frees us from self-immersion characterizing narcissistic existence. Dancing with grace and with presence allow us to lose ourselves and to become one with the Dancer of the cosmos—God Himself/Herself.

The great Turkish saint of medieval Sunni Islam, Hazreti Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi founded a Sufi mystical order called the Mevlevi or the Order of the Whirling Dervishes to show us that spirituality, music, art, poetry and dance are effective means to attain union with the Supreme. Mevlana Rumi prays to his Beloved while dancing and whirling: “Oh Lord, the Supreme Dancer of the universe and the only Dancer within my heart; if in this very moment I lose myself and get a glimpse of your Beautiful Face, then my whole existence will be a true sacrifice to You! If in this very moment I lose myself only to gain You, then I will dance my whole life in ecstasy. And in my whirling, I will trample both worlds—this world and the Hereafter—with my love’s ecstasy until I reach Your lofty Throne!” (See, Imam Nizam Baloch Qadri’s book, Mawlana Rumi’s Advice to Sufi Initiates, p. 41).

Dancing—a potent exercise in spirituality? Why? Yes, of course! Why not? For the rigid, constrictedly conservative and formalistic religionists, my answer here may be tantamount to blasphemy or even outright heresy. However, let me give some proofs to my answer. How can the act of dancing be a meaningful exercise in spirituality? Look at the religion of Hinduism for instance: the Hindu’s divine personage representing the Supreme Beloved, Shree Krishnaji is a perpetually fresh youth who plays with his enchanting heavenly flute, captivating the whole of creation. Shree Krishnaji gracefully engaged the heavenly damsels with him in the cosmic Dance of Love (rasa liila), by which the entire universe is maintained. For the Hindus, the whole of existence is duly created, maintained and preserved in and through this Dance of Love! Look at Shree Shiva Mahadevji, the Lord of the Cosmic Dance whose spirited, virile and vigorous dancing, the universe and everything in it are at once created, preserved, annihilated, only to be re-created once again in time and in space! Likewise, read the Old Testament narration where the Spirit of Yahweh possessed the whole being of King David, and he began to make music in praise to the Lord; and he danced in ecstasy and with wild abandon (even forgetting to dress properly) upon sensing the Lord’s overwhelming Presence as the Ark of the Covenant passed before him! (See 2 Samuel 6:14-15).

Dancing—a heartfelt expression of spirituality? Yes! Of course! The Cebuano devotees of the Holy Child, Santo Nino beautifully exhibited this exuberant dancing before the Lord as their heartfelt and sincere way of thanking, praising, glorifying and supplicating the Divine Logos Who incarnated Himself as the Prodigious Child of the city of Cebu. Dancing is the most enjoyable way to touch our inner Life and to inwardly connect with the Beloved… Well, frankly, I am tired of these navel-gazing thinkers and sages. Honestly, I am really allergic to all sorts of extremely formal, vain, coldly ceremonial, stiffly dignified, and pompously ritualistic ways of worship! I just want to be a wild dancer in the court of the Beloved—with no inhibition and with no egoistic hang-ups whatsoever! I just want to whirl…twirl… turn around… sing… and shout in love and in ecstasy. I just want to be totally lost to myself and to my pettiness and to be found only in union with the Beloved—becoming one with the Beloved in this uninterrupted cosmic Dance and infinite Embrace of Love… Whirl! Twirl! Twist! Turn! Loop! Spin with Love and Devotion! “Sinulog! Musyagit ug kusog: Viva Pit Senyor!”