Astrid Knipping, Seuzach, Switzerland
Where did you learn about the meditation of dance?
It was a big event, an afternoon of peace dancing in Wetzikon, Switzerland. I had once followed a smaller training course in liturgy and dance and got to know some of Friedel Kloke-Eibl’s dances there. And now Friedel was to come to Switzerland – an opportunity to experience her for herself, and also her daughters Saskia Kloke and Nanni Kloke.
It was very impressive for me that Friedel was able to create a spiritual intensity with around 200 people in a sports hall. I was especially moved by the dances to songs by Joanne Shenandoah. It was immediately clear to me: this is the path I want to go down, and I want to go down it intensively.
Did you then find a way to further deepen the meditation of dance?
Yes, Monday dancing at Heidi Hafen has become a constant part of my everyday life. In the way she leads and teaches dances, I breathe a great love – and a lot of know-how. And so the desire developed in me to dare to start the 3-years training. And I am lucky enough to be experiencing this with Friedel Kloke-Eibl and Saskia Kloke right now – which makes me extraordinarily happy….
Has dancing changed anything in your life?
What a question, i have to laugh! Yes, of course something has changed: I dance and dance and dance.
Oke, now serious. As a theologian, I am familiar with different ways of experiencing spirituality. Für mich ist und wird mehr und mehr die Meditation des Tanzes zu meiner ganz persönlichen Art, innere Welten immer mehr zu entdecken und gemeinsam mit anderen zu leben. For me, the meditation of dance is worship in the very best sense of the word:
Ministry on life,
Serving on peace,
serving the love of all that lives.
Is there a dance and / or choreography that is particularly important to you?
A very challenging question – because I love all the dances. By the way, I also take great pleasure in the dances of Saskia Kloke – they are a way of meditation for me in a special way. You can ask me every day – and maybe I’ll tell you a different dance every day. And yet: quite typical and very appropriate for me is a dance that expresses very much of what is a strong inner need for me, a calling perhaps. In the encounter with people who are grieving, who are experiencing terrible suffering, I want to be at their side. To bear with, to simply persevere with what has to be endured at the moment.
“Come to me, your weary ones” – that is the word of Jesus. And so, for me as an emergency counsellor, the dance “Promise” is very expressive: oriented towards the centre, I look for balance, cross, introduce the leg of the heart, centre myself with the gesture, straighten up and hold out the tension that expands as I go on – the heart expands.
Is there something that is essential for you or in your life that you would like to share with us, e.g. a vision, an idea, a picture, a song or a text?
Some people hang magnets of their holiday destinations on their fridge. On my fridge you read words Jehuda Amichai:
In the place where we are right,
flowers will never grow in spring
The place where we are right,
is trampled and hard as a yard.
Doubt and love but
loosen up the world
like a mole, like a plough.
And a whisper is heard
in the place where the house stood,
that was destroyed.
This text by the German-Israeli lyricist has already guided me
for some years and is for me a word for being on the way
The path of meditation of the dance is also a path that continues – who knows, perhaps even further into other dimensions, into other worlds.
And on this path, doubt is at home – and love.
Thank you Astrid, for sharing your thoughts and experiences.