Source: Longmont Times-Call
http://www.timescall.com/faith/Faith-Story.asp?id=10650
A dozen people held hands in a large circle and, with their right feet forward in the center, began to rock back and forth inside the chapel.
“The movement is the prayer,” said Grace Marie, a sacred dance teacher based in Fort Collins and member of the Mentors Teachers Guild of Peaceworks and the International Network of the Dances of Universal Peace.
Marie visited Longmont last week and held a workshop about body prayer through the circle of interSPIRITuality, a local group dedicated to interfaith events.
The event, held at Westview Presbyterian’s chapel at 1500 Hover St., explored the art of sacred dance, specifically through the Dances of Universal Peace.
The Dances of Universal Peace draw from the music, lyrics and movements of more than 400 dances from different cultures, Marie said.
She said the Dances of Universal Peace were formed in the 1960s by a Sufi teacher and another scholar who studied the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity.
She said the collection of dances now include pieces from Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as the Aramaic, Native American, Middle Eastern, Celtic, African and Goddess traditions.