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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Highlighting Morgan Rivers

Points Of Light Music is delighted to be collaborating with three other marvelous dance leaders to organize and curate the weekend long "Dancing Our Life Purpose" retreat in April. 
Top:  Saleem Adam, Conie. Bottom:  Morgan, Heather Hayat
Today we'll get to know Morgan Rivers, who was the core organizer for the dance leader training Conie completed a couple years ago and who wisely organized the Anahata retreat last year to invite musicians to deepen their skills in support of the Dances, which inspired this year's regional leader led retreat.
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A lifelong musician, spiritual seeker and lover of movement, Morgan has been shepherding a monthly circle of the Dances of Universal Peace since 2004 in Des Moines, Iowa and became a
certified leader in 2017.

Anne & Morgan making music. Photo courtesy of Morgan Rivers.
She loves creating sacred space for people to have an experience of connection, unity and a stronger sense of their own divinity.
A dance circle at Unity.  Photo courtesy of Morgan Rivers.
Two of her favorite quotes about the Dances are:
  1. “Spiritual growth is an individual activity best done in groups.” - Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz
  2. “What is the power of the Dances of Universal Peace?  What is the secret of their enduring appeal? Why have they spread all over the world, continuing to spread, even as we speak?
Ask a dozen Dancers, and you're likely to receive a dozen different answers. For some, it's the power of community, a precious chance to join together with others in a deep experience that is always new, even as it's always familiar. For others, the secret is the feeling-sense that can result-joy, peace, compassion, equanimity, ecstasy. Some will say they love to sing, or love to dance, or love the hugs. Others will say they don't know why they come; it's just something they must do, a call that must be answered. 
For me, the power of the Dances lies in the shared, sustained, embodied Sacred Space created by sounding a sacred phrase with simple, heart-felt movement. I know of no other spiritual practice or artistic discipline that is based on these specific combined elements. Each time we join hands in Dance-worship, what can result has the power to transform, to heal, to unite us individually and as a group with All That Is, to bring us home to our true Self.” - Farrunnissa Rosa, Dance Leader and Mentor, North Carolina
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Here are the 2018 dates for Dance Circles in Des Moines, Iowa. 

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