Shall we dance?

Discovering Wu Tao - a personal experience

Discovering Wu Tao has been, for me, a joy. After years of dabbling with various exercise and relaxation regimes, I’ve finally found a form that not only makes me feel great inside and out, but also one in which the process is as valuable as the outcome. Learning and practicing Wu Tao is an illuminating and empowering experience, resulting in a calmer and happier me.

Like millions the world over, I have always loved to dance. As children we dance freely, impulsively, intuitively, but as self-consciousness and inhibitions increase, many of us lose this ability. Maturing personalities and awareness of differing skill levels serve to censor and repress our dancing ways. Though never actually discouraged, I didn’t receive any formal dance training in my youth. Thus my own ‘dancing feet’ were gradually bound by fear and lack of expertise.

Decades and many life changes later, I have reclaimed the right to express myself through dance.

As a pre-schooler I attended yoga classes with my mother. This early experience introduced me to body stretching and posturing with a somehow, though I didn’t fully comprehend it at the time, philosophical angle on mind/body maintenance. Blessed by naturally healthy, lithe and supple body, I found the excessive health regimes of the 80s and 90s, with their emphasis on physical appearance and endurance, ultimately unappealing and in balance unrewarding. Long sessions with weights and aerobics left me sculptured and fit in appearance, but came at a price of knotted muscles, aches and localised pain. It was clear that despite my desire for visible results I was in need of a physical routine that left me stretched but not strained, exercised but not exhausted.

Participating in the Wu Tao dances is a meditative experience. Complete focus on and immersion in the dancing way enables my mind to access a stillness and peace that I otherwise find quite challenging and elusive.

Wu Tao aims to liberate and balance the flow of Qi, the life force energy, through the body. Based on the Oriental Medicine principle of the five elements that make up our physical universe, the dances celebrate air, water, wood, fire and earth. Each dance works specific meridians in the body and addresses a dominant emotional component. The air dance acknowledges grief, encouraging release and transformation. Subtle and ever so sensual, the water dance deals with fear through surrender and acceptance. The wood dance uses the motivational power of anger to energise and strengthen. Evoking joy, the fire dance has its emphasis on cleansing and purification. Finally, the earth dance is a time for giving thanks for all that comes toward us, including the trials and challenges that help us to discover our true selves.

I have been learning Wu Tao under the thoughtful guidance of Wendy Finnigan. Wendy is an inspired and inspiring teacher, whose body and soul are well aligned with Wu Tao principles. With a strong background in alternative health practices including, Reiki, Chinese Acupressure, Spiritual Counselling and Kinesiology, Wendy’s philosophy of well-being operates on many levels. Her own finely kept temple is clear testament to that. But Wendy’s care extends way beyond her own temple, rendering her teaching style kind and altruistic. Graceful in movement and mellifluous in tone, Wendy conducts her classes in an aesthetically pleasing, constructive and welcoming manner. Individuals are encouraged to maximise the benefits of the dance through correct execution of moves and the extension of stretches to their optimum. At the same time the group is always working together in a supportive, connecting and complicit way. All the while, Wendy’s warmth creates a calm, cohesive ambience.

Never before have I undertaken a season of physical discipline classes that I haven’t wagged at least once in favour of a gin and tonic. Wu Tao and I seem wonderfully well aligned; mind, body and soul.

For more information go to website www.wutao.com.au or call Michelle on 0417 989 397 or email her at wutao@webace.com.au

"As a therapy, Wu Tao has healing as its purpose. It is also deeply satisfying to experience the oneness of Life in one’s own body, not just as the mind’s desire for it to be, but as an all encompassing wisdom of knowing, that is felt in every cell of your being." Michelle Locke.

Michelle Locke has a background in professional dance and Oriental Medicine. She teaches Wu Tao classes in WA and holds regular workshops throughout Australia..

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