Dances of Universal Peace

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The Dances of Universal Peace are a form of spiritual meditative dance conducted in the company of a number of other dancers in a circle. The dances draw on all the world’s spiritual traditions and are facilitated by a dance leader who usually plays guitar or drum accompaniment. Each dance has a chant which is sung as the dance is performed. The chants are often sacred phrases put to traditional or contemporary melodies, and include a wide range of languages including Arabic, Aramaic, English, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Persian, and Sanskrit.

The emphasis is on participation regardless of ability and dances are almost never performed before an audience. Dancers of all levels of ability dance together and each dance is usually taught afresh at each performance. The practise of the dance is claimed to develop the participants' spiritual awareness, awareness of their own body and awareness of the presence of others. Dances are choreographed to encourage the dancer to explore the deeper mystical meaning of the chant. Dances were originally performed at camps and meetings with a distinctly new age and alternative feel but have increasingly come to be offered in schools, colleges, prisons, hospices, residential homes for those with special needs, and holistic health centres.

The Dances of Universal Peace were first formulated in the late 1960's by Samuel L. Lewis (1896-1971) and were first performed in California. They have since developed into a global movement. The original dances were strongly influenced by Samuel Lewis' spiritual contact with Ruth St. Denis, a modern dance pioneer, and Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi master. The influence on the dances of Sufi practices such as Sema and The Whirling Dervishes are apparent, although Samuel Lewis was also a Rinzai Zen master and drew on the teachings of the major religious and spiritual traditions, including native traditions. The dances embody the understanding that the truth at the heart of all religions is the same truth and that peace can be promoted through an experience of this unity.