Over the last decade, people who have learned to dance with horses through a variety of workshops at Eponaquest have been requesting the music we’ve been using for this interspecies relationship-boosting practice. Finally, Linda Kohanov and her husband, composer Steve Roach have collected the most popular pieces used for horse dancing. This includes two pieces composed in memory of Eponaquest founding herd members Rasa and Noche.

You can order the CD at: http://www.steveroach.com/store/store.php?item=499

The music is also available in high resolution download at: http://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/rasa-dance-the-music-of-connection

Those who attend the Rasa Dance workshop April 9 through 12 will receive a copy of the CD as a keepsake, and as a way to take the music home to dance with their own horses. There are still two spaces left in this upcoming workshop. For more information http://eponaquest.com/workshop-details/?event=558. To register, contact Sue Smades at info@eponaquest.com or 520-455-5908.

 

The Evolution of Rasa Dance

In the liner notes to this long-awaited CD (quoted here), Linda describes how and why she began teaching horse dancing:

In 1993, at the height of my career as a music critic, I sold my CD collection to buy Tabula Rasa, a beautiful black Arabian mare. Six months later, I was riding her in the desert when a huge Rottweiler chased us through a deep sandy wash, injuring Rasa’s right back leg, ending our promising riding career, yet ironically leading us on a much more fruitful path.

The Chinese sage Lao-tzu observed that “it is upon disaster that good fortune rests,” a lesson that Rasa and her other herd members challenged me to embrace over and over again. While the sheer joy of working with horses always outweighed the hardships, the most profound transformations happened when things didn’t go my way—when my most reliable tools, ideas, and coping strategies failed, and I had to respond to the world rather than try to control it. Through Rasa, I learned to dance with the unexpected while literally learning how to dance with her on the ground. This consolation for my inability to ride her turned into a relationship-enhancing practice that I used with other horses, and eventually taught to people through our “Rasa Dance” workshops.

For these clinics, my husband Steve and I perused his extensive list of original compositions, selecting various moods and tempos. This CD collection was refined through years of movement magic between horses and humans. “Eye of Noche” and “Where Rasa Lives” were later created in memory of two horses who became great dancers, then great dance teachers of people, including those who had never worked with horses before.

I was subsequently surprised to find the phrase “Rasa Dance” associated with the ancient god Krishna, who danced with his followers by moonlight. In India, a sacred performance is still called a Rasa Dance, signifying a state of grace in which Spirit engages with its many manifestations, expressing different aspects of infinity through the music of connection.

But it was a living, breathing horse named Rasa who taught me that when two beings move in synchrony, a greater consciousness arises. Most importantly, I learned that if we can dance with joy, ecstasy, power, frustration, miscommunication, tragedy and anything else that comes our way, an underlying sense of deep peace emerges, allowing us to fully engage with life.

The Music is the Medicine

Many Eponaquest workshop participants and apprentices have also specifically enjoyed the creativity and consciousness-enhancing music activities led by Steve Roach, and they’ve asked for more. This summer, Steve will join forces with percussionist Byron Metcalf to lead two, deep listening and transformational music-making workshops at the Eponaquest ranch in Amado, AZ.

You are invited to join Steve and Byron for three days of complete sonic immersion, activating and cultivating a deeper connection to transformative sound states, ranging from the expansive ecstatic to the inner quiet. This workshop will include sessions on deeper listening, extended journey concerts, spontaneous interactive group sound creation, elemental sound meditations and more. Core elements from Byron’s “Shaman’s Heart Program” will be weaved throughout to help integrate your experiences in a personal way.

The Music is the Medicine – Eponaquest at Eagle Way, Amado, Arizona

• May 24-26, 2013 (Almost sold out: only one opening available)
• June 28 – 30, 2013

Email Steve directly for registration and information at info@steveroach.com

Times and Tuition:

May 24-26, 2013

• Workshop begins 4:00pm Friday, ends 1:00pm Sunday
• Early registration discount (prior to May 10th): $495
• May 10th or later: $535 For the May Opening

June 28-30, 2013

• Workshop begins 4:00pm Friday, ends 1:00pm Sunday
• Early registration discount (prior to June 10): $495
• June 10th or later: $535 For the June 28 – 30, 2013