The Tribe of Doris

'Doris' means 'doorway.' The week spent at The Tribe of Doris Intercultural Summer School of Drumming, Dance and Song near Wellington in Somerset opened many doorways. You could be cynical about the whole thing, but being there, spending a week in the fresh air camping, creating music and dance with a feeling of sharing, forgiving, loving and concentrating on posititivity, it was impossible to resist the spirituality of the site.
I learnt to spin like a whirling dirvish and not fall over or feel sick because the spinning isn't about the physical act, but about concentrating on receiving love from the vertically, loosely extending left hand and giving love out through the loosely horizontally, palm downwards, facing right hand, eyes open, and slowly coming to a stop and then you can spin and spin. If your arms tire, place them crossed over your chest. Sheikh Ahmad Dede spoke and sang of forgiving - of how we are receptacles to ask for love and pass it out so that more love comes back. The whirling is because everything whirls, the earth round the sun, the earth on its axis, the moon around the earth. And we are all part of the universe. It made sense and felt a way to live that would be a relief in many ways. Keep it simple, think positivily, put away negative thoughts. Forgive. It's more effort and hurtful to all involved not to forgive. Follow your conscience nd trust the universe and it will work out. Similar thoughts came out in Denise Rowe's Contemporary African Dance classes too amongst other things. That was the main message from Doris. Trust the universe. And if we work together we can accomplish great things. Think we need that more than ever right now.
The skies clouded during the Saturday night Open Air show when everyone performed what they had experienced and learnt in the week's workshops. People waved away the clouds. The clouds went. The evening was clear. You couldn't not believe there was something in the power of collective positive thought.
There is so much to say about this week in Somerset. It'll have to be a daily update and I'll work through the week from the day we arrived, Tuesday the 9th of August at about eleven in the morning, for the Opening Ceremony at twelve, until Sunday the 14th, about two fifteen after the closing ceremony at noon until two. In the sunshine.