Hazrat Inayat Khan now progresses from musical instruments to dance. The previous post is here.

Wind instruments, like the flute and the alghosa, especially express the heart quality, for they are played with the breath which is the very life; therefore they kindle the heart’s fire.

Instruments stringed with gut have a living effect, for they come from a living creature which once had a heart; those stringed with wire have a thrilling effect; and the instruments of percussion such as the drum have a stimulating and animating effect upon man.

After vocal and instrumental music comes the motional music of the dance. Motion is the nature of vibration. Every motion contains within itself a thought and feeling. This art is innate in man; an infant’s first pleasure in life is to amuse himself with the movement of hands and feet; a child on hearing music begins to move. Even beasts and birds express their joy in motion. The peacock, proud in the vision of his beauty, displays his vanity in dance; likewise the cobra unfolds his hood and rocks his body on hearing the music of the pungi. All this proves that motion is the sign of life, and when accompanied with music it sets both the performer and onlooker in motion.

The mystics have always looked upon this subject as a sacred art. In the Hebrew scriptures we find David dancing before the Lord; and the gods and goddesses of the Greeks, Egyptians, Buddhists, and Brahmans are represented in different poses, all having a certain meaning and philosophy, relating to the great cosmic dance which is evolution.

Even up to the present time among Sufis in the East dancing takes place at their sacred meetings called Sama, for dancing is the outcome of joy; the dervishes at the Sama give an outlet to their ecstasy in raqs which is regarded with great respect and reverence by those present, and is in itself a sacred ceremony.

The art of dancing has greatly degenerated owing to its misuse. People for the most part dance either for the sake of amusement or exercise, often abusing the art in their frivolity.

Tune and rhythm tend to produce an inclination for dance. To sum up, dancing may be said to be a graceful expression of thought and feeling without uttering a word. It may be used also to impress the soul by movement, by producing an ideal picture before it. When beauty of movement is taken as the presentment of the divine ideal, then the dance becomes sacred.

To be continued…