A common purpose and a shared intention...
Jo Woods & Sarah Winter, Open Floor teachers from Melbourne, Australia, are using Open Floor movement practice to reshape the future. Here they talk about a special event dedicated to raising funds and awareness about the climate crisis with their Dance in the Hills extended community.
It’s so important! I want to be an advocate for change. Everything that I’m doing is about our shared communities. We have this precious gift of people, with integrity, coming together each week. They come for the music, for the dance, to socialise… and big questions around core values like equality, boundaries and social justice come up. I like to blow a little breath on those flames.”
In the past people thought “It’s overwhelming to make all these changes and I don’t know what to do”. Nowadays, more and more people are realising that they can make a difference, however small, when they join communities and come together… We don’t feel so alone, so disillusioned, so disempowered. Gathering people in community to share all the little ideas and to offer them that sense of resolve rather than overwhelm.. every bit matters, no matter how tiny. It feels like there might be a chance to make a change.”
Sarah and Jo gathered with their Dance in the Hills community the Saturday before the global School Strike for Climate Change to create a large, shared art banner which was then taken to the rally, where an estimated 150,000 people marched, peacefully together in downtown Melbourne.
The Banner making was followed by a dance where the community practiced moving together as a group to learn how to show up united. The banner reads:
System Change NOT Climate Change
Climate change isn’t just about sustainability, it’s about looking at the systems that have created this situation we’re in. Capitalism and blind consumerism isn’t working. We are at a global tipping point… What if we rise up together and change those systems? What will come after that? How can we help reshape our children’s future together?”
All profits from this community dance were donated to the Great Forest National Park scheme
*Photo credit, John Howard Photography.
