Sun Dance

I've recently viewed a healthy portion of Sun Dance festival endorsed films – for the most part cracking independents: the Irish film 'Once' was the last such Sun Dance endorsed (actually winning the World Cinema Audience award) film I viewed – I really enjoyed it, the music and the naturalistic acting made it quite a moving experience.

But it's another type of sun dance I'm talking about today...during our p*** poor summer I think most of us were getting to the end of our tether with the weather (did I mention my poetry skills?)...so I decided to do something about it.  I researched then performed a native American Sun Dance in my back garden one evening last week (in the rain I'll add).  I set to work on a repetitive drum loop (using logic pro) and set this to over 30 minutes downloading it onto an iPod so as to not scare the neighbours with 'crazy, incessant rhythmic beats'.  A genuine sun dance (still performed in the United States and Canada) goes on for hours, but as we had a film to watch later in the evening I performed an abridged version.  Again a true Native American Sun Dance could involved the piercing of my breast area tied to a tree the culmination of which would see the skewered flesh torn  off.  I just wasn't in the mood to be honest so instead pierced those blister bits you get on the bottom of your fingers, palm side with needles and a bit of string.  A good 30 minutes later (and worn out from the non stop dancing) the needles were broken free from my hands and I called it a day.

I always wanted a life on the plains of America pre Columbus – I guess I was influence by Kevin Costner's 'Dances With Wolves'.  Like the aborigines of Australia, these seemed to me a people very connected to the earth and the spiritual side of life.  Pre modern world (industrial & digital) they could probably have lived on as they were for many millenniums, without any sign of technology (which of course makes our own lives ultimately slaves to the machines...).

And by god did that dance work?  We've had a heatwave ever since then – friends have congratulated me on my good work, although if I'm honest, I could do with a spot of rain and cool breeze...it's almost stifling now isn't it?