Judaism has a long history of combining music and movement as a way of exploring spirituality. According to Lawrence Dreyfuss, a dancer, yoga teacher, and creator of the Sabbath Dance experience, just to name a few, dancing is tied to Kabbalah and philosophers like Rebbe Nachman. Dreyfuss is bringing his experiential program, “The Sabbath Dance,” to Nashville in partnership with East Side Tribe October 18-20.
The weekend long program will include Dreyfuss and local therapist and mindfulness practitioner, Lindsey Weiner who are creating a Shabbat and Sukkot themed weekend experience with something for everyone. According to Emily Siner, organizer of East Side Tribe, “I didn’t really understand how mindfulness and movement would go together. But I’ve known Lawrence for many years and when I found out what he was doing, I decided to bring him to Nashville,” she says, “The whole weekend is an exploration of mindfulness and movement through a Jewish lens.”
The weekend will kick off with a Mindfulness Kabbalat Shabbat potluck dinner for all ages. Weiner says the idea is to provide a safe space to connect with Jewish spirituality through body awareness, rather than through traditional texts. “This is really a new opportunity for the community to be curious, to bring something to people that meets their edges.”
Shabbat morning will continue the theme of mindfulness using meditation, chanting, and some text study. Dreyfuss says he plans to focus on the Kabbalistic themes that the self is comprised of five worlds: mind, heart, body, spirit, and energy. “In the 21st century we spend so much more time sitting, using our body from the neck up,” he says, “We’re also so addicted to constant stimulus and ingesting information. We have forgotten some our ancient traditions around dance and movement.”
The highlight of the program is the Havdalah Sabbath Dance, also known as ecstatic dance. Dreyfuss is a DJ who guides participants using music and movement through the Havdalah service. The service begins with a gentle warm up and then transitions to dance and movement to music. “It’s designed to get people more into their bodies,” says Dreyfuss, “I’m not reinventing the wheel, I’m following the wheel. People want to embody spirituality through movement.”
Dreyfuss began the Sabbath Dance experience in May 2023 and saw an uptick in interest in the wake of October 7th. “People needed outlets because they didn’t have language for the intense feeling they were experiencing. We put on a dance and sold 100 tickets in three hours,” he says.
Weiner says she is happy to have access to this type of experience to address her need for greater Jewish connection. “I would have loved something like this after October 7th,” she says, “To find some connection, some nourishment, some support within my tradition. Being a Jew in the South I felt a yearning for more of this type of programming.”
East Side Tribe is a partner organization of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville. Siner says she is excited Federation is helping to bring something new to the community. “We’re trying to get outside the box. We’ve already tried mindfulness programming with Rooted Ruach, and we would love to see this type of thing more regularly.”
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