9th – 16th November 2023
by Nadia Gnatenko and Katka Drajsajtlová
What is Khaita in our daily life? Is it “only” singing and dancing? A connection to the joy flowing within our hearts? Or the melody itself, which connects us – sisters and brothers on the path? How can we create a perfect circle for everybody who wishes to join?
These are some of the personal questions we reflected on during our 8th course of the Khaita Dance School educational program for future instructors and experts, which took place at Dzamling Gar and online on November 9th – 16th.The course was led by Adriana Dal Borgo and brought together 7 onsite and 3 online participants.
We summed up the extensive and rich educational program started in 2021: reviewed plenty of the dances, reflected on various aspects of Khaita and leading and teaching skills, studied in previous courses and additional workshops.
We discussed our understanding of the 3 principles of Khaita and 2 reasons for the project formulated by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. We also studied the dance for Denpa, the song which gave Rinpoche the idea of Joyful Dances as practice. We talked about the principle of integration and reflected on the topic of what Khaita is in our lives.
We also refreshed the historical and cultural aspects, checked the Khaita timeline and evolution. We devoted more time to discovering all the variety of songs, looking for those we had never come across before and singing them together.
And of course we spent a lot of time in preparation for the exam, which will be in April 2024, training to explain and lead dances of all kinds of complexity, to organize people’s interaction and so on.
Our learning time was warmly complemented by dinner gatherings, talks, seashore rest and dancing during regular practices at Dzamling Gar. We tried to support each other and reflect on how we can dance together, how we can sing, move and interact with each other harmoniously. How we can cooperate even if we are going through difficulties. How we can help each other on the path and support each other even if we are all from different parts of the globe.
We are very grateful to Adriana for her deep knowledge and continuous efforts, to the Dzamling Gar Dzogchen Community for the possibility to study, practice and live in such a wonderful place, to Petra Zezulkova for amazing technical support, to all participants for their precious unique impact and all guests of the course for their energy, interest and participation.
With words from one of the songs, we finish our sessions. The Song Tashi Monlam:
དེ་~རིང་ འིང་~ལ་ནི བཀྲ་~ འ་ཤིས་ ཉི་~ འི་མ་ ལ~ཡེ~~~།
Today, on this fortunate day.
བཀྲ་~འ་ཤིས་ གཡང་~གི་ ར་~འ་བ་ འདིར།
In this fortunate and glorious place,
ལྷན་~འན་འཛོམས་ སྐྱིད་~པའི་ ཉི་~འི་ མ་~འ ཤར~~~~།
The sun of joyous reunion has risen.
སྨོན་འདུན་~འུན ལ་ནི~ ཁ་~ འ་བཏགས་ དཀར་~པོ་ འདི~~~~།
We offer this white scarf of aspiration
ཡང་~འང་ཡང་ འཛོམས་~པའི་ རྟེན་~ དུ་~ འུ~ ཕུལ~~~།
As a support for meeting again and again.
བཀྲ་~ཤིས་ འིས~ ལ་ནི་ བཀྲ་~འ་ཤིས་ བདེ་~ལེགས་ ཤོག་~ཡེ~~~།
Fortune! May fortune and happiness come about!
We are looking forward to meeting together again in April!
