In the more than thirty years that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has dedicated to the Dzogchen community that he created, nothing like this has even happened: that Rinpoche spends at least three hours every day singing and dancing with his students wherever he happens to be. Nothing like this happened with any of the many precious practices that he has given us, not even with the Vajra Dance. So Tibetan dances must really be something very important!
For this reason we invited Tsering Dolker and Topgyal Gontse to Namdeling, in Naples, Italy, to learn at least the first steps of the dances so that we will be able to practice them during the next few retreats with the Master.
The workshop was preceded by a meeting that was open to the public in which we involved various groups in Naples that are interested in dance whether it is classical or popular, modern or traditional.
The event was successful. Dancers from the Argentinian Tango to the Clandestine Mazurka, from Sicilian to belly dance all came to share their passion for dance and to learn the Tibetan Dances that our guests demonstrated, involving even the audience. The evening ended with the presentation of the Dance of the Six Spaces.
The feedback received from the participants was very positive: everybody enjoyed both the modern Tibetan dances and the Dance of the Six Spaces and it was an opportunity to make people know about the existence of Namdeling, of which many had heard of but considered to be a space some way away from city life.
We believe that this experience is something to be developed in order to be more present in the cultural reality of Naples and to promote knowledge of the culture of Tibet.
The seminar that followed was attended by about 15 people from the Community of Naples, plus one of the spectators from the previous evening.
Gino Vitiello
