Samantha's Dance Story

About this dancer

In this small life, I have danced. In this immense life, I have danced. And, the dance has taken me home. The dance has shown me who I am, how I feel, how I express, how I enter relationship with God and with other people. It has been a mirror, a guide, a teacher, a friend, a master and a lover. It has been alternately a sanctuary and an addiction, a discipline and a release, space to feel my separation and a blissful return. It has been and is all the colors of my life.

I started dancing when I was 13. I used to lock myself in the dance room at lunchtime and dissolve myself in movement. I choreographed prolifically. I made dances that came from a mysterious place inside me about love and war and birth and death. For four years in a row, they had to makes a special award for me for “best choreographer.” Dance was a natural path of awakening that happened beyond my thinking or deciding. Once I started dancing, it was pure desire and knowing that guided me. I had a passion that was unstoppable, taking after school jobs from the age of 15 to pay for more after school dance classes and clothing. The drive came from my body, my heart and my emotions. No amount of parental disapproval could deter me. Some part of me always knew it was spiritual. I knew I was touching God. I knew I was moving the Void. I knew that my passion was a holy passion far greater than myself. Nothing could stop me from dancing.

I went to college at University of California Santa Cruz, and in that liberal environment created a never before heard of degree called Social Theory and the Dance. My major proposal was a refutation of the Cartesian split: “I think therefore I am.” These words and the discourse of empirical science begun by Copernicus some 300 years earlier, split us from our bodies and the primacy of our own experience as evidence for true knowledge. The path of study I created for myself broke down the Body/Mind split that has been at the heart of education for the last 500 years, and invited the return to experience as a means of knowing. I was totally committed to re-connecting meaning, experience and knowing.

Later, I moved to San Francisco where I danced professionally for many years, and had my own performance company. When I wasn’t dancing, I dove deep into yoga, finding a place where I could be in my body with no mirrors, no outer reflection at all, only my inner experience and the sound of my breath. In 1997 while catching a man half again as big as me, I received a major knee injury – a gift in disguise. It taught me my first lessons in real perseverance and humility and it sent me into the study of somatics and healing. I also began studying permaculture and went deeper into improvisational explorations- still dissolving in the dance. Finding in it my medicine, my prayer. In 2000, I again injured my knee.

This time, I found that I could also hate the dance. I was angry. I felt broken. I felt betrayed. I dissolved into yoga. Months later, I found myself dancing wildly on a red rooftop in India. I had my walkman tucked into my tank top blasting Keith Jarret. The skies were a purple tempest of monsoon clouds, lightning and sunset. I was crying uncontrollably. I knew I was home. Dancing again.

What felt like a betrayal was another opportunity to recognize that the great dance is life, and that the dance always, always goes on. We choose the way we feel and interpret our own experience. We choose our own story. I knew that the dance was me, and I was the dance, and that no ideas about perfection or form could ever really keep me from dancing. I knew that the only thing n the way of my dance was fear. The only thing in the way of my freedom was fear. From this solitary moment, Dancing Freedom was born. I knew every floor as my church, every space as my temple. And, I began to recognize my fellow dancers as my spiritual companions, my sangha. I have known other practices, other temples, other prayers. But this one is the one that always, always shows me the truth and returns me to love.

Dr. Dan's Story

Hi, my name is Dan Engle and it's my calling to co-create with others an intentional practice of sustainable living.

I live in Patagonia, Arizona where I am the Medical Director at the Tree of Life Spiritual Rejuvenation Center. I work both as an MD and as a holistic health and whole person healing counselor for a wide variety of clients. This is the evolution of my practice. The theraputics applied for helping clients achieve vibrant health include fasting and raw food nutrition, energetic psychology, spiritual practice, vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, homeopathics and superfoods. I see this as an integrative and sustainable approach to medicine, and continue to research the synergistic benefits of a living systems perspective on wellness.

I whole-heartedly believe in the power of personal transformation and the wisdom of Spirit to provide us the necessary learning opportunities to maximize our re-awakening and achieve our fullest potential.

Here's My Story:
I began my medical training in the traditional allopathic medical model just weeks after a major injury. The break to my neck (C5 to be exact) in a diving "accident" served as a blessed healing and learning opportunity. Though, it was not until much later that I would come to understand how wonderfully non-accidental this divine orchestration was and how it served to fundamentally shift my world view. In shamanic practices, such a blow to the crown of the head (which is how I after jumping 15 feet into thigh high water) is done purposefully so as to "crack the cosmic egg" and open to the infinite.

After starting medical school in a "halo" device and beginning the journey of formalized medical education, I consistently found myself searching outside the box for a more inclusive, health oriented, and self-empowered approach to wellness. I realized that Western medicine is primarlily focused on illeness and dis-ease rather than prevention and healthy living. In medical residency I expanded my exploration of this subconscious (and largely problem based) world-view, and turned towards the humanistic field of psychiatry. However, after completing extensive training in adult, child and adolescent and forensic psychiatry, I remained disillusioned with the "standards of medical care" and sought more.

I found the next key in Thailand through a major mind-body opening during an extensive cleansing program at The Sanctuary. Instead of the planned fun in the sun, island vacation, I was emphatically called to an 8 day fast and cleanse. I felt charged, totally alive and fully in alignment with my purpose. I felt more inspiration about healing and medicine than I had ever known. I submerged myself in their library of integrative healing resources and became happily inducted into the family of practitioners bridging complementary medical paradigms with Western medicine. I returned to the States completely committed to holistic medicine, with more excitement than education or supervision. In my zeal, I became rather imbalanced physically. Thankfully, this period fortified my resolve towards mindful balance. Since then, I have sought and experienced firsthand knowledge of the benefits of natural therapies. I have also spent years studying with and alongside wonderful healers using a wide range of health conscious practices.

Using myself as a test case for the power of natural healing was (and continues to be) the most authentic experiment for my transformation and development as a person, physician and spiritual being. My passion is engaging in the healing interface between client and Source, facilitating the clearing of limiting physical and psycho-emotional patterns and empowering others to become their own facilitators and healers.

Gratefully, the learning continues. We are all evolving constantly, mirroring the processes of change in our communities and on our planet. May we all thrive in our fullest expression of the Divine and return to our original blueprint of healthy sustainable living - whole, happy and well.

aho, mitakuye oyasin - to all my relations.

Begin At Home: Solargons Are Easy, Affordable, Sustainable Housing

Green building is the next frontier for sustainable industry and growth in balance with conservation.

We have become distributors of the Solargons and Structural Insulated Paneling(SIPs), providing access to easy, affordable and sustainable housing for individuals and communities nation wide.

Solargons are octagonal buildings featuring passive solar design principles. The shape is inspired by design elements from Native American and Asian nomadic tribes, while the materials represent the latest in green building technologies. We have created structures that work with and within the environment for outstanding performance, comfort and functionality.

These passive solar homes reduce the yearly demand for heat by a factor of 10, and reduce energy consumption by a factor of 6, thanks to the efficient use of solar energy. The walls and roof panels are made with Structural Insulated Panels (SIP’s) which ensure a fast, rigid, airtight enclosure. The panels are composed of an insulating foam core, with top-quality OSB skins. Both the insulation and panel skins are made from natural, renewable materials. The SIP’s provide both extremely high insulation value as well as extremely strong structures, well above conventional stud-frame insulation.

“Green building has truly become a global movement,” said Harvey M. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill Construction’s vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives.

In light of the obvious necessity for change in the way we look at housing and out of the desire to create economic thrival for ourselves and our communities, we have become distributors for the “Solargon”, and the Structural Insulated Panels (SIP’s) used in the building process.

We welcome your questions and comments. Please email samantha@dancingfreedom.com. And, you can find much more info at www.sunsationalgreen.com. We are also looking for folks who would like to become regional dealers.

Blessed Be.