HomeCoursesPolarityHunaMasterWorks StoreOnline CourseMartial Arts

August 1997

Email Masterworks

Polarity Articles

THE SYNERGYDANCE VIDEO REVIEW

by Philip Young

SynergyDance is barefoot, joyous, spontaneous and transformative a dance of the body, from the mind, through the emotions, that aims for rediscovery of the dancer within, and through that dancer to reconnect with a life of meaning, spirit and self-awareness.

In this uniquely natural form of inner exploration and expressive dance, a world of rhythms and movements meet the timeless rhythms of Polarity Therapy, the comprehensive healing art developed by alternative healthcare pioneer Dr. Randolph Stone. In SynergyDance, as in Polarity, the movement of energy is the focus of our quest for balance and health. Thus the 60-minute class led here by SynergyDance creator Charmaine Lee, a lifelong dancer and polarity therapist who has been teaching these classes and workshops for more than 20 years, connects the physical pleasure of movement to polarity¹s subtle energy currents, building through unification of the above and below, the invisible and visible. (In the first half, energy-current release is brought about through relaxed, unforced movement rolling, rocking, rhythmic, three-dimensional and multicultural. In the next half, you¹ll express the emotions in dance, within an organic series of safe containers formed by Polarity¹s elements: earth, water, air, fire and ether.) Throughout, you will move as life moves in its most fundamental expression: from a neutral source, out through the positive pole, back to source through the negative pole. The underlying principle: everything wants to reconnect to its source.

Throughout the ages, dance that is connected with spirit that combines the essentials of sound (music) and light (movement) has been the most healing art of all. Through SynergyDance, one effortlessly enjoys and expresses the natural phenomena of the the elements the building blocks of the bodyand reconnects that body to its chief resident: spirit.

Charmaine Lee

Synergy founding director Charmaine Lee is a uniquely accomplished dancer and teacher who, over a lifetime of study, travel and intense personal interest in movement, music and the healing arts, has evolved a hybrid system of self-healing movement known as SynergyDance. SynergyDance is designed to involve the body as well as the mind and emotions in movement (or what one longtime student, a therapist, calls ³deep play²). Drawing its structure from the energy systems of Polarity Therapy itself a hybrid of Indian yogic traditions, Eastern martial and healing arts and Western holistic approaches to personal wellness SynergyDance incorporates world dance and music with this focus on self-healing.

Lee was a professional ballet soloist while still in her teens in her native South Africa and performed with three of the four state ballet companies there before joining the British company Ballet Rambert in London. At London¹s Royal Academy of Dance and in Lesotho, South Africa and Washington, Lee has studied ballet, modern, jazz, tap, Spanish, belly dancing, African, classical Greek and other styles. To develop SynergyDance, she has merged her accumulated knowledge of the art and anthropology of dance with her extensive studies of healing arts. A registered polarity therapist who studied with James Z. Said, Chloe Wadsworth and Franklyn Sills, Lee has also studied and practiced Educational Kinesiology, yoga, qi gong and tai chi, deep-muscle massage, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Laban theory and cranio-sacral therapy.

After settling in Washington, Lee has devoted most of her time and energy since 1986 toward the development of Synergy Dance & Healing Arts Center as a resource for all who actively seek the self-healing qualities of world dance and music. Lee teaches SynergyDance and Synergy Yoga classes at several locations in the Washington area (the Center itself is currently without a home), as well as SynergyDance and Polarity Therapy professional training courses, and has taught introductory and advanced Synergy workshops at American Polarity Therapy Association conferences in Los Angeles, Washington and Burlington, Vt. SynergyDance has been presented to attendees at the 1994 and 1995 Family Therapy Network annual conferences, the Walter Read Army Medical Center¹s 1993 conference on alternative medicine, and has been featured in The Washington Post, Pathways and Natural Health, Allure, Vogue and Self magazines as well as on WUSA-TV/Channel 9 and WPFW-FM

Cost :
$32 for North American NTSC version
£25.95 for European PAL version
both prices include all shipping costs - to order please see details on our Store

Home/Courses/Polarity/Huna/Masterworks Store/Online Course/Martial Arts