Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore how the Sydney's 5Rhythms practice is constructed in a seemingly 'secular' but historically Christian context of Sydney. As dancers' bricolage of ritual and symbols are patterned by wider logics of consumerism and 'alternative' culture.

Paper long abstract:

5Rhythms emerged from the social and cultural shifts in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. From an etic perspective, it is a bricolage of Eastern and Western psychological and religious traditions. From the dancer's perspective these origins are implicit, the dancers practice with the intent to be embodied, to feel, express and to meditate. The practice is cathartic and has therapeutic value. Ecstatic and affective it helps to loosen gestures and comportment set by everyday life, illness and trauma. Overtime the embodied process encourages dancers to re-organise and confirm relations to their body, the world and others. This paper will explore how the 5Rhythms practice is constructed in a seemingly 'secular' but historically Christian context of Sydney. Further, this paper will show that the dancers' bricolage of ritual and symbols are also patterned by wider logics of consumerism and 'alternative' culture.