FLASH!!! The Elm Dance Video Project You are invited to be part of the Elm Dance Video Project. We are seeking footage of people performing the Elm Dance in countries all over the world in different settings. Please send us your raw footage on a mini-dv to: Ruth Rosenhek Rainforest Information Centre Box 368 Lismore NSW 2480 Australia Please also email Ruth at rainforestinfo[at]ozemail.com.au with details of where the dance took place and any other specifics. Spread the word and join in the fun!

 

Around the planet, as people gather to work together for the healing of our world, a simple, beautiful practice is spreading. To celebrate their commitment to life and solidarity with activists the world over, they join hands in a circle dance.

Set to the haunting strains of a Latvian song, the Elm Dance took form in Germany in the 1980s, and in the early 1990s moved eastward to the areas poisoned by the Chernobyl disaster. There, and especially in Novozybkov, the most contaminated of inhabited cities, the dance became an expression of the will to live.

When I was with the people of Novozybkov in 1992, I made them a promise: to tell their story wherever I went. In keeping that promise, I shared the Elm Dance. Then, in a way that no one could have imagined, the dance began to spread and spread and keep on spreading, beyond all reckoning, with a momentum of its own. As we began to realize, the dance gives activists and lovers of life the world over a tangible way to feel their bone-deep commitment and their solidarity with each other across the miles.

Now we have found an equally tangible way to return the favor and honor the people of Novozybkov--by providing radiation monitors with group instruction in their use. This project, begun in spring of 2003, has already made great strides in reducing the uncertainty in people's lives and igniting ways of working together. As explained below, Elm Dancers everywhere are invited to take part.

The Elm Dance music and story booklet are available for a donation of $10 to Joanna Macy Intensives, 2812 Cherry St., Berkeley, CA 94705. Please specify tape or CD format. For more information, fax 510-649-9605 or email info@joannamacy.net.