Offering body prayers

The members of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) in Poplar Ridge spent their monthly Saturday night get-together last month learning spiritual dances. Wendy Burwell of Rochester and Elsbette Grove of Wolcott had been invited to the meeting hall to share their knowledge of the dances. Burwell described the dances as being as much “body prayers” as they are dances.

“These dances first became popular in the 1960s, and now they are performed in 60 countries around the world,” Burwell said. “I first encountered them about 20 years ago in Rochester, and I've been in love with them ever since. I've even been able to bring them into two prison settings, Attica and Auburn, where Quaker worship groups had already been established. The response has been wonderful.“

The Dances of Universal Peace, the program that Burwell and Grove share were developed by the work of Samuel L. Lewis, a Sufi mystic who combined the spiritual elements of Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity into a collection of dances that would “combine mystical practice with a body-based reality of world peace.”