When I was thinking about spiritual activism the work of Anna Halprin, born in 1920, came to mind. She was a dancer and pioneer with a revolutionary spirit to challenge any rigid boundaries – first and foremost – the rigid boundaries that were, in her times, around dance.

Although she never publicly identified herself as a spiritual practitioner, her work is infused with practices to come back to our soul. She practiced and taught dancing as a form of healing and shadow work, but also as a practice to reconnect to nature and rituals. For me, she is a spiritual activist in her own right. So let me tell you a bit more about her life.

The first part of her life, Anna Halprin dedicated her life to art and was interested in pushing any limited boundaries around even that art form. But a crucial moment in her life is when she was faced with cancer and know if she would live or die. She describes an experience of a ​​bird flying into her room asking her what the purpose ​​of her dancing will be when she continues living. She never knew if that bird really flew ​i​nto her room, but it was as real for her as any other experience, and she allowed it to change the course of her life and work. She recovered and started dedicating (her) art to Life, instead of her life to art, which she kept doing until the moment of her passing away in 2021, at the age of 101 years.

For me, the act of trusting that experience of talking to that bird in her room, and to allow that to profoundly reconfigure her life, is a form of spiritual activism. It is to trust our experience even beyond what we think is real and to allow it to reconfigure our sense of self and purpose. Our current paradigm can only change when people like you and me stop reaffirming the old boundaries around reality and start to wander beyond them.

The activism part is in the act of sharing our new sense of reality with others, whether it is just with our friends, ​​colleagues, or family, or reaching out to a wider community, as Anna Halprin did through her teaching. She encouraged people to let the movement take them home to their soul. She worked with people from all kinds of backgrounds, with or without dancing experience and founded the first multiracial dance group. She worked with the elderly, with people facing illness, and many more.

Taking a fast glance at her life, it might look like spiritual activism is beyond our capacity. But I realize that is not about the number of people we reach, but about our courage to show up, to share what we experience beyond the known, and to encourage others to do the same. Or, like she used to say, “to bring our wisdom home to our community, to the people we care for.”

I met Anna Halprin only a few times, and what impressed me the most was her capacity to wonder and find beauty in everything around her. When I met her at the age of 97, she was still seeing with the eyes of innocence.

So seeing spiritual activism ​​through the innocent eyes of Anna Halprin, I realize that it is not grotesque or complicated, it is just simply about the way we refuse to shrink ourselves into old ways of being and to trust our experience beyond the known. It is about continuing to realign our lives around a bigger purpose. It is about confessing to ourselves and others that we are a beautiful Soul firmly rooted in the Divine and encouraging others to do the same. It is about seeing and honoring the wisdom that comes to us from the Divine, right in this moment.

Source: documentary about the life of Anna Halprin by Directed by Ruedi Gerber Breath made Visible.
Liesbeth de Jong studied Life Art Process®, a somatic practice founded by Anna Halprin.