The Origins

WaterDance has been given to me as a mission to accomplish. It has never been a personal decision to create a new aquatic therapy technique. I was not even a therapist and I did not particularly like being in water. But when I was first moved and danced by Aman Peter Schröter in the warm water of a thermal bath WaterDance was conceived. It was 1987 and I was a young woman, interested in dance and meditation. The beauty and depth of both were merging naturally and gracefully in WaterDance. I just loved it so much!

As all pregnancies, this one took its time to mature. I was almost 28 years old and inexperienced when I left Switzerland in search of the meaning of life. I went to Thailand and India for 9 months. I had no money, no idea where to go or what to do, but I had a deep longing in my heart and I felt enwrapped in the great mystery that surrounded me in these deeply spiritual countries. I practiced mediation and yoga, pilgrimed from holy place to holy place, and when I took a bath in the source of the Ganges on the Gangotri Glacier, I promised God and myself to never ever pursue a profession anymore that would not vibrate with my heart’s desire.

Then I came back to my home country I felt lost in this society. The culture shock was tremendous. Much bigger than when I had left to go to Asia. Another 9 months passed before I heard about Harold Dull, the creator of WATSU. He used to teach in Germany in a Sannyasin community. Aman and I went there to see what that was, and this very different form of Aquatic Bodywork fascinated me. From then on things evolved very quickly.

I felt the call to go to Harbin Hot Springs (California), the cradle of WaterShiatsu. I studied massage, shiatsu, tantsu, rebalancing, deep tissue work, and of course WATSU. Minakshi, one of Harold’s very first assistant, became my soul sister and passionate teacher. One night, I secretly gave Minakshi a WaterDance session. Thrilled and excited by the depth of this experience, she begged me to teach her WaterDance. And so she was my first real student! Aman and I had been sharing WaterDance before in Switzerland. But this was different. Minakshi strongly believed in the great gift that WaterDance would bring to the world.

We spent weeks and weeks in the warm pools, under the dark blue night skies, covered with billions of stars. The fig trees full of fruits were spreading their branches over the pool and we never got tired of fine-tuning the positions, moves and subtleties of WATSU and WaterDance. It was a magical time! The baby WaterDance was growing and getting ready for new students.

Most exciting years followed, teaching WaterDance classes in Harbin Hot Springs year after year. At the same time, Aman Peter Schröter, Helen Schulz, Shanti Petschel and myself created two teaching institutes for WATSU and WaterDance in Switzerland and Germany. The IAKAs* were born! The trainings included bodywork in water and land classes in which the students explored deep breathwork, meditation, communications, and emotional process work. The classes were full with sometimes 20 students and a big team of assistants! WATSU and WaterDance were the two pioneer forms of Aquatic Bodywork!

THE UNFOLDING OF WATERDANCE

By Arjana

As a young woman I experienced Harbin Hot Springs as the most beautiful paradise on earth! What a wonderful, exciting, peaceful and interesting place to spend weeks and months, soaking in healing waters, gazing at beautiful rolling green hills, enjoying healthy organic food, dancing and going crazy on Friday nights in the big “Conference Hall”, having delicious bodywork in water and on land, and simply drifting with the soulful energy of the place. I was told that native populations have used the hot springs for centuries and I certainly felt that this resort was a truly soul-nourishing place.
Harbin Hot Springs used to host Harold’s school for Shiatsu and Bodywork in Water. WATSU began in 1980 when Harold Dull started floating people in the warm pool there while applying the stretches and principles of the Zen Shiatsu. I was fascinated by the fact that this bodywork in warm water was already at that time taught to hundreds of students coming from all over the world to become certified and professional bodyworkers.
I will never forget when I first gave a WaterDance session in one of the pools in the daylight. People gathered around, puzzled, fascinated, attracted and curious. Bringing somebody under water had not been seen before! It was a complete novelty and everybody wanted to try it. I was still a young woman, not too sure of myself and would have never thought that anyone would possibly be interested to study WaterDance with me. But this was exactly what Life expected from me.
Looking back, I can see that the world and the people were at this time ready to use warm water in a different way to heal their bodies, emotions, and souls. It felt like a big wave starting in Harbin Hot Springs and from there spreading all over the Blue Planet Earth. Life has brought me to this magical place in these early years, so that I could meet some of the most amazing people, all birth helpers for WaterDance.
I can only guess why these new bodywork forms in warm water became so successful in the early 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. It was a complete new approach to therapy, bodywork and healing work since the client was held in a more intimate and closer way to the practitioner’s body. Harold talks a lot about the bonding effect of WATSU. The client is held like he or she had not been held since childhood. A natural heart-to-heart connexion happens. Old wounds or traumas from early times can so be healed in a very simple and loving way. I would like to mention that this bonding and healing effect is not only happening for the receiver but also for the giver. How many times did I step out of a pool after having given a WATSU or WATA session, feeling myself healed, refreshed, and touched in the deepest corners of my heart.
WaterDance is a more “free form” of Aquatic Bodywork as the bonding effect is less strongly happening on a physical and heart level between the practitioner and the client. Receivers often talk about a merging with the water. They describe that they become one with everything that is surrounding them. The physical body seems to expand and to transform into pure energy. Some people witness that their energy field becomes endless and they experience themselves floating in the Universe or in the womb of their mother. The fact that we are holding our breath under water (kumbhaka or apnoea) brings the mind to stillness and peace. When the agitation of the mind is calming down, then we can get a glimpse of who we truly are: time- and limitless, vibrating energy systems, resonating with All That Is.

* IAKA stands for Institute für Aquatische Körperarbeit