What is Five Rhythms?
Five Rhythms is a movement meditation practice devised by Gabrielle Roth in the late 1970s. The practice is said to put the body in motion in order to still the mind, and the five rhythms (in order) are Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. The 5Rhythms, when danced in sequence, are known as a “Wave,” which takes about an hour to dance.
It draws from Indigenous and world traditions using tenets of shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy, and also draws from Gestalt therapy, the human potential movement and transpersonal psychology. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy, and moves in waves, patterns and rhythms. Five Rhythms offers no choreography, no steps to learn—practitioners move freely through landscapes of rhythm, guided by music and minimal instruction from certified teachers.
Origins & Lineage
Gabrielle Roth (February 4, 1941 – October 22, 2012) was an American dancer and musician in the world music and trance dance genres, with a special interest in shamanism; she overcame depression and injury to create the 5Rhythms approach to movement in the late 1970s. Roth spent her childhood in Catholic school and classical ballet training; she turned to rock and roll and dance alone in her room, touching the ecstasy that would become central to her work; she continued dance training through college and worked teaching dance and drama to elders, hospital patients, and at-risk youth; a knee injury ended her professional dance dreams and she arrived at Esalen Institute for personal investigation and growth.
At Esalen she began exploring percussion and the different rhythms that evoked different movements in the body; the live drum scene, with lengthy beat-filled songs, kept the body in motion much longer than recorded music and became foundational to her work. Gabrielle expanded her studies, becoming a student of Oscar Ichazo, a Chilean psychospiritual teacher and founder of Arica School; she gained understanding from Ichazo about the human personality, ego, and soul/spirit, bringing these elements organically back to the dance along with influences from Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Philippine psychic healers, and the shamanic traditions of Native Americans.
Gabrielle began noticing that as students moved they created waves of energy, patterns and rhythms and began articulating the 5Rhythms: Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, Stillness. Roth founded The Moving Center in New York in 1977 as a base for her workshops, and to train and develop teachers. The Moving Center had certified over 300 5Rhythms teachers worldwide at the time of her death. Roth’s son, Jonathan Horan, is Director of The Moving Center, and Executive Director of 5Rhythms Global.
How It’s Practiced
Five Rhythms classes typically begin with an unstructured warm-up period where dancers arrive on their own terms—some stretch, some sit in meditation, some begin moving immediately. The first half hour of a 5Rhythms class is spent warming up to music, a time for each dancer to do what they need to arrive and begin to connect with their dance; some time is then spent moving attention through different body parts; for the main part of the class, dancers move through the map of the 5Rhythms following guidance from the teacher and supported by music.
Each rhythm invites a distinct quality of movement. Flowing is characterized by awareness of the feet and looping, unending motion; Staccato, the rhythm of the heart, is characterized by stops and starts, clean lines and may seem sharp or edgy at times. Chaos is characterized by uncontrolled, energetic activity, and may include rapid shifting of the body weight from one side to the other; Lyrical follows the release of Chaos, and may be characterized by a kind of lightness, curiosity or playfulness. Stillness is the rhythm of emptiness, where gentle movements rise and fall in a field of silence; an internal dance aligning dancers with their spirit, dancers are the breath being breathed; dissolved in the dance, following breath from one shape into another, fully embodied, they have arrived home.
Dancers dance alone and are also invited at times to dance with another or in a group if they want to; teachers play a wide variety of musical genres and moods selected to support the dance, from wild and funky to gentle and slow. There is no talking during the Wave. The 5Rhythms is a simple and flexible practice that can be experienced by anyone regardless of their physical limitations; because there is no specific routine to follow, participants are able to participate at their own pace, within their own capacity to move.
Five Rhythms Today
The 5Rhythms movement spread worldwide, and in 2017 there were 396 certified teachers and SpaceHolders in 50+ countries. 5Rhythms Global was founded in 2013 as the international Institute training 5Rhythms teachers worldwide; the 5Rhythms Teachers Association was founded in 2007 as a professional association serving the continuing education of accredited 5Rhythms teachers. 5Rhythms teacher training is recognised by the International Conscious Movement Teachers Association (ICMTA).
Classes and workshops are offered in cities worldwide, from small weekly sessions to multi-day intensives and year-long teacher trainings. Writing in The Guardian in 2011, Christine Ottery states that “ecstatic dancing has an image problem” and “encompasses everything from large global movements such as 5Rhythms and Biodanza to local drum’n’dance meet-ups”; she suggests readers may “find 5 Rhythms a good place to start.” The New York Times in 2010 notes that 5Rhythms is suitable for all ages, unlike some other forms of dance and movement.
Roth created over twenty albums of trance dance music with her band The Mirrors; music from Raven Recordings remains the soundtrack for many 5Rhythms classes globally. The practice has influenced the broader ecstatic dance movement, though Five Rhythms remains a distinct trademarked methodology with specific training requirements.
Common Misconceptions
Five Rhythms is not therapy, though Gabrielle was always clear that the 5Rhythms is not therapy and it is therapeutic. It is not a workout class, though it can be physically demanding. It is not freeform dance—the Wave structure and rhythm sequence provide a precise container. The 5 Rhythms are not sonic rhythms in the sense of drum patterns, but experiential rhythms that describe landscapes of physical movement; each of the Five Rhythms is a dynamic field of energy which the dancer moves into, with and through.
Five Rhythms is not a belief system or religion. The 5Rhythms is not a belief system but a structured ‘formless form’ designed to liberate the dancer living inside all human beings; the practice is available and accessible to anyone with a body who wants to move. It does not require athletic ability, dance experience, or particular spiritual commitments. It is not Ecstatic Dance—though Roth’s work pioneered the conscious dance movement, Five Rhythms maintains distinct structure, lineage, and certification standards that differentiate it from the open-format Ecstatic Dance phenomenon that followed.
How to Begin
The best entry point is attending a Waves class with a certified 5Rhythms teacher. Most classes cost what an average yoga class would cost. Find certified teachers through the official 5Rhythms Global website or the 5Rhythms Teachers Association directory—only classes with listed teachers count toward prerequisite hours if one later pursues teacher training.
For home practice, read Gabrielle Roth’s foundational texts: Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice (1997), Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman (1989), and Connections: The Five Threads of Intuitive Wisdom (2004). Listen to albums from Raven Recordings created specifically for the practice. DVDs for home practice are also available, though the communal experience of a live class offers dimensions impossible to replicate alone.
Take to heart that the 5Rhythms practice has room to move with however you’re feeling; there’s nothing to get right and you can’t get it wrong so there is nothing to do except move in whatever way feels right in the moment.