Rasa Dance: The Music of Connection (a collection)

This collection of pieces was refined over several years of movement magic between horses and humans. Created for the Eponaquest horse-faciliated workshop Rasa Dance by equine innovator and best-selling author Linda Kohanov, the music sets the tone for interactive sessions where horses and humans literally move and dance together, thus providing a supportive atmosphere for the experience of connection. This dynamic music set covers a powerful range of emotions and inspiration which perfectly mirrors the Rasa Dance workshop theme. The collection brings together an inspired set of thematic, rhythmic, and melodic pieces from Steve Roach's vast body of work. From the Liner Notes by Linda Kohanov The Evolution of Rasa Dance In 1993, at the height of my career as a music critic, I sold my CD collection to buy Tabula Rasa, a beautiful black Arabian mare. Six months later, I was riding her in the desert when a huge Rottweiler chased us through a deep sandy wash, injuring Rasa¹s right back leg, ending our promising riding career, yet ironically leading us on a much more fruitful path. The Chinese sage Lao-tzu observed that ³it is upon disaster that good fortune rests a lesson that Rasa and her other herd members challenged me to embrace over and over again. While the sheer joy of working with horses always outweighed the hardships, the most profound transformations happened when things didn¹t go my way---when my most reliable tools, ideas, and coping strategies failed, and I had to respond to the world rather than try to control it. Through Rasa, I learned to dance with the unexpected while literally learning how to dance with her on the ground. This consolation for my inability to ride her turned into a relationship-enhancing practice that I used with other horses, and eventually taught to people through our Rasa Dance workshops. For these clinics, my husband Steve and I perused his extensive list of original compositions, selecting various moods and tempos. This CD collection was refined through years of movement magic between horses and humans. ³Eye of Noche² and ³Where Rasa Lives² were later created in memory of two horses who became great dancers, then great dance teachers of people, including those who had never worked with horses before. I was subsequently surprised to find the phrase ³Rasa Dance² associated with the ancient god Krishna, who danced with his followers by moonlight. In India, a sacred performance is still called a Rasa Dance, signifying a state of grace in which Spirit engages with its many manifestations, expressing different aspects of infinity through the music of connection. But it was a living, breathing horse named Rasa who taught me that when two beings move in synchrony, a greater consciousness arises. Most importantly, I learned that if we can dance with joy, ecstasy, power, frustration, miscommunication, tragedy and anything else that comes our way, an underlying sense of deep peace emerges, allowing us to fully engage with life. Linda Kohanov