From 2011 until his death in 2018, Namkhai Norbu collected around 400 modern Tibetan songs and approved 240 dances to them as part of the Khaita archive. While some of the dances are based on the original choreographies of the music videos by the Tibetan artists, some have been purposefully created for Khaita under the consideration of the meaning of the Tibetan song texts. Khaita is primarily practiced by students of Namkhai Norbu within the International Dzogchen Community, yet is open to anyone interested, with or without affiliation to the community and is danced all around the world. In this regard, Khaita can be considered a translocal, even cosmopolitan practice. While being shared by people from all around the world and thus transcultural, Khaita at the same time refers to and establishes aspects of Tibetan culture. Namkhai Norbu thereby explicitly promoted Khaita as a practice to support Tibetan culture while opening it to non-Tibetan practitioners.
Eva Leick
New Academic Series of Shang Shung Publications
This book is the inaugural volume of a new Academic Series launched by Shang Shung Publications. This series is dedicated to in-depth and academic studies on activities carried out in the International Dzogchen Community to contribute to the evolution of the individual.
This first publication in the series consists of an interesting study on Khaita Joyful Dances, done by Eva Leick, a series of dances that help us discover the harmony of our body, energy, and mind and bring joy to our everyday life and our relations with others. Khaita Joyful Dances inspire us to explore our inner harmony by tuning in with the melody as a group. Khaita songs and dances joyously guide us toward a relaxed awareness that allows us to share playful moments of happiness with others.
