What the heck is an Appleton dance?

by Linda Theil

A labyrinth is not a maze. There are many forms of labyrinth, but every one is a path with one-way in and out; there are no dead-ends. This concept is thousands of years old, and remains popular today as a form of meditation. For information about labyrinths, see The Labyrinth Society.

In the early years of this century I studied labyrinths and took several workshops on the topic. In one workshop featuring a seven-cycle labyrinth, the instructor introduced us to a form of walking meditation called The Appleton Dance discovered and copywritten in 1997 by Jon Appleton.

A seven-cycle labyrinth

The Appleton Dance can only be done on a seven-cycle labyrinth; it is a mode in which two people can walk holding hands while one of them is walking toward the center of the labyrinth and one is walking away from the center. Barry Hoon posted a YouTube video animation of the dance with narration by Jon Appleton. The video is titled "The Appleton Dance".

In July of 2007, I constructed a 58-foot-diameter, 11-cycle Chartres-style, grass labyrinth at my home in Howell, Michigan. I shared my experience by creating this web-log on the Blogger platform. Although my first post elucidated the creation of an 11-cycle labyrinth -- not the seven-cycle style suitable for the Appleton Dance -- I named my blog Appleton Dance because I was so enthralled by the paradoxical "Appleton Dance". That first Appleton Dance post is titled "Making a grass labyrinth".

Howell, Michigan painted labyrinth created by Linda Theil in 2007

If you would like to explore for yourself, the illustration drawn below by Jeff Saward shows how to generate the path for your own seven-cycle labyrinth.