What does it actually mean to "tune in" before you start moving, and what gets in the way?

In this episode, Chris and Tom dig into Flow, the first of the Five Rhythms, through a lens that might surprise you: attunement. Not flow as a feeling you chase, but flow as something that's already happening, whether you show up to it or not. The conversation starts from a moment during Monday night's interlude, when Tom offered the phrase "here's where we tune in", and it landed differently than usual. From there, they explore what it means to actually arrive somewhere before you try to do anything there. What are you carrying in? What does your body need you to notice first?

Tom shares a quote from Gabrielle Roth that puts it plainly: "In flowing, we learn how to inhale, how to take things in." That's the whole thing, really. And Chris offers a garden metaphor that stuck: you can walk in and start digging, or you can wander around first and see what's actually growing.

This isn't just about dance. Think about the last time you walked into a conversation, a meeting, or a relationship already running your own agenda. What would it have felt like to pause, feel your feet on the floor, and let the room tell you something first?

In this first episode of Dancing The Field, host Chris Cobb sits down with Tom Truman, a 20-year practitioner of 5Rhythms who studied directly with the practice's founder, Gabrielle Roth, and holds the weekly Monday night dance at The Tannery in Santa Cruz.

Tom shares how a chance encounter at the Omega Institute led him to his first Gabrielle Roth workshop, what he recognized in that room that first day, and why he's kept showing up for two decades. Together, Chris and Tom unpack the five rhythm, flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness, and explore how the dance floor becomes a mirror for life.

In This Episode:

• How Tom found 5Rhythms through a detour from substances, recovery, and a green-eyed stranger at a retreat center
• What Gabrielle Roth's teaching was like and why her first workshop felt like a recognition, not a discovery
• A breakdown of all five rhythms and what each one offers as an energetic practice
• The principle "as it is on the dance floor, so it is in life" and what it actually means in practice
• Why people return to 5Rhythms for years, even decades: glimpses, embodied change, neural rewiring, and community
• What Tom and Chris would tell someone walking into their first class
• A closing question to sit with: When is the last time your body told you something your mind couldn't?

Chapters:

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 2:03 – Tom's Origin Story
• 12:17 – The Five Rhythms Explained
• 24:15 – As in the Dance, So in Life
• 35:00 – Why People Keep Coming Back
• 47:50 – Advice for First-Timers
• 58:18 – Closing Reflections

About the Practice: 5Rhythms is a movement meditation practice developed by Gabrielle Roth. It uses five distinct energy states — Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness — as a map for self-exploration, emotional expression, and embodied presence.

Where to Find a Class: The Monday night 5Rhythms dance at The Tannery in Santa Cruz is held regularly. Visit 5rhythms.com to find classes near you.

Dancing in the Field is a podcast about what happens on the dance floor — and what it means for everything else.