Thirty Days of Thoughts: Day 10

Tags

Ballet, Believing, choreography, conscious body, Conscious Living, conscious movement, contemporary ballet, contemporary dance, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Dance, EBAS, inclusion, love, Movement, movement meditation, movement wellness, Soul to Soul, spirit

6/11/21

I am looking forward to presenting at the annual Corps de Ballet conference coming up at the beginning of July. I was invited to share my research with them through the lens of the Elemental Body Alignment System (EBAS) connecting the work with their theme; Suspended in Grand Renversé: Embracing the “Big Upset” and Ballet’s Relationship to Liberatory Practices. 

I am excited about this particular sharing as I will be making the connection with The Five Element System of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and EBAS to the ballet form and how this time of return might be the right time for rewiring our practice and welcoming more folks into the form through a sensorial approach to the form rather than the traditional aesthetic approach which has isolated so many from the fold. 

In this sharing I will be turning our focus to the sensations and imagery the elements offer as a new window into the experiential discovery from the inside out, rather than the outside in. Since the five elements of: winter, spring, summer, late summer and fall correspond to yin and yang organs, emotions and energies; this shift will allow access to an internalized visioning as well as emotional connection and qualitative correlation to qualitative dynamics. 

By referencing the actions and movements in EBAS like the Spinal Awakening Series, we will be able to see how the kidneys are connected to the contraction as the first articulation and movement in awakening our practice in EBAS. Winter is the first element of the wheel just as the contraction is the first articulation of EBAS. Wonderfully, the plié is the first exercise in the ballet form as well. Looking at how the kidneys rise and fall or rather descend and ascend in the “waters” of the form, helps us to feel or sense the buoyancy of the floating vertical pelvic bowl and the animating of our backspace through the kidneys. 

This is just an example of the kind of information we will be swimming in as we explore how layering and weaving all these concepts through the somatic lens and the experiential body practice opens the floor to all bodies who wish to explore the movements of ballet through their own perspective and potential. The practice becomes one of internal connection rather than external manufacturing and manipulation. Imagine the freedom of sensing and then reflecting then ultimately radiating that imagery and energy through movement and spirit? 

Thirty Days of Thoughts: Day 5

Tags

body knowledge, choreography, creative energy, Dance, Dance Forms, dance makers, dance making, dancers, dancing, energetic pathways, Energy, teaching dance

6/5/21

I have fallen in love with dance so many times during my adventure with it. In and out of love with the field and all of it’s dysfunction and challenges. What I have come to realize is that I have not really been in love with dance but rather a body in motion and the ability to be consciously present in the training, reshaping and organizing of a falling body through space. 

For so long I have tried to simply do this very thing and have been challenged to justify it as research, choreography, engagement, activism and outreach when all that was important for me was to simply exist in the joy of being present in this body.

I realize existing in academia all this time I have lost the soul and joy of movement by always having to assess, quantify and promote my brand. It’s no wonder the joy of movement and being in love with it has long been gone. What an exhausting relationship and unhealthy coupling it is. Certainly not a positive one to have had if dance was a person.

So in my reflections during these turbulent times I am finding out that I am remembering when it is I have been in love with my body in motion and the carving and shaping of my energies in space. I am remembering that at every turn all that mattered was the movement. I remember there is nothing else but movement.

What is delightful about this is I can return to the space of being where I am free to present and deeply committed to the conscious movement mechanics and expression of a soul inhabiting a body in motion defying space and time. 

I can be in this place again if I am capable of surrendering the justification for being driven by the ego and of the expectations of a field requiring long held hierarchies. Is it possible to exist within structures that strangle and suffocate voices that do not adhere to the same exclusive value systems laid out by a field and more specifically the archaic funding mechanism which holds so many marginalized voices hostage?

I have always struggled with this but now feel it is truly time to let it all go and fall back to being in love with falling; artfully and gracefully falling through time and space without a care for the construct which binds bodies from being all that they are and can be. 

Thirty Days of Thoughts: Day 3

Tags

choreography, creative energy, Creative Flow, creative process, Creativity, Dance, dance makers, dance making, dancers, dancing, energetic pathways, Energy, energy flow, joy, Movement, venation

6/3/21

After the last two days of sharing and taking you back to the intersection of creativity and spirituality I thought it might be fun to take a walk down memory lane and share a little about the first seeds of the abundant work that followed from my first professional work called Venation. 

I was so inspired by the Tao Te Ching, Qigong and energy work in general that I wanted to research energy more and pull together the eastern and western essence in this process. So off I went to look to science, specifically contemporary physics, to see what I could see. And there went the box to the lid that has still yet to be closed. 

I researched and researched from both a traditional and contemporary perspective using imagery and concepts from both to create a men’s quartet that would gain a lot of traction by premiering at a shared concert with some of my colleagues in the Chicago modern scene and danced by myself, Raven, Krenly and Troy. It was a powerhouse premier that ended up being performed in several venues and festivals throughout the next few years. 

It was my first taste of doing that kind of in depth research and work which carried me even further down the rabbit hole of inspiration. Oddly I continue the investigation as a way of explaining my belief that “choreography is the art of shaping energy in space”. This very simple belief system for myself was the best way I could explain how I made dances or more honestly how I see dances being manifested in space by how my eyes see time falling bodies organized in an artful and poetic way. 

I worked this way for several years before deciding to run off to graduate school where I would have to really justify my process, clarify the research and be able to qualitatively and quantitatively convince my thesis panel of my beliefs. I remember Donald McKayle expressing what a unique way of looking at dance making and the way I see energy as a way of making sense and the matter of dances. 

This would continue in this fashion until the premier of Amaranth Contemporary Dance in 2006 for a concert entitled Experiment in White. This title was a nod to the company I had in Chicago, Cerulean Dance Theater, and our major concert Experiment in Blue. It is very clear my need to connect the dots, pay homage and to remember where all of the work comes from. The heart has been the energy throughout this process and will always be the fire energy necessary for the art of making dances. That and the art of using conscious movement to heal ourselves physically, energetically and spiritually. Art is really from the heART. 

The photo is from a shoot to promote Venation. Photo Credit: William Frederking

Thirty Days of Thoughts: Day 2

Tags

choreography, Dance, dance makers, dance making, heart, heart path, modern dance, spiritual, spirituality

There is a sweetness of awareness that has been happening over the past few months that have really been such a beautiful experience. As I dive deeper into the Five Element Theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), I am finding so many wonderful connections with all of the work I have been doing for the past thirty years creatively as well as spiritually. It’s nice to feel a sense of return in addition to the confirmation of what I have known and felt all along.

Coincidently my spiritual practice was revealed through my decision to dance. Back when I first started I was introduced to various movement practices through a seminar class that was required for our curriculum. It was through this coursework that Tai Chi and Qi Gong was introduced to my life.

Since then my creative and spiritual journey have been interwoven through the works I made and the philosophies that were the inspiration for that work. It seems there has always been a parallel of physicality and well-being throughout my early training practices.

dues to starting dance at a very late age all of this work and playing catch-up influenced the way I grew and developed my thinking and in many ways how I perceived dance and technique. I was never trained through the aesthetics of various forms but rather encouraged to explore, discover and play with how my body felt in motion. I felt ecstasy in movement and fell deeply in love with my soulful connection to my body.

Clearly the path I chose had a big influence on the rest of my life. I made choices to stay in motion even if there were “objects” interacting at times to thwart my momentum. The laws of motion somehow kept me moving and moving through me to allow for opportunities to keep diving deeper. It is this wonderful appreciation of fate that I owe a deep gratitude to for dance giving me the life it has. And what a life it has been!!

Lean Into the Wind

Tags

art, artists, choreography, creating, creative process, Creativity, dancers, directors, inspiration, musicians, observations, singers, storytellers, work, writer

Lean into the wind of creativity and eventually it will gale so forcibly they will pick you up and carry you.

One might think they are flying, in fact it is actually the wind lovingly carrying you as you express the soul of the world through your work.

Be mindful of making the mistake of thinking it is you who are soaring. Be humble in the act of creation and those winds will always be setting a course for your heart to sail.

Lean into those winds and not for once lose faith in your song.

Lifting Lines/Morphing Visions: Autumn 5

Tags

acceptance, allowing, art, artist, Ballet, becoming, choreographer, choreography, contemporary dance, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, creative process, Creativity, Dance, modern dance, natural, natural beauty, nature, organic, process, wabi sabi

Of all the work I have created, nothing can compare to the majesty of natures creations. What comes from the flow of energetic creative cultivation can not come close to the magnificence of the natural and loving world. There is a timeless and universal beauty that is without comparison to what can be made of the human body.

Let us also not get caught in the confines of our ego as we participate in the creative process. Let us share in the joy of this kind of blissful flow without finding ourselves attaching our ego to the birth of that which we shape. We should not hold this ephemeral beauty hostage. Work needs to be set free just like the human spirit.

In the moment of unconditional sharing, this is the time when our work and its unique vibration of being is the closest it can get to the beauty within nature. This is the moment when the works speaks directly the the human heart which is the direct line to the nature of humanity and its link to the organic compounds of the universe itself.

Fundamental Architecture

Tags

architectural integrity, art, Balance, becoming, bliss, body knowledge, choreography, Creativity, Dance, development, EBAS, fundamental, spiritual becoming, structural integrity

The point

No dimension

No space

Line

Emerging the active

Emerging the passive

Plane

Equidistant expression

Equidistant reality

From the singular comes the emergence of a balanced expression of architectural reality

Sacred Science

Tags

allowing, Balance, Ballet, becoming, beleif, Believing, body, body knowledge, choreographer, choreography, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, Creative Flow, Dance, Energy, faith

Accomplishing impossible

Discovery of fields

One responds to light at the center

Elegant orientation

Corresponding all orientations

One suggests singularities of calculation

Enhanced causation

Mapping patters of pathways

One experiences the intention and origin of all movement

Thoughts in the Morning

Tags

allowing, artist, Balance, Ballet, becoming, beleif, Believing, bliss, body knowledge, change, choreography, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, EBAS, Energy, faith, Grateful

In my meditations this morning I was reminded of an image I share when I am teaching dance. I was also reminded that this thought process is very present in all of my work. That made me take a moment and enjoy how wonderful my work is and how grateful I am for being able to do the work I do. I thought I might share this with you and see if in fact it touches you today.

This entry is from Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of Tao. I am pulling out a part of the writing to direct my thoughts more clearly.

“Between the joints there are spaces, and the blade has no thickness. It slips right through; there is more than enough room for it. And when I come to a difficult part, I slow down, I focus my attention, I barely move, the knife finds its way until suddenly the flesh falls apart on its own. I stand there and let the joy of the work fill me. Then I wipe the blade clean and put it away.”

This reminds me a lot of how I share my thoughts about dance. I speak a lot about the space between gravity. The image is to remind people that we are not defying gravity, but moving through it with the rising energy of the earth that moves freely through our bodies. When we are training and learning new skills, it is imperative to take a moment to slow down and truly learn the movement by focusing on the sensation and feeling of each molecule of our being. When we do this we can feel the transformation of physicality as the unknown becomes felt and the difficulty falls away. It is as if we peel away the layer of confusion by quieting the mind and letting the mind of the body figure out the work. And when all is said and felt, we honor the work by thanking ourselves for taking the time and allowing the space to express our courage and vulnerability of the journey of not knowing to knowing.

Kinetic Process West

Tags

allowing, art, artist, body knowledge, choreographer, choreography, Creative Flow, creative process, Creativity, Dance

Underneath the eyes of the watchful mountains
Beneath the vast blue sky
Work is created with the vision of the heart

Movements mirroring the voice of mind
Imagery manifesting micro and macro
Dance is woven as a reflection of humanity