Back to Body

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artful body, beauty of the body, body, body knowledge, changes, conscious body, health, health and well being, Home, humanity, listening to the body, open body, speaking body., well being, wellness

When I return to my body

I return home

When I sit quietly with this beautiful body

I sit in immense gratitude

When I remember my body speaks

I remember to listen in love

When I am lost and the noise of the world immense

I look within to find the grounding of spirit

When I return to spirit

I return to body

 

Learn to Listen to your Body.

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bodies in motion, body, body knowledge, conscious body, health, open body

 

Learning to listen to the body is at the center of training the body in any movement modality or technique. There are countless lens’s in which people engage in movement or physical practices in which they are drawn to and find a connection with. The most significant realization across this vast spectrum is that the body is the constant in every single one. And while different aesthetics or practices focus on different aspects of the body, ultimately, the body functions as a human body regardless.

If we allow ourselves to turn inward to recognize sensations of movement and techniques we allow ourselves to connect more fully to our physicality and to the spirit within that vessel. When we focus on the external picture, image or end result we no longer feel with the heart but see something outside and separate of ourselves. If we can learn how to see with our sensations we will learn to feel with our hearts. If we learn to do this more deeply, we will find a deeper consciousness with our physical tool and understand how to ask more graciously of it and build a sense of communication with a body that has an intelligence we seldom allow to be tapped.

Our culture doesn’t quite afford us this luxury. But in fact, it is not a luxury at all. What it is, is absolutely necessary. We can no longer work in a disconnected fashion any longer and expect to function authentically if we separate the head from the body and the brain from the body’s brain. The art of movement; artistic, fitness or sport, deserves a more profound relationship with spirit and body in order for more soulful action, physical sustainability and holistic well being. It is time to honor the body as a significant partner in our journey rather than a work horse to ride for selfish satisfaction only to be discarded when it no longer can support the human ego.

What if it is possible to gain without pain? What if it is possible to achieve without the brutality of body? What if you might train faster while achieving greater physical success? It is possible. It really is possible. The key to achieving this is simply to choose the present moment of practice in order to feel the information being shared in the now. Our past has brought us to this place in life and in order to move forward we must accept that it has served us up until now but that we do not have to let it hold our physicality from experiencing the magnitude of our potential. We can be so much more than our ego let’s us. Let your body speak to you and tell you what it needs. Listen to the wisdom of its physicality to speak the truth of what it can be.

 

And So It Begins

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art, athens, Ballet, Believing, bliss, body, body knowledge, conscious body, Conscious Living, contemporary ballet, Creative Flow, creative process, Creativity, Dance, development, dreams, EBAS, Energy, faith, modern dance, Paris, research, travel, VCU Dance

As I finish up my last day here in RIC for a while, I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities that are opening up before me. Thankful for the freedom to move about the world and share my work and passions with people from all over the globe. I marvel at what dance has done for my life and for how it has carried me to places that I could have never dreamed of as a young man.

As a matter of fact, I had no clue I was a dancer. No clue that I would end up where I am creating three dimensional visceral landscapes, teaching how to create internal space and design external realities or bringing consciousness to the energetic pathways of our technique. I often wonder how I turned down this road.

Yet, I am on this journey. Happily and gratefully on this journey.

This trip to Athens is to present my perspective on teaching by sharing my  research, Training a Conscious Body: Redefining Pedagogy Practices in Contemporary Dance Technique for Increased Architectural Support and Physical Integrity. I am excited to share these examinations and talk about learning through sensation rather than imitation and the reexamining of time within the classroom.

The travel that follows will be to teach and to collaborate on the Paris Semester Abroad program for our students at VCU to take part in Spring 2016. I am excited to meet up with Michael Foley as well as Colleen Thomas-Young to share and organize all of this goodness. What amazing people to walk that journey with. Very grateful to Michael for his brilliance.

In addition, I will be meeting up with my dear friends Keith Bell and Josh Sessions to have a writing retreat. Both myself and Keith are working on books and we are going to spend our time writing in the cafes for even greater inspiration. A little fantasy come true I guess.

And one of the most synchronistic events will be having breakfast with Linda Kohanov. I have long admired her research and work with horses and had the luxury of participating in one of her leadership workshops this spring. She is an inspiration to me and I am tickled to be able to meet with her and hear her stories of the wonderful sharing she is doing with her work and the release of her book Power of the Herd in French.

I am truly grateful!!

And so, this begins the journey.