Dancers

Tags

a life well lived, artists, choreographer, Dance, dancers, devotion, honor, love, Magic, owe, passion, soul, spirit, teacher, the arts, Wonder

Dancers are a rare and beautiful thing. They tirelessly push themselves and their bodies to press back the boundaries of their physicality exhausting themselves simply for the love of movement. They willingly give themselves over to a dance to unselfishly submit to the voice of the work. They map the dance with their bodies so the audience can see, for one brief ephemeral moment at a time, the vision of the choreographer.

This ecstasy is what drives each and every dancer. This bliss is what carries dancers through a lifetime relationship their kinetic lover. It doesn’t matter what style or technique, what matters is a body in motion. This is what reminds the dancer time and time again that they are alive and well. This is what means the world to them and what they give themselves over to time and time again.

I admit I am partial to dancers. Perhaps because I fell in love with dance and changed my entire life to pursue the uncertainty of this lifestyle. When I say I chose it, I should really say I finally started listening to the omens that were there before me for so very long. But like most of us, we are not always listening to the voice of our hearts and our bodies and often miss our calling. I am grateful for my awakening and thankful for one of the most beautiful lives imaginable.

And so I cherish dancers. I do. They are to be admired, respected and revered. I owe dancers my life really. Because they need training, I have a job that I love. Because they need dances to immerse themselves in, I have a company. If it wasn’t for them, I would be lost as to how to express my kinetic vision and voice. For this, I am grateful.

I love my dancers. I trust my dancers. I believe in them fully to embody the concepts and humanity within the work I lay asleep at night contemplating. I believe in them enough to give them the dances we create knowing that they are the keepers of the ephemeral magic that is my work. I couldn’t imagine anything else as dances must be a shared responsibility of the community so as to honor the fullness and richness of the art form and the dance.

We need dancers in our communities, our cities, our culture. They bring to us a vast richness of being as they are an example of listening to their hearts and fulfilling their destiny. They are models of what it means to be fully human while giving themselves over to something larger than themselves with complete love and passion. They live life never apologizing for following their dreams and the fulfillment of that dream through the vehicle of a heavenly body in motion.

And it is this that we must remember. It is this kind of acknowledgment and support that we must remember. This is the reason why I believe we should honor a dancer this week. I would like to ask you to join me in helping to honor my dancers richness and beauty by helping me to support their energy and efforts in space and time. If you have ever marveled at these gorgeous creatures, wondered how they do it or stood in awe of their majesty; join me in my goal of raising $3000 this week to sponsor their performance fees.

Just 300 people donating at the Forerunner level of $10 can make this possible. If you do the math, the numbers diminish if the amounts go up. And even if you have never experienced much dance in your life, know that these beautiful beings are remarkable and inspiring and deserve to be paid what they are worth. Truth be told they are priceless, but being paid is a small way of honoring their being.

Thank you for letting me share these thoughts and this request. If you can’t support, please share. If you can’t share, send your love and kindness. Momentum comes in many ways. And lastly, be sure to mark your calendar for September 11-13 to see the magnificence of these kinetic beasts. They will steal your hearts as they have mine.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/amaranth-arts-2014-fall-season/x/8298622#home

Woven Memories of Love

Tags

heart, joy, love, Love Between Men, memory, Now, open, passion, soul, spirit, woven

Cycles of memory are woven deeply into the fabric of our hearts-holding close the magic and splendor of the loves we have walked through. It is this layering that keeps the spirit warm reminding us of the times in which the spirit burned with joy and passion. So beautiful are these vibrant images playing on the screens of our souls that we are not able to hold back the smiles that pass along our lips.  While being reminded of this vibrant joy, these beautifully open channels from our heart are then allowed to stay open to receive even more love in the ever-present moment of now. It is not as if we live in the past by our recollection, but it is our recollection that helps keep us open for the possibilities of great love right here, right now.

Joy as our Rudder

Tags

courage, emotional congruency, faith, fear, heart, hope, journey, joy, laughter, light, merriment, passion, path, rudder, Soul to Soul, spirit, spiritual

We should let joy be our rudder and courage our sails. If we are to cast off towards our dreams on a sea of constant change, we should remain faithful to our journey with the most joyful heart and courageous spirit. If we have these two characteristics as part of our arsenal, we are sure to journey with much laughter and good spirit finding ourselves collaborating with the elements regardless of their intensity.

 

We should let love be our light and laughter our energy. If we are to encounter our deepest fears along our journey, we should let love from our hearts light the dark caverns and laughter echo loudly against those walls. If we have these two sources of power deep within the well of our hearts, we are sure to journey with much compassion and understanding in ourselves and for others that there will only be congruent steps full of merriment for have taken this path. 

 

Chasing Dreams: Day 6

Tags

Believing, chasing dreams, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, dreams, faith, humility, passion, patience, round and round, Seeing, spirit, universal consciousness, universal heart, well being, Writing

Chasing ones dreams is a lot like a dog chasing its tail. We spend so much of our time exhausting ourselves as we move in circles forgetting that we are spiraling inward collapsing in on ourselves.

We then find ourselves completely spent because we have engaged so much of our time and energy going around and around facing our own ass while biting for something that is not actually obtainable. What are we doing trying to take a bite out of our own body or destroying our physical well being to satiate our larger than life ego?

It is ironic that we allow ourselves to get to a place that our ego drives the creative process rather than staying int the flow of creativity and letting our work make itself while we facilitate it’s progress in this particular plane of existence. When we become more important than the work, the work ceases to be important.

It is time for a returning to enchantment. We would be wise to revisit the contemplative space that allows for the creative energies of the universe to flourish and manifest. May we remember what it is like to share in the community of creativity while riding the sky of possibility. Could we dare to open our wings from our hearts so as to sift through the endless creative potential of the universe letting what will be choose us?

Answering a question

Tags

artist, choreographer, Creativity, Dance, Dream, dreams, following your bliss, hope, passion, w, Writing

I was asked this morning by a former student how my life was and if I was living the dream. I stopped for a moment and considered this question and responded that teaching at VCU was never the dream but it is my life. My life is the dream in all actuality. My entire existence is the dream that I believed it would be. I am, in fact, living the dream of my life.

This kind of question puts us in a place of having to justify or categorize our success. Asking it of others and feeling like we need to somehow justify this very moment always creates a conflict of our own spirit. I suggest we stop asking these kinds of questions and ask the simple question of “are you finding happiness?”. I suggest this because many of us are never where we hoped or desired. Many of us are in process. To judge another on a process or one that is not their own is to force someone to be someone they are not and limit their greatest potential.

I have found, not until recently, that I understand  my path has taken time and that there is much more unfolding needed to get me to where my full potential is. I am only just beginning in many ways because I have been letting go and unlearning so much of what has been extra baggage or weight on both my heart and my art. It is only now that I feel I am beginning my journey with a sense of freedom and humility that I have never had before. Releasing my heart into the action of the direction along with my body. There is true freedom and release here. For this I am grateful.

Now, for those of you VCU people reading this, I am where I need to be. I am happy where I am teaching and fulfilling much of what I have been put on this earth to be. I am a teacher among many other things and I am not ashamed of this. I am proud of it. Proud because I do good work and I share the love and passion of the art form in a way that is unique to me and adds to the overall educational process of the dancers. I work as a team member to participate with my colleagues embracing the multifaceted process that working as a team brings to the development of a holistic and amazing dancer.

What embracing this does mean is that it adds to my sense of being and my sense of being an incredible artist as well. Teaching does not diminish my existence as an artist. Being in the studio only enhances and deepens the process of growing as a choreographer. I am an excellent choreographer and on my own path of discovery and deepening of my own choreographic integrity. One does not need to be in a place, with a certain company or written about in certain publications to be good or to justify your ability. What makes you a choreographer is the action of making work. We must move in the direction of making work to claim who we are. So we make. I make and therefor I am. It is with time and discovery that I grow and I become.

This is the same with my writing. I am writing and therefore I am a writer. I may not be the best writer or a fully published writer, but I am writing. I am growing through my work and sharing through each word just as I place each image on the stage. We are who we are in the presence of our actions. Take action!

Having said all of this please know that in taking action you do not take for granted the need to do so with integrity, respect for the form or the deepening of your skills. We must always remember to remind ourselves to continue to reach for our best, to be our best and hold ourselves to the standards of growth and expansion. Doing this with integrity and diligent process is what makes us artists, choreographers, writers and whatever else our hearts dream of. This alone is living the dream. This is our dream.

Now for those of you who have everyday jobs and want to live more creative lives, this applies to you to. You are creative every day in every thing you do. Do not think that because you don’t work in the arts that there is no way you could ever be an artist. If art is in your heart, art is in you. Make! Make away! Find what your heart is drawn to and do. Find your heart begin to sing when you do what you love. Make art a part of your every day being and art will be your life. And when. Someone asks you what you are doing and if you are living the dream you say” why yes, I am! I am living my dream!”