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.

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Cycles of Giving and Receiving

Tags

Ballet, choreography, craft, Dance, development, growth, Modern, process, Shaping Space, sharing, spirit, Teaching

As I watched the students of DSA move through 7 minutes of choreography that we have systematically developed over three days, I realized how lucky I am to be able to be having these experiences as a choreographer, teacher and dancer. It is an honor to be in my position of sharing what it is I have come to know for myself, and then share that in the process of making a new work. I consider myself very fortunate to have these experiences and opportunities.

I have been doing this at DSA for 7 years now. It has been a ever growing and developing event that has become what it is today. Amaranth comes out and sets three new pieces on the students along with presenting several works in a shared culminating concert at the end of our residency. This year we have also folded in a few works of our great friends, The Island Moving Company. So here we are, in a place of sharing and enhance that I could not have imagined 7 years ago.

What has become apparent is the honesty and integrity through the sharing and building of new work which in turn opens a window of compassion and understanding for ultimate learning experiences. This learning experience is not just happening for the students, but it is also happening for choreographers and dancers alike.

I realized for myself that my craftsmanship as a dance maker and teacher has grown and blossomed because of this exchange as well. Artists need to create a practice of making what they make and doing what they do. Denver has been a part of my practice and the energies of the students through all of the works that I have made here have been a part of my growth and development. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and making work acknowledging that I too am growing alongside my dancers moving towards the kind of artists we all aspire to be, working in the energies of our spirits making the kind of work that speaks from our hearts.

Thank you Denver School of the Arts for opening your lives to Amaranth. We are grateful and look forward to whatever our paths unfold for us.

A Response for Rachel

Tags

change, choreography, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, creative process, Dance, development, ebb and flow, growth, letting, letting go, listening, Modern, patience, process, Soul to Soul, spirit

 

Our lives as creative energies are always in constant flux. This state of ebb and flow is what drives the tides of our spirits allowing us to listen to the whispers of the wind at one moment as well as feel the heart crashing upon the jagged rocks the next. Despite our lives seeming to be turbulent in the ways in which we live, living in the moment seems to be the best way to be able to see the goodness of all things that are in this very moment.

 

It is tough trying to navigate the waters of our creative life. Difficult because we are constantly developing our own voice while simultaneously coexisting with other processes that we may or may not see eye to eye with but are none the less important to our growth and maturation. We all see work in very different ways. We all understand work to have its range of depth and even, dare I say it, depth to that depth. Often times people involved in the creative process are more comfortable with the noise they are making thinking about the dance rather than the silence of letting the dance exist in its purest form allowing the deepest most honest sense of its being to exist. That is the most honest and raw form a work can take.

 

Even so, we must honor the creative process and current depths of being for all. Yet, while being a passenger on that boat, there is much spiritual treasure for you find within the noisy space that may be whirling about you. Mine those riches by silencing your own heart through the knowledge that you are finding new and expansive nuggets within others chaos.

 

Use these new found diamonds and rubies to work on what your heart wants to speak. Utilize this wealth to create a new and glorious vision letting it spring forth in the ways that speak clearly to your soul. These are the moments when you must remember that even though you are a passenger on someone else’s ship, you must be carrying your sails with you so that at any moment the creative wind calls, you are ready to hoist and being carried by the magic of its bliss.

 

Be ready. Be patient.  Most importantly, remember that your journey is a very long arc that will carry you. Walk it. Sail it. Soar. Trust in your heart that this universe will support the wind underneath your beautiful feet. Some days you will find yourself flying. Others, breathing through the souls of your feet replenishing all that your center-line does for you. Now, all there is left is to just exhale and dive.

Reflections on a Rehearsal

Tags

artists, Ballet, choreographer, choreography, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, creative process, dance makers, dance making, enchantment, friends, Grateful, heart path, Magic, Modern, process, Soul to Soul, thankful

There are times when moments are taking place and you realize time is slowing down a bit in order for you to see very clearly that all is well and right in your world. Yesterday during my day of class was very much like this. There was so much time to work so deeply that I was able to step back in my spirit and realize how glorious this all is.

I am grateful to be able to live such a luxurious life in the arts. It is not everyday that one gets to immerse themselves fully in all they love being surrounded by people who give themselves and their hearts so fully to the things they love also. It is an honor to be able to be allowed to make-work and walk the path of magic as dances reveal themselves for the first time or are reborn to speak again.

When I am in the studio, I am in church. I am in a sacred place of worship with the divine dreaming of all that a body can do, become and realize in choreography.  This is such an enchanted space, a mystical foray into the heart and mind of the creative energetic river. How grateful I am to be able to be a dream keeper of dance in this way. I am honored to be one of many who dive deeply into the ocean, swimming with the currents and riding the tides of this creative universe.

I also find myself fortunate enough to be on my heart path with some very remarkably talented and spirited people. We all walk our own ways merging with one another in the work while supporting one another’s individual voices and gifts. It is not often that one gets to be fulfilled by the magic their friends bring to the process, in both physicality and the richness of their hearts.

I was so moved in rehearsal yesterday by the enchanted ways in which the work seemed to pour out of the deep muscle memory of the dancers. It was as if the work lingered in the well of their musculature as they conjured up the kinetic imagery inside of themselves that collectively is being reborn as “Creek Walkers under a Waning Moon”.

I look forward to when the dance emerges once again to inhabit the space energetically kept by the dancers and absorbed into the hearts and mind of the audience. This makes me wonder if dance is as ephemeral as we all think it is. I think the dances I help to bring to life have physicality to them kept alive in the bodies of dancers and the souls of the people who have let the work be absorbed into the fibers of their beings.

This is my goal is as a dance maker; to make the kind of work that resonates as a meaningful experience opening a doorway to consciousness that bridges the spirit to walk more deeply into the center of our beings. It is important to actualize work that is humanity in motion and dance alchemy speaking to our enchanted hearts.

Is It Enough?

Tags

choreography, Creativity, Dance, growth, lessons learned, modern dance, process, society and culture, spirit, Technique

Is it enough to be creative and to make work without the expectation of praise?

Is it enough to just do something because you love to do it and the work itself gives you joy?

Is it enough to live simply not wanting to hold a position of power or recognition?

Is it enough to exist as you are despite being incongruent with society as a whole?

Is it enough to desire to live in this moment, right here and right now?

I have been asking myself these questions as of late and for every single one of them my answer continues to be, yes. I keep coming back to the simple fact that I am enough. I am constantly reminded that what it is I do is enough. What it is I make is enough. What I believe is enough.

This is not to say that I am complacent with where I am at. Far from it actually. Yet, I do feel the need to honor who I am and what it is I do. This should not be belittled simply because I haven’t fought tooth and nail to persuade or justify my existence to you in order to believe in it or me.  I often wonder if we spend more time selling ourselves than actually investing in our work. Our overly politicized culture trapped in a façade of success is really killing the creative process and a sense of equality and diversity in our work and in thought.

Is it a wonder that so many things are passing fads? Are we surprised by the sheer gluttony of our disposable culture? Where has the craft and ritual of process gone? Where has the compassion and understanding for craft gone? Why is it we are unable to see who it is we are within what we make rather than what we can get out of it or where it will take us?

Thinking about all this brought me back some years to a talk back after a concert of Trisha Brown’s at the Harold Washington Library Theater presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College. There was a question that Shirley Mordine asked Trisha regarding the making of her work and who she makes it for. I was surprise by this question but at the same time understood its context. Many people know her as a very intellectual and conceptual cutting edge choreographer and I believe the question was designed to get at what kind of audience she makes her work for.

What surprised me was her response. She very quickly answered that she makes her work for her and for her friends. At the time I thought that this might be why many people are not quite able to grasp her post-modern conceptual approach to work and thought it a very interesting response. Yet now, I believe the answer was something so much more simple and true. What I think she meant is what I am beginning to understand for myself now. She was making work that fulfilled her and that would engage the people she loved around her in conversation and thought about life, art and aesthetics.

When I think of myself now and go back the very questions I presented earlier I realize perhaps I am coming back to what I missed as a young dancer and choreographer hungry for success. What I missed was clarity of being over a desire to be acknowledged or recognized. What I understand now is that I no longer wish that recognition, I just wish to make and share with those that I love engaging in the art and act of making something beautiful.

A Cycle No More

Tags

creation, Cycle, process, resolve, return, soul, spirit, Understanding

We pass so that we might bloom once more. We cycle again and again, each time deepening our process and our spirit.

And when we make our final pass, we live so deeply that our beauty transcends the necessity for us to bloom anymore.