Training for the Love of Dance

Tags

Ballet, body, body knowledge, contemporary dance, courage, Dance, Dance Appreciation, Dance Forms, Energy, faith, Jazz, light, Modern, nueral pathways, sharing, Soul to Soul, speaking body., Speaking with the heart, spirit, Support, Technique, training

 

We push the body to expand its limitations while embedding spirit with that training.  Even though our bodies are not us, we are our souls that expand as the direct result of our training. In doing this, we build an intimate connection to all the emotions the body goes through while evolving through the rigor and technique as well as the continued rewiring and retracing of our neural pathways. We move mountains inside our physical selves creating space for place while expanding our souls creating space for grace.

 

It is the presence of this grace that exemplifies who we are as dancers; it is the energetic makeup of the performing kinetic body. It does not matter what kind of dance style we perform, what particular genre or technique; training is the act of deepening the physical and spiritual body so that we might allow the heart to speak through all movement.

 

It is this place that we should welcome our brothers and sisters in our forms embracing that we are all warriors of this thing called dance and that we share at our very essence the art of training, We should honor one another despite not understanding why we choose to manipulate or speak with our bodies differently. We should wrap our colleagues in support knowing that we too have needed loving arms to ease the burden of striving to better our physical and emotional selves.

 

It would be lovely to be able to see all our dance forms as building a larger community, understanding and learning from one another so as to expand our voices, build new audiences and drive the art form ever more deeper into our own hearts while sharing our humanity with an ever expanding audience.

 

Training for the love of dance is why we are here. Living for the love of life is why we share.

The Seed of Courage

Tags

courage, fear, letting go, love, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the heart, travel

I recently have been able to spend a great deal of time with a old and dear friend of mine. During this time we have been able to reconnect our lives and our friendship in ways that had gotten lost through the passing of time and the divide of space. It has been wonderful to share, explore and entrust in one another the stories of our hearts and reveal the fears of our spirits.

I a recent discussing we were having I shared my desire to find courage. In my meditations and quiet moments I have come to realize how deeply lost I felt in the sense of understanding my ability to courageously be. Along my spiritual journey I have opened many doors, revealed many secrets, faced many fears, and let go of many knots. Yet, facing myself, the was still something missing, something vacant in my being.

One day there was a shift in my understanding. There was a clear and direct image that came to mind and when it did, I heard it. Over and again I saw the image and heard the whisper. Courage. Courage. Courage.

When all of this washed over me I realized how clearly the truth of the word was to my current condition. For many, courage would not be the word that came to mind when they thought of me. Perhaps how they view me as an ever dominant and direct personality, would not be at all the way they would describe me or in fact how I would have described myself. None the less, let me never again mistake hurt and fear for courage.

And now, a little over a month after a conversation with my friend, I sit in the middle of a foreign land finding the light of courage buried deep within the very meaning of the word; finding it deep within my heart. As deeply as I traverse the scars of my soul, ironically I am finding the light of the universe. What keeps us from seeing the light outside of ourselves and in those that surround us is our inability to see the light within our very existence.

For so long I have been searching outside of myself to achieve the goals and dreams established by a fragile spirit. So long has it been waiting to be given the chance to sing the very spirit of all I am through the creation of healing, work and story. So long being hurt by the opportunities perceived lost and taken. So long waiting and so long misunderstood.

And now, as I stand beside myself in reflection I see that there is a seed of courage that needs to be tended. There is a small trace of a life beginning again and becoming. It is a time of deepening and a time of understanding. It is time to nurture the light of courage so it is to eventually shine brightly. Hopefully shine so that others might see the light in my eyes, my hands and in my dances.