Open Roads Meeting The Feet

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, beleif, Believing, changes, Conscious Living, courage, courageous heart, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, faith, heart, hope, humanity, inspiration, journey, joy, learning, lessons learned, light, listening, Magic, observations, sharing, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, thoughts, universal consciousness, universal heart, Vulnerable, well being, Wonder

Throughout my life I have had the wildest belief that I would always be ok. I never really questioned how I would make it or get along for myself. Faith just seemed to be something that was akin to the essence of who I was that to question never crossed my mind.

Living in the moment with the belief that life would take care of itself has always worked out even if I had no idea where I was headed. As a young adult I just followed my heart in everything I did and fell into roles, opportunities and career paths. Because I listened to my heart, the path listened too.

I had no idea dance would ever be such a big part of my life. No clue that I would end up where I am today at this moment helping other movement lovers find their bliss in a body falling through space. Not to mention helping folks find their voice in the creative art of dance making. But somehow, by listening to the heart and believing in life and therefore myself, I am here.

Most of the opportunities I fell into were simply because I chose love over someone else’s path or traditional professional trajectory. Not in the least bit. On the contrary, I just fell. And when I did fall, all I did was learn to listen. Despite the challenges or hardships; listening was the way I was able to make sense of it all.

And fall I did; on my face, my hands and knees, my back, my front and tumble upside down at mind numbing speeds. I fell and was always caught by love. The heart always seemed to land me on my feet and just before the landing being the path underneath me once again.

I never dreamed I would be in dance. Never dreamed I would be a healer. Never dreamed I would be an artistic director. Never dreamed I would be a professor. Never dreamed I would travel the world because of it. Never dreamed I would create an alignment system that would profoundly change so many peoples lives. And yet, I continue to choose to fall.

And now, it seems like it is time for another fall. It feels as though I am on the edge of a release to once again change my own world simply by having the faith to say yes and to once again accept that the universe will always care for me and surround me in love. I have always walked with angels by my side. This I know.

And so it is with this fate that I open my heart to say yes to whatever opportunity might come my way. Whatever will fall into place and into an existence that is so unexpected and so undeniably right now; then so it shall be. I choose to fall and I choose to once again be placed on a path that will most certainly change my world and perhaps others as well.

140 Days of Sitting

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, beleif, Believing, bliss, body, change, changes, compassion, Conscious Living, courage, courageous heart, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, Dance, development, Energy, faith, health, heart, heart path, hope, humanity, inspiration, journey, learning, letting go, life, light, listening, love, Mindful Action, patience, peace, sharing, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, Teaching, universal consciousness, universal heart, well being, Wonder

Today marks the 140th day of a meditation practice that I began as a 40 day challenge. To say that this time has been transformative would be completely denying the fullness of what sitting in peace has done for me. I am incredibly grateful for choosing to sit and practice my spiritual journey and do so with a commitment I have not had in decades.

Somewhere along the way of becoming I got lost in the going. Dreams, desires and societal and cultural expectations simply knocked me off balance. That of course is understandable when we succumb to the illusion of the busyness of being. We are sold that to be busy is to be successful. To be busy is to be validated. This is especially true in academia where I live to butter my bread.

Drifting through a sea of disillusionment it is easy to get lost when the goals are not congruent or in alignment with the true vibration of you. We think to know and yet what matters most is that we should feel to know and better yet, understand. And as the rocks tumble in this avalanche of despair we are seeing all around us, we see and feel how fear seems to be getting the best of us.

I made a conscious choice to heal while Covid ravaged our very existence. In a time of heightened fear, I chose freedom. In a time of chaos, I chose quietude. In a time of heartbreak, I chose healing. This is the key element in allowing ourselves the time and space to heal ourselves of the hurt, shame, trauma and fear that we have been collecting as well as spreading. For one can’t but help hurt others of in fact they are hurt themselves. Choosing to break the cycle of pain takes the courage to make the choice for change.

I realize not everyone believes in meditation nor is it part of many belief systems. Yet, what is part of all spiritual paths is the simple thread of the power of love that is woven through them all. For me, meditation has been a way to return to loving myself and therefore all those around me. Perhaps your path is different in the form of finding oneself, but regardless, sitting in meditation and opening the magnetic field of love that emanates from the heart is what allows for magic, wonderment and awe.

There have been many transformative, synchronistic and enchanted moments during these past 140 days. For this my heart is grateful. My body is also grateful. In addition, the energy I live in continues to make me giddy with ecstasy like I have not felt in years.

From where I sit now, all I can see is possibility. As I heal, I grow. As I grow, I become. As I become, I am able to welcome all that is in true alignment with the most beautiful vibration of me and the me that I can be. I accept and allow to do more good, no, more great in the world. I have it to give. And so I shall.

Possibilities Abound

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, beleif, Believing, bliss, body knowledge, change, compassion, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, development, Dream, Energy, faith, heart, heart path, hope, humanity, inspiration, journey, joy, learning, life, light, love, Magic, Mindful Action, peace, sharing, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, universal consciousness, universal heart, well being, Wonder

Since Covid I have found myself giving over to healing from so much of my past that I never allowed myself the time to heal from. Despite the horrific tragedy of the pandemic and all of the lives lost and devastating heartbreak, I committed to choosing healing the heart as a way of taking time to honor the space of this moment.

A few years into what I have deemed my heart work, I am so grateful I made that choice and stuck with it as life returned to a new normal. What didn’t return was the man I was pre-pandemic. And for all of this I am able to see the immense change in who I am, what I desire and what is truly possible when one begins living from the heart and unconditional love.

As I diligently engage my meditation practice, my affirmation practice, my running practice, my waking practice, my movement practices and even my hypnosis; I see the abundance of possibilities that are there for me. Not a day goes by or a dream expressed that I don’t see the potential for a whole new life, mind and way of living.

Decisions have been made for huge shifts and transformative opportunities which slowly begin to reveal themselves in so many synchronicities and ah ha moments. I have returned to so many instinctual remembrance’s that all whisper that this is the right direction and path for my voice of the heart to begin speaking and literally singing once again.

This is the time and I realize, now more than ever, that the work I do, share and creates are needed now. My sensitivity, empathy, compassion and love is needed now. In these challenging and very turbulent times, I am needed now. As are you.

If we are going to move the world into the space of love, we all are needed now. In all of the many different ways, being and becoming; we are all so desperately needed for a time of healing for ourselves and for one another. The earth needs us. Our hearts need us. All that you love needs us.

In acknowledging that you are needed and putting the energy and focus in that loving space; possibilities will abound. You are capable of magic and miracles. We all are capable of magic and miracles. I choose magic and miracles each and every day. And let me tell you, it is divine.

Returning “Home”

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Conscious Living, Courageous Vulnerability, heart path, journey, patience, Soul to Soul, spirit, travel, Understanding, universal heart, Vulnerable, well being, Wonder

I have traveled many a place wandering far from home. As a child I dreamed of exploring this world to experience places and wonders unimaginable. The work I have chosen has provided that opportunity. Yet, when I started down that road I had no idea the magnitude of what the choice to make a decision to follow a heart fulfilled by movement would be. In fact, most people discouraged that thought as I threw caution to the wind and decided I must choose that which I knew nothing about but that fulfilled my heart.

It has been a journey. Full of both highs and lows, it has been a tumultuous ride. A ride I would not choose to do any differently. It has not been what I had dreamed, but it has been more than I could have possibly imagined. Yet, I realize my actual dreams are still ahead of me since all that has been happening in life has only been the preparation for what is to come. I have not always been ready for my dreams and therefor my life has been teaching me, training me in the ways in which I will be well prepared to handle the success of what is to come.

I realize this as I return to “home”. You see in all my travels and friendships on this journey I have landed in several places where my work has allowed a space of comfort and connection I could have never imagined. Yes, my original home is with my family in the suburbs of Chicago with family and friends who were incredible to me throughout my time growing up as a young adult. This allowed me the courage and confidence to make decisions to move myself along a path of following my dreams. My mother and my friends, my dear loving friends, held my hand with their love and their belief in me even when I had no belief in myself.

This love is home. And now I have found myself in a second home here in Denver. This place has become a space of creativity, love and light. It has become a place where I find comfort and support, graciousness and gratitude as well as love and admiration. In the creative space of the studio students give their all to us allowing an expression of the human condition through movement while being vulnerable and trusting enough to let us expand their movement vocabulary and understanding of what is possible in dance. This is a sacred space of returning that allows us to feel as if we are “home” when we return to the space of DSA.

And once the work is done in the studio, we return “home” to a space where we are loved and cared for for all of who we are and all of who we want to be. We are embraced with laughter and light, with warmth and with friendship, with food and with care. We return “home” to people who embrace us with their arms and with their hearts opening their home to us and sharing their stories with ours furthering the understanding of relationships full of love. This the ultimate humane condition. I am always amazed and honored when returning with some of the same people and some of the new people who have been gathered in the creative net of my life.

For this, I am grateful. For this I send an appreciation of love and light and most importantly, laughter. Laughter has always been the one thing that made me realize how much I love life and love the people in my life. If we have shared through laughter, we have shared through love. This is the way I prefer to show love I guess; the way in which I do love and express love. The loving light of laughter through humility and vulnerability to laugh at myself and at the experiences that bring a better understanding of humanity.

I am reminded of this as I return “home”. I am reminded to reach for more when I return “home”. I am encouraged and inspired when I return “home”. And this time, I realize it is time to reach further and to have the courage to make new pathways and perhaps leave “home” once again for even more fantastic journey’s and explorations. I understand that through this loving laughter it is time to take off to place unknown once again. It is time to “Depart from Platform Unknown” to places unknown with the courage and faith that life will be unfolding underneath my feet, guiding the way under the light of the waning moon.

Coming “home” after building a home has reminded me of my humble beginnings. And so I begin again for another shift in life to move forward into the direction of my actions, and the actions moving me forward into directions of the unfathomable. Thank you family and friends from Chicago. Thank you “family” and friends of Denver. Thank you for being the platform from which to catapult a whole new way of being.

Departing from Platform Unknown

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Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Dream, heart, heart path, path, patience, spirituality, well being, Wonder

Standing in this meadow looking out at the expanse, all I see is possibility.

Although there are mountains that surround me, they are beautiful and beckon an ascent.

Yes, it is beautiful here too, but I wonder what lies just beyond the mountain?

I wonder what I might see from its vistas and what wonder might await just beyond?

Yes, there will be a lot of effort expended in order to shift this present state.

And yes, there is the unknown, but the unknown is here right now too.

So if this platform from which I stand is uncertain, then ultimately there is no real risk.

The only thing that can possibly happen is change.

If I stay too long, I worry about stasis.

If I do not challenge myself to push for more, then there is complacency.

If I do not engage in growth and development, my work ceases to be relevant.

Standing in this meadow I have made a decision; embrace the possibility.

Dancers

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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

Passage

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Conscious Living, heart, journey, recycled poetry, spirit, Wonder

Passage should drive me over

To be sure, a moment made no answer

I am a stranger here

Yours

More glad of your company

I shall never forget keeping you

But still, I do not always know

Wanting no direction on each side of the door

I AM…

Tags

Ballet, choreography, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, Creative Flow, Dance, Modern, modern dance, Teaching, Technique, universal heart, Wonder

I am a maker of dance, both the ephemeral imagery in space as well as the physical beings who transcribe them. The shape of the space in which the physical reality of a work exists is where I feel at home in my skin. It is this transparency and manifestation of concept that thrills me most.

 

I like to speak with movement and express the desires of my heart through the physical articulation of bone and blood. As the body traces space, hitting point by point the architectural blue prints of choreography, the soul revels in ecstasy as it etches each work.

 

I like to listen to the world with my feet hearing the subtle churning and shifting of its rotation and the chaos of its populations. When the foot becomes receiver, the heart becomes the poet allowing for the majesty of imagery to create the kinetic hologram of dance.

 

I am a maker of dance. I am a shaper of space. I am a poet of kinetic proportions penning movement into magic and mystery.

 

Gratitude of Joy

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Believing, Conscious Living, Courageous Vulnerability, Energy, faith, heart, heart path, hope, journey, joy, love, Magic, Modern, Soul to Soul, spirit, universal heart, Vulnerable, Wonder

I know there is pain and suffering in the world. I know that there is much to be shifted and changed in all of our individual and collective lives. I know this. I acknowledge the frail, imperfect and vulnerable lines we walk and that which surrounds us. However, at this moment, all I know is bliss. All I see is beauty. All there is is joy.

I choose, at this moment to see, welcome and embrace what is often seldom seen or folded into our lives. Instead of giving in, I give out. Instead of giving up, I give within. I see between the lines. I listen to the parts of the harmony that allow the melody to be remembered. It is in these unusual places that perfect of moments lives. The most beautiful and sacred magical moments live here.

At this moment I shut my eyes and give thanks for all that is here. This is my moment of gratitude; my moment to change the rest of my life by accepting this life as the most beautiful of all things I could be living. Right here. Right now. This moment. This life. This is the joy.

Grateful Is

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Believing, conscious, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Energy, faith, Grateful, heart, heart path, Is, journey, light, love, Magic, pathway, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, thankful, this moment, thoughts, Wonder

I am not sure where this begins or that ends. Actually, the longer I spend focused on the moment; I realize increasingly that all that matters simply is. No beginning, no end. No rules or instructions, just present being.

I am no longer looking at the future head on, I am accepting the present fully while embracing all that is as it washes through me. Yes, my body, as is my life, is porous and open letting time and events pass easily through without being stuck on the fear that used to clog my being.

This is not to say I am giving up mind you, just to acknowledge I am giving in. Giving in to what is larger than the scattered pieces of me, and that which is more capable of sifting through sorrow and pain dissolving it with love. Releasing control is in fact allowing for what is to be yours as you consciously accept all that is possible and all the abundance that wants to be in vibrational congruency with your heart.

I am grateful for a path that has so graciously allowed so much prosperity and joy in my life. I could not have imagined a life so full and so bright. Nor, can I possibly imagine what is in store as I willingly accept all that comes and all that will be shared with others.

I give thanks for all that is. For all that is, is a reflection of all that is inside of me as well as what is inside of others. This energy and light is shining brightly in the heart of the day as well the blue in which this days sky covers our heads and in the nourishment of what we will absorb in our sustenance. May we cycle this energy and light into our matter so that we might matter in our lives and in the lives of others.