Are you a "Dancer?"
what does that mean to you, to be a dancer?
what does that mean to you, to be a dancer?
As a dancer, how do you experience the world differently?
Are you a dancer if you're sick in bed and can't move?
As a dancer do you ever not want to move your body?
How are you a dancer in stillness are you still a dancer?
This is a question i posted on facebook July 28th. I wont post the answers again here, but please do share your own experience with "dancing" these questions. The following was my answer...
As a child I danced characters and clowns. To dance was an act of play and exploring possibilities, it was a way to make those that I love laugh.
As I grew a little older I wanted to dance my sexy. To dance and perform was to be seen in ways that were not socially acceptable, and yet when I danced that on stage I was applauded.
To be a dancer was to be seen.
Dance became a place I could get away from the pressures of school where I felt stupid and small.
To be a dancer meant I new how to capture the attention of another by the way I moved. I learned to enchant not just an audience but also those that I desired. To be a dancer meant I had power and control of not just my own body but my body in relation to others.
In college I became more of a “choreographer.”
To be a choreographer meant that I created with bodies. I created shapes, and motion. I expressed with bodies indescribable emotions. I captured moods and moved them.
To be a choreographer meant that I was important, I now had something to say with my dance. To dance became political, an act of empowerment, to express all that I could not verbalize as a woman.
Dance became a tool to change the world. To move and express for all those who felt unheard.
To be a dancer was to be a change maker, a magician, healer, and ceremonial leader.
To be a dancer I had to be brave. I learned how to dance into hell and dance my demons.
To be a dancer I had to be humble, to open and listen to the energy of life itself in the trees, in the ocean, in a rock, in animals.
To be a dancer I learned how to become another. I became a shape shifter.
And, I learned how to dance with another's energy.
And then there were the years I did not dance. Was I still a dancer? Even though I was not moving from awareness of my body, I was still moving energy. Although it was not called a dance, there were times I was moving others threw space in patterns and an organized way. If dance is about expression for me then I would say prayer was my dance. Although I was still on the outside, my heart and spirit were leaping forth like a flame with longing, or knotting into a ball with confusion or anger. Only now looking back, can I see that this time was an opportunity to know That which dances me. There was time to be witness to the internal dance, the essence of my emotional and spiritual self and that which connects me with all energy.
This time I had of “containment” of physical expression enables me to start to understand this container, this vehicle that holds my flame, and the relationship between body and spirit. And only now as I write this can I understand that I am a dancer. My response to being “contained” for 10 years was to dance like a wild animal. I as a dancer needed to feel That energy that I am part of in motion, in Fully expressed. I as a dancer, need to know god, other, life itself in my body and I need to move with it. When I dance I feel connected and alive. And when I am alive I share and create.
It has been important for me to see how dance has been with me threw out my life, as friend, teacher, self identity… I needed to know this because I feel myself entering another phase, and I feel frightened and uncertain of my next steps, will there even be steps? I have recently explored my wild dance and now I feel the question arising from with in, “how do you dance your emptiness and stillness?” Dancing so often has been about sensing fullness, either of myself or other, but where is the motion in nothingness? I know nothing; I am looking for a way to express that, and my fear of that nothingness. And now I know The Dance will be with me even in this.
So for me to be a dancer means I am in motion in this life, i honor and study the motion of life in all its phases. Or another way of saying it, I honor and study the motion of spirits journey threw the body - and I dance it.
As a child I danced characters and clowns. To dance was an act of play and exploring possibilities, it was a way to make those that I love laugh.
As I grew a little older I wanted to dance my sexy. To dance and perform was to be seen in ways that were not socially acceptable, and yet when I danced that on stage I was applauded.
To be a dancer was to be seen.
Dance became a place I could get away from the pressures of school where I felt stupid and small.
To be a dancer meant I new how to capture the attention of another by the way I moved. I learned to enchant not just an audience but also those that I desired. To be a dancer meant I had power and control of not just my own body but my body in relation to others.
In college I became more of a “choreographer.”
To be a choreographer meant that I created with bodies. I created shapes, and motion. I expressed with bodies indescribable emotions. I captured moods and moved them.
To be a choreographer meant that I was important, I now had something to say with my dance. To dance became political, an act of empowerment, to express all that I could not verbalize as a woman.
Dance became a tool to change the world. To move and express for all those who felt unheard.
To be a dancer was to be a change maker, a magician, healer, and ceremonial leader.
To be a dancer I had to be brave. I learned how to dance into hell and dance my demons.
To be a dancer I had to be humble, to open and listen to the energy of life itself in the trees, in the ocean, in a rock, in animals.
To be a dancer I learned how to become another. I became a shape shifter.
And, I learned how to dance with another's energy.
And then there were the years I did not dance. Was I still a dancer? Even though I was not moving from awareness of my body, I was still moving energy. Although it was not called a dance, there were times I was moving others threw space in patterns and an organized way. If dance is about expression for me then I would say prayer was my dance. Although I was still on the outside, my heart and spirit were leaping forth like a flame with longing, or knotting into a ball with confusion or anger. Only now looking back, can I see that this time was an opportunity to know That which dances me. There was time to be witness to the internal dance, the essence of my emotional and spiritual self and that which connects me with all energy.
This time I had of “containment” of physical expression enables me to start to understand this container, this vehicle that holds my flame, and the relationship between body and spirit. And only now as I write this can I understand that I am a dancer. My response to being “contained” for 10 years was to dance like a wild animal. I as a dancer needed to feel That energy that I am part of in motion, in Fully expressed. I as a dancer, need to know god, other, life itself in my body and I need to move with it. When I dance I feel connected and alive. And when I am alive I share and create.
It has been important for me to see how dance has been with me threw out my life, as friend, teacher, self identity… I needed to know this because I feel myself entering another phase, and I feel frightened and uncertain of my next steps, will there even be steps? I have recently explored my wild dance and now I feel the question arising from with in, “how do you dance your emptiness and stillness?” Dancing so often has been about sensing fullness, either of myself or other, but where is the motion in nothingness? I know nothing; I am looking for a way to express that, and my fear of that nothingness. And now I know The Dance will be with me even in this.
So for me to be a dancer means I am in motion in this life, i honor and study the motion of life in all its phases. Or another way of saying it, I honor and study the motion of spirits journey threw the body - and I dance it.
To see a photo documentation of my life in dance follow this link
HERE
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