It is one thing to be in a yoga class or a traditional dance class or a zumba or a nia class and to do what everyone else is doing.
It is another thing entirely to do whatever comes...to move to music without being given steps to follow...to follow the breath and your own impulses and see where they lead you.
Yes, this is another thing.
It is a vulnerable thing.
It is a courageous thing.
It is a thing for which you will be given great rewards if you are willing to dive deep over and over, regardless of fear and resistance.
It may look like women are "simply" shaking their asses in my classes, but they are actually shaking their own foundations. They are bringing down the internal houses that fear, restrictions, others' ideas of them built.
When Mindy of Wish Studio asked me to write a piece about our movement/dance work and its relationship to body image, sensuality, and creativity, I knew I had a lot to say.
I had a lot more to say than I thought. You can read it all here.
Here's a tiny bit from the beginning of the piece:
“I didn’t realize that I could be smart and sexy...”
I had only been teaching healing dance for a few weeks when a young woman approached me and made this confession. It felt like a confession. She said it in a hushed tone, took her time getting to the point, and tended to keep her eyes toward the floor. She was (and is) a beautiful young woman with big brains, but she was brought up to believe she had to choose which side of herself to present to the world, and she was taught that sexy and smart are mutually exclusive, that you can’t have both.
2 comments:
I love reading your blog lately, Christine! Although I'm months/years/? away from dancing, I love reading your approach to teaching, and the theory that drives you. The big spiritual and psychological threads running through this writing are so beautiful. <3
Heidi! Thank you! It means a lot to me for YOU to notice all of that. You are an amazing writer and thinker. <3
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