Your core, your essence, your spirit just shines through everything when you dance, from your fingertips to your eyes to your smile. That’s the spirit of dance.
Bonnie Schlachte, Founding Director of Ballet for All Kids, a cooperative ballet studio
This week, I invite you to take a break from whatever series you’re bingeing and check out this film: Everybody Dance. I promise you it will be worth it.
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I was overwhelmed during my first rehearsal for the ballet Coppelia, but as they progressed through the month of February, I realized that despite my minimal ballet experience, I brought a lot to the table as a dancer. My skills and experience from dancing styles like ballroom, salsa, swing and even Zumba, proved to be extremely valuable as I learned and rehearsed a ballet routine.
In the corporate world, they would be called transferable skills. In this case, I guess they would be transferable dance skills. I guarantee you have some of these skills as well, even if you’ve only been dancing a short time. So read on to be reminded of how many skills you’ve amassed as a dancer!
Continue readingI’m pleased and honored to be able to share another side of my writing with the dance publication, Stance on Dance.
Click the image to read my poem It Feels Wrong to Dance, a reflection on the value of dance in tumultuous times:
Over the next two months, I’m embarking on a new dance adventure, something I’ve never done before as an adult dancer. Even though it’s a new experience for me, that very fact makes it fit naturally into my lifelong dance journey.
Continue readingHappy Day 1 of 2023, dancers!
I kicked off the last day of 2022 with my regular Saturday morning Zumba class. All of my new friends here have come from that studio, which makes it a special place for me. Like my ballroom studio in California, it feels like a home away from home. A place where I can go and let my dance freak flag fly without fear of judgment or rejection. The final Zumba class of 2022 was no exception. I left with a tired body and a full heart.
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If you live anywhere on the northern half of the East Coast, then you heard about Winter Storm Kenan, a nor’easter turned “bomb cyclone”, pub crawling its way up the coast Friday through Saturday night. We’ll talk about that in a minute. First, I want to share that after I posted last week about my dance journey currently not including a whole lot of dancing, I got to dance for 2.5 hours on Monday!
Since moving here, I’ve been able to connect with a few other dancers who, like myself, want to continue challenging themselves technically and creatively in their dancing. Monday was our first meetup where we played around with choreography for an hour before my 90-minute ballet class. By the end of the evening, my body was tired and sore, and my soul was happy. We’re aiming to continue our Monday dance sessions, weather permitting.
Continue readingMy latest blog post is live on Medium, challenging the popular belief that hard work equals pain and suffering. Frankly, I’d rather laugh through the unavoidable mistakes that happen along my dance journey than cry!
It feels wrong to dance right now.
When there are people out there
Who think it’s ok or funny or cool
To storm our nation’s Capital,
To break windows and doors
While people on the other side wonder
If this would be the day they died.
It feels wrong to dance
On the graves of literally thousands of people
Who die daily from a virus that could have been,
Should have been,
Controlled months ago.
It feels wrong to dance
When respect for ourselves,
Our neighbors,
Our country
Has been reduced to a sad, tattered rag
Flapping in the wind.
It feels wrong to dance
On the surface of a planet that has done everything it can
To support and nurture us,
And that we have only deceived and decimated.
Who are we to dance?
When so many can’t walk
Or run
Or sleep
Without being targeted.
Who are we to dance?
When so many can’t leave their homes,
And so many others don’t have homes to leave.
Who are we to feel that joy that comes
When movement meets music
And creates magic?
It feels so wrong to dance right now,
To float across the floor to a beautiful melody
When there is so much chaos, darkness and ugliness in the world.
Maybe that’s the point.
Maybe dance is the antidote to this poison,
A light in the darkness.
When you dance, you can’t scream hateful rhetoric.
You can’t throw rocks or blame.
You can’t break windows or bones.
Your anger is channeled
And transformed into calm.
When we’re calm, we can hear each other.
When we’re calm, we can help each other.
So even though it feels wrong to dance,
Perhaps we must.
Perhaps we must dance
Because we need its magic.
That magic that happens when chaotic emotion is transformed
Into powerful rhythm.
Perhaps we must dance
To reintroduce order and flow
And beauty and peace
Back into the world.
Perhaps we must dance to save ourselves
And to save each other.
So dance, my dear dancers.
But do it with purpose.
Dance here, now, so your light can shine.
Dance to listen.
Dance to understand.
Dance to empower and inspire good in this world.
Dance with trust, reason, and compassion.
Dance for others
And dance for yourself.
Remember:
We are the music makers,
Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
We’ve made it through another difficult week. I spent the week not sleeping well, working the day job, and reading and listening to multiple points of view on the issues. I also “muted” myself on social media in favor of discovering new-to-me BIPOC dancers and artists and sharing those instead. I’ve linked a few favorites at the end of this blog post.
I didn’t do much dancing. I took Teacher’s online technique class on Wednesday, but I skipped the various dance fitness classes I’ve been taking. I didn’t do any exercise really, aside from walking the dogs. Reality was just weighing too heavy on my shoulders. By the end of the week though, I was feeling the urge to do something creative. To dance, or to write. I was also feeling the urge to clean. A clear space can lead to a clearer mind.
Continue readingOfficially two weeks in with this new “stay at home” reality (technically it’s been about a week and a half by order of the state but I started earlier). Week 1 was stressful and surreal, like “crap, is this really happening?” Week 2 was more contemplative. Yes, this is happening and it could be happening for a long while.
It’s been interesting to see how the dance community has reacted to their entire industry essentially being put out of work until further notice. Some reacted quickly to shift their services online and minimize disruption of their business. Some have shifted to giving away their services and asking for donations to keep them afloat. Others are simply showing up online frequently with inspirational messages and short dance demonstrations to encourage people to keep moving. The common thread is no one is ready to give up.
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The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 