My friend Michele sent me this picture of Nelson out in his big field. This is new: Nelson relaxing, Nelson settled in the sun.
Today when I went to see him we went into his round pen and he did perfect figure-8 changes of direction in both directions. Slow, fast, near, far. Perfect.
Nelson has taught me more about being clear, being calm and showing up than anyone or any other thing in my life.
Thank you Nelson, my beloved teacher.
I want to offer a bit more information about my eBook.
I developed Breaking into Blossom: Moving into an Improvisational Life as an online class because I wanted to offer some fresh ideas on how to close that gap from my perspective as an improvisational movement artist. It is designed to inspire you to become more daring, more visionary, more playful and improvisational in all aspects of your life.
I am now offering the materials that I developed for that class in an eBook that contains ten carefully designed chapters integrating photographs, writing and movement prompts, guest artists and specific strategies to help you find a deeper creative engagement. Here is what you will find:
The book is available at the end of this month. You will receive the book as a pdf.
The cost is $15. You can pre-order it here.
For those of you who are interested, I am also offering one-to-one creative jump-start sessions. To learn more, form.
Ingrid Schatz in Scarlet Photo by Pam White
are you flowing?
can you find the stream
the place where
current carries you
flailing
floating
bobbing
to an unknown destination?
can you let go
into all of that?
Here is the next part of body dharma.
Randee Fox sent me this link. Daniel Mollner is 47 years old and is making a film a week about being a dancer, something that he has only recently claimed. It is a brilliant, generous idea.
I have just started making solos again. My friend Ryder hosts an open mike at Cafe Helsinki in Hudson, NY. She said, “Why don’t you do something?” And I thought, “Yeah. Why not?”
I have not performed a solo for over ten years. Here is what happened: Over a period of twenty years, I lost my ability to move, even to walk. My hips were GONE. Everyone said, “But you are too young to have the surgery.” Really I wasn’t, but I liked that they thought so. By the end, I could not even walk across the street. I felt a terrible sense of shame. “I am a dancer. I cannot move.”
The other thing that happened was 9/11. Many of my artist friends were creatively derailed. Mute. Numb. It went on for many months, even years. I went into a creative deep-freeze that lasted about seven years. I felt ashamed. “I am an artist. I cannot make art .”
It was finally the horses that brought me back, and a persistent, wonderful image of making a dance with horses and an aerial dancer, the beautiful Paola Styron.
The one thing I know about body dharma is that it is not one thing. It is not a straight line. It is a meandering river with backwaters and tributaries and terrible, ferocious class 5 rapids that will leave you washed up and rinsed out way downriver. It is also the only place to be: in the water, between the banks, flowing.
Sharing my experience and passion in a way that helps and supports others is what I love. I am always thinking about new ways to do that.
So here are three of my body dharma offerings:
I have other offerings. You can check them out here.