Category Archives: moving, breathing, feeling

Oct6

great work

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I cannot imagine my life without the brilliant gifts of Steve Jobs. His Great Work makes mine possible.

What John Scully said about him is what i love about my Mac.  It is a beautiful thing.

“I remember going into Steve’s house and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around but he was incredibly careful in what he selected. The same thing was true with Apple. Here’s someone who starts with the user experience, who believes that industrial design shouldn’t be compared to what other people were doing with technology products but it should be compared to people were doing with jewelry… Go back to my lock example, and hinges and a door with beautiful brass, finely machined, mechanical devices. And I think that reflects everything that I have ever seen that Steve has touched.”

Here it is from Steve himself:

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Oct5

get out on the floor!

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Photo: Jeffrey Anderson; Ingrid Schatz & DeAnna Pellecchia in “Stallion Tango”

I am looking for more ways to get out on the floor.  Getting out on the floor means dancing (writing, riding, loving) full out, no stops, all in.  I came across this delicious video when I was doing some research for one of the performers I coach.  Check out Ruel and Mike. They are ALL in.  How often do you get out on the floor?

Oct4

contact

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I have been thinking about the emphasis on connection through social media.  And about the disembodied nature of those connections.  As a dancer, I can feel the remove, the disconnect of all of this faux intimacy.

It is why I think it is so essential to get out of the chair and into the studio:  back in the saddle, into messy, sensuous, fleshly meetings. Body to body.

I found this sweet old clip of Steve Paxton introducing contact improvisation at Jacob’s Pillow, and loved the juiciness, the workmanlike, diligent quality of the two bodies moving together. He talks about CI as a way of staying in touch, about the skin as an organ of transformation and transmission.

That is why between noon and 1pm every day, I pack it in and drive to the barn.  That is one of my “studios,” a place of practice and observation.  It is where I get in touch.  Skin to skin, hips to spine.  It is why I swim every morning.  Rediscover the long body, feel the body’s surfaces and deeps meeting in the soft water.

Where do you connect?  What is your studio?