Tag Archives: Breaking into Blossom

Jan13

beautiful

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Ngonda Badila is Lady Moon.  Her song, Speak to the Light, is one of the most lovely pieces of music that I have ever heard.  She sings it during the performance of Xmalia, the show created by C. Ryder Cooley.

The first time I heard it, I did not think that the sound was coming out of a human body, it was so etheric, so wildly beautiful.  When I watched her performance last weekend with Ryder on trapeze, it moved me to tears.

You can listen to it online, but better still, you can see and hear Lady Moon in person at the upcoming MCLA performance of Xmalia on January 25 at 7:30 in North Adams, MA.

 postscript:  This week The Journal is about callings.  How we feel them, and a few ragged ones of my own.  Breaking into Blossom starts next week.  This is an online class about moving into an improvisational life, about lessening the commute between what you think of as creative and everything else.  I hope you will join us.  You can register here.

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Dec27

art – life

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I was drawn to this image because its intimacy, the quiet focus of the artist who is also the art.  One of the themes that I will be exploring in January is the way that art and life intersect.  It will also be a big part of the focus of Breaking into Blossom, the online course on moving into an improvisational life that begins on January 23.

Many years ago, I took a workshop with the brilliant Eiko & Koma.  I remember Eiko saying that she and Koma do not commute between their art and life.  For them it is a seamless whole.

I am a householder.  I have animals, a lot of them.  They are a beautiful, essential part of every day. But their presence means that there are a million little moments in every day that are not art.  Scooping poops, feeding dogs, cats, cleaning up vomit and pee.  Brushing, walking, touching.  As I said, not art.  Or what can feel like a lot of little, niggly commutes.

Having said that, there is a way to be with those necessities that is a rhythm, a practice, a yoga even. And there is a direct path from all of that ritual to my work, my writing, and definitely my choreography, which is full of beasts – hooved, pawed, winged.

Are you commuting?

postscript:  This week, The Journal (the little ragged memoir) is about the ways that I have taken art art into and onto my body.  The how and the why of that, including the elaborate mapping of tattoos.

 

Dec20

the heart of the matter

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Mary Muncil wrote a lovely post today that spoke about the holidays and the “big day phenomenon,” or the ways that the holidays can trigger high hopes and disappointment. She urges us to have a welcoming heart, no matter how things show up.

For years I would weep at Christmas.  I had a bad case of the Big Day thing.  I missed my father, who passed in 1993.  I missed my childhood. I missed Minnesota, which in fact I had left as soon as I could (no ocean).  In the process of all that weeping, I also missed what was there.

I still have twinges, but they are milder, and there is more joy, more appreciation.  I still miss my father, but I can feel him here in a deeper way now.  I can feel myself more deeply as well.

One thing that has helped me is letting go of some of the rigidity around the Christmas rituals:  The Formulaic Christmas.  How things should look and feel.  Where they go.  When they happen.  Not that there aren’t rituals, they just don’t have the big urgent charge around them that they used to.  My Christmases now have a more improvisatory swing to them, which helps me to connect to the heart of the matter.

ps.  the price for Breaking into Blossom goes up on Friday. $75 until then.

 

 

 

Dec1

to be clear (I hope)

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Yesterday I launched a new offering.  A number of you have expressed interest and confusion.  Obviously that is my lack of clarity.

So here it is:  For some time, I have wanted to offer a class that has a wider reach than my local demographic.  Something that you can do with me if you live in L.A. or Juneau or Paris.  (I will come to Paris to teach, of course).  So this is an online class.

I also wanted to share more of the work that I have been doing privately and in classes and workshops.

For  five weeks you will receive two lessons a week.  This is some but not all of what they will contain:

  • writings and teachings from people that have inspired me in the world of improvisational living
  • specific strategies for opening more doors to creative, full throttle living.
  • suggestions for new ways of discovering “ordinary magic” by using improvisation in your work and your daily life.  This is about learning to be non-habitual; stepping out of the rote.
  • writing prompts to help you open new creative doors.
  • assignments to help you dig into the details of your own goals and practice. These are more of a cafeteria of choices rather than a fixed menu.

You can use what appeals to you.  I won’t be checking your work.  The intention is that this an alive offering, as opposed to archival.  That is why we will engage on Google+ in a private forum.  For those of you not familiar with Google+, I will help you get started there.

My goal for you is that by learning to see and live your life more improvisationally, and by becoming more intentionally embodied, you will find new and delicious ways of experiencing/approaching work and play.  

Finally, yes, some of the exercises are movement-based.  However, they can be done by anyone, regardless of background or fitness.

Let me know if you have any more questions.  The full course description is here.

The link to sign up is here.