I spent the weekend in the theater, directing Ryder Cooley’s production of Xmalia.  For the past number of years, my theater has been the arena, dancing with horses.  It is good to get back inside for a bit.

The theater is a good place to look for light.  Literally, figuratively.  My focus with this production is to find the light within the dark themes of extinction and mourning.  To bring each of the performers into their individual, specific lightness of being.  And doing that in such a way that the shadows are also revealed, the spaces between, the interstial illuminations.  That is how the work can surprise us with little moments that shake the heart, as well as the big ravishing ones.

How are you finding the light?

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Again, for those of you who have not visited the RIDE site. These images are from the production called “Flight.”

Three years ago, I became obsessed with blending aerial dance with horses.  In the first production of RIDE, we had used low-flying swings. I wanted more.

Around the same time, my friend Tamara Weiss, the owner of Midnight Farm on Martha’s Vineyard said, “Well you know Polly flies, don’t you?”  I didn’t. She was talking about the magnificent Paola Styron, dancer and aerialist extraordinaire.

And so, with her help and that of Flying by Foy, we created a workshop performance. We have not done it again but are open to that possibility. (Are there any angels out there?)

The other performers are the beautiful dancers, Ingrid Schatz, DeAnna Pellecchia and Dillon Paul; riders Brandi Rivera and Nicole Muccio; and horses Capprichio and Sanne. The images at the end are of Sarah Hollis and Escorial. The music is by Robert Weinstein.

This is a big part of my Great Work; the thing that wakes me up at night and in the morning, fills my journals and makes my heart sing.

postscript:  This week in The Journal, I am writing another ragged little memoir, this one called The Beast.  You can receive it by subscribing here. (As always, you can unsubscribe at any time.)

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Photo:  Jeffrey Anderson from the performance of Flight, by Paula Josa-Jones and her company.  Paola Styron, dancer and aerialist with the stallion Capprichio ridden by Brandi Rivera.

Twelve years ago we adopted our daughter from Nepal.  Doing that was a leap of faith, requiring great steadiness of purpose.

During the seven weeks we spent battling American and Nepali bureaucracies, we hung prayer flags, poured rum into the belly of the Mahakala (on the advice of a lama) and sought the counsel of Tibetan Buddhist seers, who threw what is called a mo, and told us time and again that things would eventually work out.

We harnessed the windhorse – the bearer of prayers.  Which, in my experience, requires a certain kind of diligent daily yoga.  Again, you show up each day and begin again.  Take a daily leap of faith.

Little ones count.  That is the theme this week in The Journal.

How are you catching the windhorse?

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This is a photo of my beautiful stallion Capprichio at Dressage at Devon in 2004.  He is ridden by Sabine Schut-Kery and dancing with Ana Ayromlou.  Today he is is almost 20 years old, and our riding is cooked down, basic.  A little trot, a little canter, long companionable walks across the beautiful, grassy meadows.

If I put on music when I am riding him, I can feel him fill up, his neck arches, he starts to prance and blow, remembering all his chops – the passage, piaffe, the pirouettes and rears.  I love that feeling – all that wildness and energy coming up under me.   But dancing isn’t good for his ligaments or his joints, so we let that wave pass, and go back to being our companionable selves.  In my heart and mind though, he is always dressed to kill, and we are dancing together, full throttle.  Even just standing together gazing at the landscape, our six legs on the ground.

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