At that moment, Tammy’s entire orientation changed. She got lower, literally, and some kind of fussiness, some kind of complexity in her gestures disappeared. It was a deeper bass, an ear to the ground to hear the rumble of approaching animals, a full acknowledgment of weight and its activation in momentum. The shift was both visible and palpable; and I felt blessed to be available to receive the lesson.
It felt good to be in the collective field, very much in sync, and at the same time, very much on the high edge of Chaos—the rhythm of our time. To some extent, the gem of personal achievement has lost its luster recently; and I find myself moving more than ever in the collective field. The ability to actually move around inside of Chaos—conscious, aware and even with direction—are skills I hope to build on.
TAGS: #danceeverywhere, 5Rhythms, Chaos, chaos dance, dance anywhere, Dentist, Flowing, High Vibration Waves, Lyrical, Meghan LeBorious, New York City, Notes On Practice, Staccato, Stillness, Tammy BursteinIn the current political context, and also in the context of my work, it occurs to me that the maturity of Lyrical—the full, shimmering, vibrating, sharp, vivid, spectacular, booming beauty of Lyrical has to do with stepping in to joy with full, open-eyed awareness and acceptance of all our pain and of the collective pain of the world. It is only with the integration of the shadow principles, and, too, of our own psychological shadows, that joy can fully arrive—not just the happy-because-something-went-well-joy or the I’m-going-to-look-happy-since-I’m-not-sure-how I’m-feeling-joy, it is not the innocent joy of a child either. Rather, it is the joy that has wisdom in it, joy that pushes nothing away, joy that sees from vast heights, joy that has enough space to hold all things inside it.
TAGS: 5 rhythms, 5Rhythms, Chaos, Conscious Dance, ecstatic dance, five rhythms, Flowing, gabrielle roth, Lyrical, Meghan LeBorious, Notes On Practice, shamanic danceRather than big, easy-to-follow, repeating gestures as sometimes arise in Lyrical, we skittered down chains of intricately arranged repeating patterns, which would then shift and re-configure, taking form then never landing for long enough to be defined or understood. Our dance featured some bursting and chasing gestures, too. I would rise up on my highest toes, reaching for his height, wanting to be expansive along with him, then squiggle myself down and away. He laughed at my antics, joining in, too. After this long, intricate, layered exchange, we finally ended up doing the initial assignment—a simple repetition—grinning wildly as we both realized it, rocking back and forth.
TAGS: 5 rhythms, 5Rhythms, Chaos, Conscious Dance, gabrielle roth, Lyrical, Medicine Dance, Meghan LeBorious, moving meditationI went home and climbed up to the roof. I had a full view of the burning towers from there, and stood watching as the first tower turned to toxic dust and crumpled, buckling sideways, then down. Nuns from a church on the next block stood on their own roof, also watching the building fall, their royal blue, full nun’s habits flapping in the wind, emphasizing their frozen gestures.
Pain did not disappear so much as fade from the front of my experience. I still felt a bit of tenderness in the back, but as I released into the wave it was a far-off echo. I marveled at this. Once, I was barely able to walk I was so gimped from dancing ferociously on the first day of a three-day workshop. Somehow I hobbled into the studio on day two, unable to imagine how I could possibly move. Miraculously, as soon as the music started,
TAGS: 5 rhythms, 5Rhythms, Amber Ryan, Chaos, Conscious Dance, ecstatic dance, five rhythms, Flowing, gabrielle roth, jonathan horan, Lyrical, Maps to Ecstasy, Medicine Dance, Meghan LeBorious, Notes On Practice