Movin' Easy Dancewear

I enter the dance.  Step into.  Roll into.  Fly into.  Climb into.  Descend into.  Elevate into.  Enter into light from light or enter light from darkness.  Back into.  Fall into.  Approach boldly or briskly, gently or with a whisk.

I enter with all and every that I know and with a window open to what I can not at this moment know.  One given I can not escape is that from moment of entry through the last standing moment of completion, I will become what I did not know before.  I will certainly recognize myself yet I may, in the weeks to come, have to spend time practicing entering a newly found reality.

And it is the awe of this entry moment that captivates all my senses.  The space I am about to enter speaks its own anticipation in gross vibrations of the skin covering my body.  A faster rumbling enters my spine as I take in the awe inspiring preparation moments of fellow dancers, participants, and arriving audience if there is one.

Deep within my heart I continue to reconcile the map of the journey ahead of me with my inner dialog for clarity and purpose.  And my feedback system is always rolling up from my gut carrying any residual doubts, always calling my enter life into question.

Rumbling and rattling like an old jet preparing for take-off, my experience is something just beyond overwhelming fear.  My enter structure of soft tissue is on the verge of palpating in unison while I am negotiating with myself to love each sensation rather than dread what I have got myself into.

From my bones, a broader wave of vibration overwhelms all the echoes in every chamber of myself.  And finally at the crest of entering the dance, I send out a final wave of gratitude to all the immensely courageous dancers and explorers who have come to this moment.  And especially I send a shower of thankful flowers and waterfalls to all my persistent parents, mentors, and teachers who have walked this fire with me.  I can not thank them enough for holding the vision of the road ahead through all my fear, unwillingness or just my strict avoidance of taking this step I am about to take right now.

Just got off the couch today from watching CNN and Clean House where I was hoping to rest from doing taxes.  Then I pulled up enough courage to cha cha.

Well of course.  Dance moves the energy and cleans the system.  My thoughts clear out and my clogged body begins again with more fun oxygen coming straight from my smile.

Never mind the salt lights and gadgets that get rid of negative ions.  Dance does it all.  All I needed was one minute of fun getting into basic cha cha.

That must be why even the earliest peoples finished out their day with a round of community singing and dancing.

A teacher explores dance as a way to improve her teaching.  Rachel B, a Special Education teacher for 9 years, explains how dance helps her to build connection and flow in her classroom.

“Back in 2006 I did a retreat series called Courage to Teach and at one point the facilitators asked, “What image captures you at your best and at your worst as a teacher?”.

Okay, I thought, “At my best, I’m like the wind: flowing easily, connecting, letting my students do their own flying, giving them just the right amount of friction to push back against.”

“At my worst, I’m shy. I hold back. I’m in my head. I’m clumsy, jerky, and disconnected.”

Fine. A little cheesy but good concept.

Then they asked what we were going to do to practice being our best.

How the heck was I supposed to practice being more like the wind?

Finally, I decided to try dance lessons, which, as a shy person, was a little scary. But dance is all about connection and flow, right? So I went for it.

4 years later, I’m still dancing. I love that Zen thing that happens when you have a good connection with your partner–that push and pull that’s a little like flying. And I love the “dancing” that I do with my students. Then I get to be the lead and they get to do all the flashy shines. I don’t know if dancing has made me more like the wind but because of dancing, I definitely spend more time at my best in the classroom and in the world.

To Phillip  So You Think You Can Dance July 9,2009

Philip, You know how to bring emotion to every move you make.  Please don’t limit and box yourself into your standard moves.  I love seeing your personality and feeling come through the smooth, the slow, the flying as well as the pop and the drive.  Your learning now is way beyond the studio.  Believe it and be you boy.

Incredible Hip Hop, and you are much more than that.  You said as you left the competition that you did this for those who do not have a chance to train except on the streets.

Others have their studios but it all came down to whether you believed in Phillip or not.  Your emotion comes through your dance.  That is the reason you got so far.

What happened on your “Dance for your life” at the end?  You did all your moves but you were saying to yourself, “my technique is not enough” or basically “I am not enough.”

On so many dances throughout the season, you brought your emotion through the movements and you were enough.  You were the only one who did not believe it.

Great to see you come out as your personality.  Hope to see more.

S. Gupta, CNN health correspondent says that dancing is different than almost any other activity because of the “constant work of the core muscles” that “increase the blood flow to all the organs, modulate the blood pressure, and engage different muscles followed by more different muscles.”  Proof is in the Gille who has lowered his blood pressure 10 beats per minute over 10 weeks with Dancing with the Stars.

Christine Avanti, nutitionist and weight loss expert weighs in on dancing and calories.  She says, “Dancing is a phenomenal cardiovascular weight loss activity.” 

This is nothing new to Dance Boot Camps that are popular with the total go-for-it set.  Dancing is the complete workout accessing every muscle in isolation and in every conceivable combination.

Avanti says that in the 10 weeks of Dancing with the Stars Li’l Kim has lost 2 inches in the waist and 2 inches on her hips.  She uses 1100 calories in 4 hours and if she did that 6 days a week, she could eat 6 pints of ice cream without gaining a pound.

Lawrence Taylor, football player turned dancer, uses a massive 15000 calories a week and has lost 15 pounds.

What is the most frequent comment of the stars staying or leaving the show?

Dancing has changed my life.  It is said in many ways, the best thing that has happened to me, I have gone to the next level, the chance to grow personally, I am hooked on dancing, found new parts of myself, allowed myself to come out, feel more passion, really learn to go fot it, or I will never be the same.

Dancing is a yes, whether from accomplished athletes, seasoned performers in other genres, or never moved before geeks.  Dancing is a doorway to a personal and physical clarity that goes beyond athleticism, beyond tricks and tasks.

In the past, getting to that dance doorway has been a rocky path for men and some women.  Dancing with the Stars has opened the pathways to the dance door.  All ages, genders, hearing abilities, and even people with missing limbs have a new incentive to dance.

Ready to go, many people have been waiting for the excuse to fully commit their bodies to the mind bending exercise of dance.  For others taking the step through that doorway means jumping over obstacles such as false fears about clumsiness and lack of rhythm, or men’s fears of women’s judgement.

Beyond the obstacles comes the learning curve of entering the dance that requires full commitment of body, mind, and spirit.  The brain must be completely rebuilt to connect planning with anticipation with balance with position in space with meter, rhythm, and pace connected with every muscle and nerve connected to large and small muscle groups and, with feeling and passion and the courage to move the entire body full out.

All of that and combine the brain maps for awareness and communicating with a partner or with a group.  Challenge, yes.  Change your life, yes.  Dancing with the Stars tells it all.

Ballet arms gather energy from around the body and pass it down, up, and away.  The key to the arms is their support and coordination with every muscle in the body down to the toes.

The body completely connects up and clears out what needs to go.  This is a complete cleaning that happens in the ballet warm up called “barre.”

I imagine the origins of these movements were from the codification of movement beginning in the earliest temple dances.

Just got off the couch today from watching CNN and Clean House where I was hoping to rest from doing taxes.  Then I pulled up enough courage to cha cha.

Never mind the salt lights and gadgets that get rid of negative ions.  Dance does it all.  All I needed was one minute of fun getting into basic cha cha.

Well of course.  Dance moves the energy and cleans the system.  My thoughts clear out and my clogged body begins again with more fun oxygen coming straight from my smile.

That must be why even the earliest peoples finished out their day with a round of community singing and dancing.

Supporting Ginger in Ballroom dancing demands that I show her off and do that with the brightest energy I have.  The Ballroom dancers I admire share a delight of interacting together.  That seems obvious, but I have to make so many shifts to get to that place.

First of course is what seems like a long process of getting comfortable with the style and moves of the dance.  Beyond that, the will to lead is right up there at top priority.  Unlike other dances, Ballroom depends on the man to anticipate, communicate, and initiate every transition in the dance.  Doing all of that with confidence and delight is still not enough.

Crucial yet illusive is the shift to generosity that happens with long term partners.  Looking at a real partnership, there is a glow, a union that reflects attention that not only honors the partner as “hot” but also generously supports their unique flourish.

So far, I am so caught up in getting it right that I have not reached for this stretch.  Before I make the leap though I know that underlying everything I need to be willing to be generous.  That means, I have to want for Ginger that her uniqueness come out.

And whoops, in order to do that, I have to want for my uniqueness, my strength to come out in the lead as well as in the movements of the dance.

This is a commitment that I have needed to make in all my dancing.  The journey has been rich and rewarding.  In improvisational dance, I explored the give and take of creating with other dancers, accompanying each other into a challenging unknown.  In Scandinavian dancing, I loved the sharing of responsibility of man and woman in the “he goes, she goes” twirls.  In Contact Improvisation, I relished finding the sweet spot with a partner and following the flight of where it led us.

Ballroom is the opportunity I need right now to come fully to myself and to enter my relationship with Ginger in a new way.