Fly (and) Thank You, Sondra Lee!

This week I got in touch in a very real way with my childhood self.  Not the anxiety-ridden, keep-your-head-down child but the happy one who believed in magic.  

I recover that child-part of me sometimes in everyday life and often in dance class. Dance is magic and can bring me tangibly in touch with the innocence of childhood. In day-to-day life, I can still find myself worrying about this or that.  I can fabricate out of thin air things I think I should be worrying about, if I were a responsible adult person. It is often ephemeral and difficult to hold onto feeling like the little one who believes in magic—who has faith that if she really believes it, she could fly.

This week, I have felt like a joyful kid every day and I want to share why.

I wrote an essay about dance that was published by The New York Times in response to their questions, “What inspired you to dance?” and “Who was your first ‘dance crush’?” **

I wrote about how when I was 6, I saw Mary Martin’s Peter Pan on television.  I fell in love with Sondra Lee as Tiger Lily. *** I LOVED her and I wanted to BE her.  Also, I wrote about how the only time I ever saw my parents happy together was when they were dancing.

On Monday at the studio, I received a note.  It was a thank you note from Sondra Lee!  I was (literally) jumping up and down, tears in my eyes.  I was a giddy 6 year-old in a pink tutu! It brought me right back to that moment when I saw Sondra as Tiger Lily, on that little black and white TV in our den in 1963. 

And I mean, right back.  I feel like a happy child whose idol has reached out specially to hug her.  I am over the moon.

I was so lucky to have this experience.  It makes me realize that the happy child has always been right here inside of me.  And so is yours.  Inside you resides the joy and wonder of childhood. I once believed that I could dance for a living only in my wildest dreams. Happily, I learned that I could actually live my dreams and fly.

The bad stuff can be outshone when we pay attention to only the light. If we can forget about gravity (whatever pulls us down), we can sail upwards.

Inspiration is timeless.  Joy is ageless. 

We can all “fly” if we only believe it enough.   

Thank you, Sondra Lee!!!

**The New York Times link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/arts/dance/your-first-dance-crush.html?emc=eta1 

***Sondra Lee as Tiger Lily: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UV1CA5FUU

Fire

I choreographed a song called “We Are Young” by the band, Fun.  There is a part of the song that says “set the world on fire.”  I loved the way that sounded.  It felt like an “opening” to me, especially on the word fire.   I started the movement from that.  It was a 4 count, and the rest of the choreography just sort of fell into place from that spot. (If only it was always that easy!)

It makes me think that when we start anything with fire and passion, everything falls into place around that feeling.  Joy has its own vibration and attracts more of the same.

When we do something that feels like a slog, everything around it feels like drudgery.

On the other hand, our true nature is joy and passion.  So when we feel passion about whatever it is we are doing, everything falls into place.

Like the band’s name, it makes life more Fun.

Release

In dance, it is always best to release your judgment about how it’s going to look.  We can worry about how a movement “fits” our bodies, but that takes away the joy and replaces it with anxiety.  To me, the purpose of dance is to find the joy and personal expression in movement to music. 

Your expression is never wrong.  You can judge it if you want to and there’s nothing wrong with honing your skills, but connection to yourself and feeling your joy is really paramount.  Dance can be a celebration and it can also be a release if you are going through a difficult time.  You can find your way back to yourself by using dance as a party or as a meditation or both at the same time.  

In my meditation practice, I often switch gears.  If one way “in” isn’t working for me on one day, I go to another method.  What I have learned is that there are many ways to find the infinite that is within each of us.  We all have different ways of getting in touch with that inner space.  

The truth is we are always connected to our true selves.  There is no other way for us to be.  All That Is, is just that – All.  There is nothing and no one that can be separate from that.  

In meditation and in movement there is only your own way.  You can’t be wrong in the expression of yourself.  Everyone has a road “in” that is unique.  

Meditation, using stillness or motion, helps us to become more conscious of what is within. 

We can search and chase what we believe to be spiritual.  We can try really hard.  But we don’t really have to try, we only have to be exactly who we are.  We can release all the striving.   We can choose to let go of all notions of what should be, releasing the judgment of right or wrong.  Release is trusting that you are always a part of the One  –  even if you can’t perceive it.

You are always connected, all the time.  In other words, All That Is can’t lose your file.   

So instead of reaching, try releasing.

You already are what you seek to be.  You might just not be aware of it yet. 

 

Halo

I have been teaching a new choreography to the song, Halo, by Beyonce.  In the dance, there is a place where you are facing right, your left foot crosses over, and you turn or unwind.  There is a long four-count in which to achieve this – and it’s easy.  

Because there is so much time, it’s fun to try and turn more than once.  In order to do that, you have to spot – find a spot to look at for as long as you are facing that way and then whip your head around to find that spot again.  Your body will follow your gaze.  You also need a strong core.  Both of these will create a more controlled turn that keeps you from getting dizzy.  

I was wanting to turn more than once, but since the simple turn is an “unwind,” my right foot was ending up off the floor and in front of my left, which made it difficult to continue turning.  At first, I just tried to bully my way through that, but, of course, that didn’t work.  It only made me unsteady and out-of-control.  Then I realized I merely had to pick up my right foot to keep turning.  That worked.

In addition to actually looking where I wanted to end up, I had to get out of my own way.

I find that this is a good idea for me in my life.

I need to be clear about where I want to land, but also get out of my own way and stop tripping over myself.  

I can’t bully myself to do something that feels wrong.  I can try, but I’ll end up being out-of-control and dizzy.

This means I must cultivate a strong core of trust.

With a strong core, I can go where my vision takes me.  

I can relax, do my dance, and trust life to unwind in the way it’s meant to.

I know that’s easier said than done.  

So I remind myself daily (sometimes hourly) that it’s safe to trust and to just get out of the way.

Rhythms

My husband was helping me choreograph a wedding dance for a friend’s wedding.  The choreography had to be fun, but easy, too.  I turned on the music and I showed my husband what I was thinking of teaching the bridal couple.  Suddenly, he said, “You’re not on the beat!”

“What!!??

Huh!

 

What do you mean I’m not on the beat??!!  I am always on the beat!  It is my JOB to be on the beat.  No –it’s my life to be on the beat!!!!”

I really was kidding, but what he said was true – for him.  

He had been tapping out his own beat to the song – one that I didn’t at first hear.  But when I really concentrated on it – there it was.  I could see my husband had a point.

We all hear the rhythm in different ways.  We focus on separate threads in a piece of music and we choose which rhythm or melody we hear.

In life, we all have our own ways of being, our own ways of seeing people, relationships, and events.  We choose what part of each of these we pay attention to.  No one is wrong.

All these disparate harmonies and beats magically come together to make one beautiful song.  

All of us, despite our differences, somehow harmonize as our lives flow onward -- even if there is, inevitably, a jarring note or two….or three.

We hear our own drum, we dance to our own beat, and hopefully we can remember to appreciate the rhythms of others. 

It’s all part of the same symphony.