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Photo of me by Virginia Harold in Circus Flora’s 2012 Production of Tír Na NÓg.
Years ago my mom gave me the book Acrobats and the Gods: Dance and Transformation by Joan Dexter Blackmer. When I am next with her I will make sure to get the back story of how she came into knowing of this slim but extraordinary book.
Blackmer writes:
« It is the tension between a myriad of opposites which creates both the dance and the dancer, Dancing springs into life because of the interplay of many opposing forces - within the body itself, between the body and psyche of the dancer, and between the dancer, the audience and the surrounding forces of time and space.
First and foremost we encounter the opposites of the profane and the sacred. Anyone who enters the realm of danced theater enters even now, when dance seems so secular, a sacred realm. Behind the effort needed to become a dancer, as I see it, lies a deep urge to be allowed into sacred time and space, to open the earthly body and what it can communicate to an other-worldly energy. »
I experience this sacred feeling every time I dance. It starts with my intention to sacralize the moment, connect with my breath and the intent of why I am dancing: to create a portal of time out of time. To celebrate a community gathering. To bring strangers together in a sense of oneness. To honor the human form as divine creator, hollow bone & shapeshifter. To enjoy myself and surrender to the flow of breath, music, meaningful movement. To create unspoken ritual. To connect us all to mystery and inspire the pulse of blood and longings of the soul.
It is always interesting to see how the energy will manifest even when I have been in the most « mundane » of contexts (of course nothing is purely mundane, but wondrous opportunities for spirits to rise): a house party, a retirement home, a Greek restaurant in a strip mall.
My favorite compliment has been when someone in the audience later tells me « When I watched you, I felt like it was me who was dancing. » And I will never forget the joyful tears in the twinkling blue eyes of the man with advanced stage of cancer whose family had hired me for his 75th birthday party. Before he transitioned, he wrote me a letter of appreciation that I cherish. I will never forget him.
www.speakeasyreiki.com
www.moodystreetcircus.com
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