Jane was one of my elder dancers. She was about 80 when I was teaching her and she had more energy than ANYONE I knew. She was so IN LOVE with life, and she just DOVE into anything I asked them to do.
And she had the most expressive FEET.
As we age, things might start to feel differently. Things might start to make sounds, feel achey, not extend or stretch quite as far as they used to.
That only upsets us because of our expectations and because of the negative stories we then spin around what is simply…happening.
What if we flipped that?
What if we decided — as the original practitioners of Butoh did many years ago — that with age, our bodies become MORE — more full of story, MORE able to tell those stories, more honest, more expressive, more beautiful, more joyful?
What if we decided that the true dance didn’t — couldn’t — happen until we were well toward our 80s like Jane?