From pre-Craig in my Girl on Fire Movement Studio, Erie, PA
There has been so much change over the last six years that I don’t think I could list it all. It started with meeting Craig and then from there it has been this wild roller coaster ride from moving to Vermont to moving back to Erie to experiencing some really painful things to moving to Columbus and then buying a new house and then losing my sweet Peony most recently.
That doesn’t even really begin to cover it, and in the meantime, I lost my daily dance practice. ME. The teacher of daily dance.
For about 8 years, between teaching and then doing my own practice, I was dancing anywhere from 2 to 6 hours a day. You read that right. It typically was around 3 but it could easily be in that 2 to 6 range depending on the day.
Let’s back up even more…
About 13 years ago ((!!!)), when I first started to dance again, just putting on my favorite music and moving was enough. There was so much joy in my body that was aching to be expressed and I had been away from dance due to that shitty chronic depression for so long that it took very little to get me going again.
Then I started to train and I realized I was really missing moving with other humans so then just being with other humans in a class was enough to get me going.
Over time and through working with so many different populations (from traumatized children to people living with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and everyone in between), through all my studies in somatic psychologies and different movement modalities, I’ve composted and then synthesized and recreated and grown new ways of working with people to process trauma and grief and move into their joybodies.
This has evolved into the newly named, Peony Method.
After Peony died, I knew it was more important than ever to get my personal dance practice back. I’d been trying for a couple of years but it wasn’t clicking.
Then I had a big AH-HA moment… just the other day…
I’ve been just putting on good or interesting music and then expecting myself to, well, move.
And I get bored or distracted or just feel lethargic and apathetic.
But not when I teach. When I teach, I also move. And I never have a hard time getting going or staying moving.
Why?
BECAUSE I’M FOLLOWING MY OWN DAMN PROMPTS.
Which are GOOD and serve a damn purpose! (I’m yelling at myself there and laughing at myself at the same time.)
Telling people to “just dance” isn’t the answer.
People are stuck. They feel numb. They’re tired. They’re sad. They’re disconnected. I include myself there.
They’ve lost any understanding of really being EMBODIED, of being able to find PLAY.
It’s the whole freaking reason I have designed the work I have.
Now my dance practice will move forward because I’ll TEACH MYSELF. I’ll use my prompts.
This will lead, of course, to learning new ways to teach and prompt because I won’t feel stuck, numb, lethargic, or disconnected.
Instead, I’ll feel interested, curious, fascinated, playful.
Duh.
And OY.