Virtual is Not Virtual

Maybe it’s because I was an early-ish adopter to this online teaching thing, trying to teach movement via streaming years ago when it truly sucked and then figuring out ways to do it regardless of the technology and then growing my ways as the technology grew and continues to grow.

But I’m seeing a lot of people feeling overwhelmed by suddenly being thrown into this medium and I’m grateful not to be needing to learn all of this at light speed.

I’m also seeing a lot of people who are new to the medium demeaning it. Stop.

The tech is only as good as the user so if you’re not getting much out of it, well, fill in the rest of this sentence.

As one of my long time movement students pointed out, because we are human our use of the technology still retains a sensuality — it’s just a new sort of sensuality that we have to explore and learn about.

Virtual classes... there's really nothing "virtual" about them. They're still powerful; they're still connecting spaces. There is embodiment even in this. There is sensual experience even in this. There is curiosity and growth and beauty.

And just this past week, I even had people working in pairs and you know what? It was just as beautiful and meaningful as ever.

My YouTube Channel is Expanding

I share a lot of videos in the Embodiment Sanctuary, my private Facebook group (which you can ask me to add you to), and sometimes it can feel overwhelming, right? I mean, even a GOOD video takes TIME to watch.

One of the #Treesters in that group pointed this out to me and I realized I already had a way to make this easier on all of us. I’ll still post those things in the sanctuary, of course, because it creates amazing conversations, but I’ll also be using my YouTube channel to keep them all in one place for your ease.

Subscribe to my channel but also go over there and check out the playlists.

Besides curating playlists of interesting/enlightening/helpful/amazing stuff, I also create original content, and I’ll be doing way more of that over this coming year. If you have topics you’d like me to cover, let me know here or over on Facebook or by sending me an email.

This Time is What You Practice For

Now we cannot distract ourselves and it might be proving difficult. But this is an opportunity to notice your pain, your grief, your challenges... all the things that have been asking for your attention but have been easier to ignore until this.

This is the practice. This is what we do every time we stand vulnerable to a piece of music or to the silence and we breathe and we wait. We wait for the body to speak; we wait for a truthful expression; we wait for the uncomfortable impulse and then we follow it, with fascination, to see where it might lead us.

It will always be to somewhere more interesting than where comfort takes us. Always.

Revolution through Body and Movement Subversion

From a remarkable student who understands this work so deeply, Donatella, speaking to me in a note and shared with her permission:

“What you do (movement art for the purpose of returning to the roots of movement as instinctive ritual, emotional catharsis, self exploration, physical improvements to biomechanical issues, and trauma bodily effects) is a complete subversion of the institutions and cultural ideas of “dance.” Especially considering your body and age inclusivity. By your nature, you are not a dancer; you are a movement artist, subverting everything wrong with the current culture around dance and women’s bodies. Your practices don’t damage the body, rather your practices heal the body. You teach the core essence of “dance” forms such as Butoh, Modern, etc., yet you don’t instruct people on rigid techniques and leave them to try to fit inside that. You don’t impose a body standard or an “ideal.” You don’t police the body of your artists. You embrace them and teach them that every single body is built to move and feel joy. You don’t kick people out after an imaginary age where they’re considered no longer palatable. You fight to keep people moving their whole damn lives so they can be in their bodies, experiencing physical life to the very end. You subvert everything about most of the things you were ever taught as a dancer, because fuck that.”

Reading that… it’s everything in my heart about this work and said in ways that I would never have been able to say it.

When I say this work is revolution, I am not speaking in hyperbole.

Daring to love ourselves just as we are? Daring to show ourselves when the culture says only certain types should be seen? Daring to take up all the damn space? Daring to do all of this in a community of women who only hold one another up, never acting toward one another in the ways we are taught from grade school?

When we dare in these ways, we come to know our full power.

And that scares the shit out of “them.”

12 Years Ago You Would Not Have Known Me

In this photo, I think I am happy. I have just finished my Yoga Dance teacher training with the amazing Megha at Kripalu. My life felt like it finally had some meaning and purpose. I was starting to feel more like myself than I had in…forever.

And YET.

I look at this photo now and it makes me sad. I can see that it is me but it does not look like me, if that makes sense. There is something off about the eyes in particular. I think I look older in this photo from 11 years ago than I do now, as I approach 51 in mere weeks.

11 years ago, I was starting on this path that has led me to creating Bodypoetics, but oh, my, the distances I have had to cover before I got here.

The distances I had already covered before heading to Kripalu…

12 years ago, you would not have known me.

My body was much bigger, but that is just the outside, which for me is very much about the insides but that’s another post.

My eyes were empty, from over a decade of serious depression, and from living a lie of a life in every way.

My body was always and forever carrying some sort of pain — back, hips, migrained brain, and on and on with one chronic issue after another.

And oh, my, MY MIND.

I had been convinced that I did not like people, that I hated people.

I had been convinced that I did not ever want to be touched or hugged by anyone. BY ANYONE.

I had been convinced that my fears prevented me from pursuing good work or even leaving the house.

I had been convinced that I had this mental illness, then this one, then this one, then this one…all to keep me obsessed and paralyzed.

I had been convinced that getting professional help was a waste of time and wouldn’t help anyway. That pills were bad. That therapy was dumb.

These beliefs came to me from another human who counted on me staying down.

But there was plenty of inner shit to work with that I had been carrying since I was about 9.

I was already convinced that I was worthless.

I was already convinced that I had nothing of value to offer others.

I was already convinced that life was a burden, as was I to anyone.

12 years ago you would not have known me.

And then, long story short, a dear friend died and I attended the wedding of another and I started to dance and eventually met Megha, and well, the rest is (recent) history.

I do not know what compelled me to dance at that wedding.

I do not know what compelled me to go to Kripalu, and in so doing, face about 100 of my greatest fears.

12 years ago you would not have known me but that’s because I did not even know myself.

Somehow I am still alive.

Somehow I am getting real help and am surrounded by well meaning people who only want the best for me… finally.

Somehow, every day, I get up and believe in my vision of me just enough more than I believe in that old version of me. Just enough to keep me going, to keep me trying and hoping.

Functional Animal Movement to Enhance Your Yoga, Movement Practices, & LIFE

$30 (limited space)
CLICK HERE to register

Open to ALL BODIES, ALL LEVELS, ALL GENDERS.

Whether you're just starting to explore movement modalities or consider yourself a seasoned yogi or a veteran athlete, this stuff will challenge you to move outside the box and into a better understanding of your body and its true abilities.

Come and surprise yourself!

We'll cover the following and then some:

Better breathing for all types of movement -- and even just for living.

Moving on and through different planes.

Transitioning more smoothly in your movements whether that be yoga, dance, walking, or lifting weights.

The biomechanics of better movement, including moving in awkward and misaligned ways ON PURPOSE.

Aging gracefully by not committing so many common user errors with your beautiful body.

Aging powerfully by learning basic, fundamental movement that will protect you from much of what we consider the "negatives of aging."

A Glimpse into My One on One Work and What It's All REALLY About

I work with people one on one, and with every person, this will look very different, of course but eventually it all comes down to similar issues.

People will come to me wanting to work on flexibility or they want to get stronger. They often start by coming to me with what they perceive to be a physical issue.

But eventually and inevitably, we get to the real issue.

Chronic physical issues (as opposed to illnesses) always have a basis in your emotional or spiritual life.

The body is simply telling the truth about your pain or what you need before you yourself are ready to articulate it.

Some of my students though know this from the start and come to me immediately with requests like Chris, for example.

She’s working through a lot of layers of grief, and even though she takes weekly classes with me, she knows that on occasion she needs more intense and focused help. So right now, we’re doing a series of one on ones focusing on exactly HER.

This is how we started last week — with what I simply call folding and unfolding. It’s a way to very easily drop into the body without feeling like you’re trying to make the body “perform” in any way.

Unpacking the word "embodiment"

New studio means new logo and wow… this one is PACKED. It feels just right to me… on the deepest levels.

Each and every single word and bit of this logo has meaning that is like a little Russian doll... it can be opened and there's more and then opened and there's more...

Let's look at the word "embodiment," which is getting kinda popular lately but which has always been a word I use to describe what I do.

I mean it way beyond "the body in which you experience this life."

There's the physical body, for sure, and then the emotional, mental, spiritual, and energy. All of those things are Russian dolls in and of themselves.

But I still mean MORE...

I mean the body of the community.

The communal body is really the whole entire point of the work on the individual body.

We work on the micro to affect the macro.

We are all truly one and each part being most fulfilled, functioning most effectively, and experiencing its true self is important to the integrity of the whole.

FINALLY... but not really...

I also mean the body of your life.

What you do and make in this world. How you walk in and take up space. The voice that comes from your heart.

If you're not embodied in the first way, you'll never be embodied this way.

So join us for far more than postures and mechanics. We've got that part nailed down, for sure, with our combined experiences of well over 40 years.

But the ritual and the sacred and the transformative aspects of this work? That's where we ROCK.