Dancing overcomes addiction

I’ve always enjoyed life to the fullest. Climbing out on the farthest limbs of the tree when I was a child in my search for an expansive view beyond the suburban roof tops. Kayaking into the frothiest wave crests on a class-4 river when I was a whitewater kayak guide. Dancing for days past exhaustion during Carnival in Bahia, Brazil. Swimming in Amazonian waters where under the murky surface, piranha schooled. And drinking and being around people who drink. Usually, just fine wine but it has always been a part of my social scenario.

Journeying now into the depths of a serious yoga practice I’m encountering a vast horizon of potential to heighten my spiritual, mental and physical well-being. This invitation comes with an internal request, that I release myself from the habits and addictions that cloud and obscure my full potential. Wow!

I’ve enjoyed drinking wine all my life. At heart I’m European and nothing washes down a fabulously delicious meal better than a fine glass of vino tinto. I also come from a long line of alcoholics. And dancers, and partyers, and bon vivants.

So in dedication to the clarity that is beckoning me I’ve stopped drinking the vino. But it still calls to me. And what helps me go beyond the desire for a drink?

Dancing. One simple dance in the living room the other night showed me that the endorphins that dance releases in the brain will supersede the craving for alcohol.

I was semi-whining while I was cooking dinner that I really wanted a glass of wine. Jordan didn’t try to talk me out of it or expound on the reasons NOT to drink (he quit nine months ago). Instead he simply held out his hand and said, “Let’s dance.”

He led me into the living room where a Cuban salsa tune was spinning. We danced just one song. We laughed and twirled and studied the footwork.

He spun me back into the kitchen and I felt content, forgetting my need for the wine. I may be the first in my bloodline to not drink. To not hide under the cover of numbness. To feel fully who I am, unadulterated. It is scary and invigorating.

Praise the joy that dance releases!

Dancer: Heal Thyself

Marin Independent Journal feature about Lisa’s dance teaching:

Dancer, heal thyself
by
Christa Bigue

Teacher, writer, world traveler – Lisa Alpine wears many hats. But it’s really her role as dancer that provides the Mill Valley artist the most satisfaction.

“Dancing is No. 1 for me. I gear all my other passions around dance because dance gives me the greatest joy and expression. It’s my art form,” said Alpine, who’s taught dance as a healing art form for 17 years.

Her approach, known as Dance Weaver, combines storytelling, poetry, travel, sculpture, nature and dance into classes and workshops around the world and in her Mill Valley home studio.

Alpine’s next workshop, “Enhance Your Dance: Increasing Your Dance Skills,” on Nov. 8 is a full-day class for anyone who wants to experience the growth of their own artistic abilities.

“I guide students into deeper, stronger and more expressive ways to dance, which will enhance existing dance patterns and develop new skills and techniques,” Alpine said. “I hope students come away from any of my workshops with a sense of empowerment, confidence, familiarity and curiosity about their own artistic exploration and enthusiasm to continue their development,” she said.

Indeed, Alpine is known for her intuitive ability by opening up people through dance to their expressive nature. She wants her students to “wake up to new movement” and “develop the ability to unlock energy pathways and direct vitality to where your body needs attention,” she said.

The mainly self-taught artist has studied with Gabrielle Roth, Emilie Conrad and other master teachers/shamans but, there is no method to her free-form dance teaching. Alpine draws inspiration from African and Latin dance teachers and designs her workshops around “my curiosity, passion and experience,” she said.

“There is no end to the learning curve for myself or my students. I’m always weaving new themes and artistic aspects into workshops, so there is a constant sense of discovery.”

Students range from all ages and nationalities, but they do share one common trait: They want to explore their creativity through dancing.

Many of Alpine’s students are writers, grappling with a creative block, self-consciousness or a “stiffness of the mind and body,” said Alpine. “I show them how the two art forms benefit each other, how the dancing loosens the words and stimulates verbal descriptions and expressions to let the writing flow.”

Other students include people recovering from a physical injury or wanting to “integrate the left and right sides of the body and brain in movement, which increases balance and acceptance of who we are,” Alpine said.

Professional ballroom dancers also come to Alpine to “open up the flow a little bit more so they don’t’ look so trained,” she said. “They may be technically perfect, but ease, grace and flow means letting go and not controlling the movement so much.”

Rita Glassman of Sausalito, a cantor at a San Francisco synagogue, describes Alpine’s workshops as supportive, empowering and inspirational.

“She’s a highly intuitive teacher, who knows how to draw out the muse and the best in each person.” Glassman said. “Working with Lisa over the last 10 years, I have come to recognize that to dance or to write with awareness and the willingness to take a risk can often lead to a more fulfilling life, as well as a greater connectedness to oneself and others.”

It’s through dance that Alpine healed herself from dyslexia, bronchial illness and gallbladder ailments, as well as an unhappy marriage.

“Dance allowed me to travel through my emotional landscape without drowning in the fears and intensities,” Alpine said. “Suddenly the feelings I had avoided all my life were now fodder and fuel for creative development.”

As people found out what she was doing in the studio on her own, they asked if they could study with her.

Alpine’s love for dance began when she was a young girl, “secretly dancing wherever I could,” said Alpine, including living rooms and private studios and later as an adult throughout her travels in “far away taverns under Mediterranean stars and in holds of cattle boats in stormy seas off the Patagonian coast,” she said.

“I’ve danced in many strange places, but I never imagined having a gift to share.”

When her son Galen was born 25 years ago, Alpine took up writing and started The Fax, a Marin County community newspaper. Alpine’s book, “My Exotic Life: The Laughing River, Dancing Drums, and Tangled Hearts,” a collection of stories about dance as a healing art form, will be published this year.

Still, it’s dance that everything else in her life revolves around.

“I crave movement and have found dance to be very grounding and healing,” she said. “It is truly an expressive art form you create from your core. Dance releases a lot of material and gives expression to the abundance of who we are and who we aspire to become.”

Ecstatic Dance East Bay is FREE on 4/29/09!

The  Ecstatic Dance East Bay , on Wednesday evenings & Sunday mornings, started a year ago and is held at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland, CA . I  first heard about it at the ecstatic dance at Kalani Oceanside Resort on the east side of the Big Island. When I’m hiding out in my jungle retreat there, I go every Sunday morning to this one where there are more tattoos than clothing and some great dancers. The best part is the ocean shimmering across the  Red Road and the Tradewinds that cool me off after going on a lengthy, sweaty dance journey with the Big Island tribe. 

The  Ecstatic Dance East Bay is the sister of the one at Kalani, joined by dance rituals, trance djays, and an ever enlarging circle of dancers of all ages, shapes,  and sizes. 

This Wednesday evening, the East Bay dance is FREE! celebrating National Dance Week. One of my favorite yoga instructors, Eric Monkhouse, is spinning. He leads extremely inspiring yoga classes at YogaWorks in Mill Valley, CA.

Enhancing My Dance

Lisa dancing with Ken Martini in the heat of the Center Camp at Burning Man

Even though dance has been a focus for many years, I find a new and  deepening curiosity about what is feasible in my movements as I respond to the music or to the silence or to my rocky, chaotic thoughts.

Is it possible to develop stronger and more committed dance expression even as I head toward the 55 year old mark? Seems so. The more I dance, the better I get at it. 

I’ve upped the bar recently by taking yoga classes regularly. How can a dancer be so stiff? I’m finding muscle, ligament and pain barriers I did not know existed in my well-stretched body. Even my dream-world is waking up through the intense focus of deep yogic practice.

As my body opens –so does my mind and spirit. My dreamworld is getting populated by metaphorical travels into my psyche. The symbolism is striking. On reflecting on a dream that I had last night while in a back bend in yoga class, an inquiry bloomed in my  mind: Which reality do you want to dream? 

  How is this affecting my dance? My self expression is going in more exploratory and rooted movements. Strong yet searching. New horizons.        Greater joy and gratitude for this dancing life.

Take a Bath For Dancing’s Sake!

 

Strenuous dance and stretching can actually stiffen the muscles as they cool down and the lactic acid   accumulates in the muscle tissue. My solution is to take a warm Epsom Salt bath after I dance. A gallon of the salts costs under $5 (usually $3) and can be purchased at Wallgreens, Longs, Rite Aid, etc… Health food stores and supermarkets charge considerably more for the same product. 

Why do they work? Here is what I learned from the Epsom Salt Council website:

Epsom salts—made of the mineral magnesium sulfate—are also a sedative for the nervous system. When magnesium sulfate is absorbed through the skin, such as in a bath, it draws toxins from the body, sedates the nervous system, reduces swelling, relaxes muscles, is a natural emollient, exfoliator, and much more. Here are some of its beneficial uses:

Relaxing and sedative bath: Soak in warm water and 2 cups of epsom salt.

Face cleaner: To clean your face at night, mix a half-teaspoon of epsom salt with your regular cleansing cream. Just massage into skin and rinse with cold water.

Homemade skin mask: Apply the mask to damp skin. For normal to oily skin, mix 1 tablespoon of cognac, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of non-fat dry milk, the juice of 1 lemon, and a half-teaspoon of epsom salt. For normal to dry skin, mix 1/4 cup of grated carrot, 1 1/2 teaspoons of mayonnaise and a half-teaspoon of epsom salt.

Foot soak: Soothe aches, remove odors and soften rough skin with a foot soak. Add 1/2 cup of epsom salt to a large pan of warm water. Soak feet for as long as it feels right. Rinse and dry.

Skin exfoliator: Massage handfuls of epsom salt over your wet skin, starting with your feet and continuing up towards the face. Have a bath to rinse.

Hair volumizer: Combine equal parts of deep conditioner and epsom salt. Warm in a pan. Work the warm mixture through your hair and leave on for 20 minutes. Rinse.

Soak sprains and bruises: Epsom salt will reduce the swelling of sprains and bruises. Add 2 cups epsom salt to a warm bath, and soak.

Splinter remover: Soak in epsom salt, it will draw out the splinter.

You can add scents by mixing lavender, mint, rosemary or rose oil to the salts in the bath. Light a candle and you are ready to unwind and relax those muscles and joints so that they can dance on into the next decade!

 

Rodin Woke Me Up

     The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the body. The dancer will not belong to a nation but to all humanity. She will not dance in the form of nymph, fairy, nor coquette, but in the form of woman in her greatest and purest expression. She will realize the mission of woman’s body and the holiness of all its parts. She will dance the changing life of nature, showing how each part is transformed into the other. From all parts of her body shall shine radiant intelligence, bringing to the world the message of the thoughts and aspirations of thousands of women. She shall dance the freedom of woman… Isadora Duncan

Amen! I mean Awomen! Freedom through dance. Freedom to be strong and daring. To move in new ways, in authentic and original movement. Isadora Duncan (1877 – 1927)  lived this throughout her entire WILD 50 years on this planet.  To this day, 81 years after her sudden death by scarf strangulation in a sports car in Italy, her stories and dances continue to invoke the unfettered joy and expression of free-form dance. She is considered by many to be the mother of modern dance. There is even an Isadora Dance Company in New York that carries on the Isadora experience.

  I too, like Isadora, was born in San Francisco and moved to Paris at the age of 18.  And like her, I’m only interested in improvisational dance. She too believed that all life was a stage for spontaneous dance interaction. Paris is where I first uncovered my desire to experience a place through dance interpretation. 

It happened on a rainy winter day in the Musee Rodin. His marble humans were so lithe yet fleshy and passionate.  I wanted to get into and under their skin. To feel their exquisite  shapes in my body. Just appreciating the art form visually was not enough. I wanted the visceral connection to Rodin’s hands as he chiseled them into life. This desire emboldened me and on that  day in 1972, when I should have been attending art history classes at the Sorbonne, instead I stood in front of Fugit Amore at the Musee Rodin and found my body sliding and turning into the shape of that sculpture. Its beauty awoke a grace and commitment in me to  interact with art, architecture, nature and other beings, paying homage and also dialoging with these acts of passion through my dance movements. I continue to pay respect to art through my body.

Self-reflection is a desire felt by the body as well as the soul. As dancers, healers, and saints all know, when you turn your attention toward even the simplest physical process – breath, the small movements of the eyes, the turning of a foot in midair – what might have seemed dull matter suddenly awakens. – Susan Griffin, The Book Of Courtesans

Perhaps the tree roots I’m hiking over in Molokai with my dance students while we head to a cliff overlook to view lithesome humpback whales below, catch my eye. The worn buff-hued root ridges snake above the ground, beckoning me to disrobe and wind my body next to them in waves. The earth is prickly against my flesh yet I smell the tree’s skin and feel it’s journey across the dirt. 

Or is it the dozens of hanging winnowing baskets on display at the Institute For American Indian Arts in Santa Fe that cause me to pause and yearn to get acquainted? Their disk shapes suspended by fish line from the ceiling speak to me of circular movement. I start them spinning and then walk between them repeating their turning motion with my limbs and spine. Shadows dance on the walls. I feel an ancient native presence in the room as I activate each basket. The curator is fascinated and horrified at the same time as I move hypnotically among them. 

What about those steel girder and metal rivets in a sculpture known formally as a bridge near Sierra Hot Springs? My dance workshop students and I got out of the car in the middle of the bridge which was suspended over a dry arroyo in the California high desert. “Have your dance be influenced by the shape of this structure,” is all I gave them as an instruction. It is all art, all the time.

 In Paris, a few years ago, I was walking under the bronze night sky with members of my writing  group, the Wild Writing Women. We had given a reading at Shakespeare & Co. of our book, Wild  Writing Women: Stories of World Travel. Celebration was in order. Champagne, oysters, laughter. Gaiety followed us onto the night streets and parks of the City of Light. Like magic dragon fangs or Zeus’s thunderbolts, these gold sculptures arose from the ground skyward. I couldn’t resist, they were glowing divinely. I just had to experience them. 

I have named this spontaneous dance interaction Sculptural Movement. I invite you to practice it and become intimate with your surroundings. You are the art form in constant creation with all of life. Please don’t waste your short time on Earth caring what others may think when you decide to be affected and participate in your environment. Children do it all the time! 

I’m sure Isadora AND Rodin would applaud you.

Dancing Dreams

A dyslexic dance teacher? A free-form dance teacher? Are these oxymorons?

I’m both. Through no intention of my own. It started with a dream. A dream that gave me the blessings and encouragement to teach and share my passion of the healing journey dance had taken me on throughout my life to that point at 37 years old. 

A mother, a business woman, an unhappily married woman who had secretly danced all her life, mostly by herself. In private studios, living rooms, far away tavernas under Mediterranean stars, in holds of cattle boats in stormy seas off the Patagonian coast. I’ve danced in many strange places but until the dream, I never imagined having a gift to share. A reason to share. 

The book, Maps to Ecstasy by Gabrielle Roth, (order her books, DVDs & music here) led me to the 5 Rhythms dance community. I discovered I was not alone in my passion! There were other dancers out there who sought freedom in their dance self expression. Not imitation of steps and choreographed scenarios, but authentic movement that evolved from within. 

God, Sex and the Body was one of the many dance workshops I took with Gabrielle in my mid-thirties. My dyslexia was not an issue as I wasn’t following steps. This set me free. I could dance in a room full of others and connect or NOT…

I found my dance tribe and to this day I still attend the Sweat Your Prayers style weekly dance events around the globe. It has proliferated and there are ecstatic dance communities in almost every part of the world I travel through–Ashland, OR; Port Townsend, WA; Pahoa, HI….  And most of us have Gabrielle Roth to thank for spreading the word about dancing for dancing sake.

Back to the dream…

I continued my private dance exploration while studying over several years with Gabrielle. Tensions and constrictions in my body were breaking loose as I danced my emotions. The glacial blocks in my psyche were shifting and melting, sometimes it was painful internally, other times blissful. Dance allowed me to travel through my emotional landscape without drowning in the fears and intensities. I got curious instead of fearful when large waves took me into deeper waters of my past. What does this dance look like, feel like, where will it take me? The only way to find out was to let it flow through my dancing body. Fascinating! Suddenly the feelings I had avoided all my life, been trained to avoid, were now fodder and fuel for creative development.

No only did I get physically and emotional stronger, I had found my “church”, my place to dance my prayers, inside and out. Issues such as bronchial illness and gallbladder ailments disappeared. Even my dyslexia!

Back to the dream…

So I danced and danced for several years and then one night when I was 37 years old I had a dream that was not a dream. It was a message, an invitation. In the dream Gabrielle Roth swirled past me in a garden, dancing in great swoops and turns. She gestured with a long fingered hand for me to follow her. I danced behind her through the garden. People were everywhere and they parted as we past watching us dance. She entered a maze, a green boxwood hedge labyrinth. I danced after her on the gravel path around and around the spiral until we reached the center.

Gabrielle stopped and turned to me, inviting me with a smile and those long fingered hands to dance on her head. I rose above her and found my self dancing upside down with our crowns touching. She looked up at me and gave me a very encouraging grin and laughed. She supported my weight on her head as I spun and wove my arms like snakes in the air. I noticed that crowds of people, thousands, were surrounding the labyrinth. As they watched me dance, they clapped and cheered. 

I danced faster and faster. feeling lithe and free. Then Gabrielle who had been standing still as I danced upside down on her head, raised her arms in an invitation. I slide down and she embraced me. She pulled me close and kissed me on the lips. It was a seal of blessing and permission to teach. I was so surprised! Even in the dream I was surprised that I was meant to teach, Now! It had never crossed my mind to teach on my own. What would I teach?

The dream was real. I could not dispute its message and Gabrielle’s seal of approval to step up to the plate and share my dance knowledge with others. 

I started teaching the next day. By myself. That was 17 years ago. Since then I have taught many many classes and workshops. 

The message for you is, if your teacher blesses you to teach– do so–no matter how scary or how clueless you feel about what you have to give. You will be guided by the ones that have walked the path before you–seen and unseen.

Daylight Dancing

Dancing is usually considered an evening pastime. Bonfires and dance halls, night clubs and parties. Dancing in the dark is more mysterious. Inhibitions loosened by low light and exhibition fueled by alcohol. Boundaries are hazier. People less self conscious if they can’t be seen so easily as in the stark light of an early Sunday morning! 

This is one of my main times to dance on either Saturday or Sunday mornings at the local Sweat Your Prayers in Marin County. It is a peppy event with 50 -150 people attending weekly.  It takes me awhile to want to look at the other dancers–that bright morning light adds 10 years to most faces! All those lines and crags can be scary. It is intimidating to see folks in the harsh light of day waving their arms around in skimpy costumes and pogo sticking about to fast beats. Even the younger folk (under 30) look a bit shadowy at first. My mind makes horribly critical comments. A commentary that makes me chuckle internally but will not score me any good karma points. “There goes Jesus” or “Does anybody in this room have ANY sense of rhythm?” On and on the dialog unravels in my ego mind.

But before I scare you away from sweating your prayers in the morning with a bunch of other dance addicts, let it be known IT IS MY FAVORITE TIME TO DANCE! Despite what the exterior looks like. 

I’ve got lots of energy and because it is not a club scene, at all, I can stretch and do whatever my body feels like without a partner, whatever! We are all just there to dance. With eyes open, with eyes shut. Stretched out like a crawling crocodile on the floor or leaping about like Nureyev.

And the dance takes hold of me and eventually my mind gives up it’s need to control and isolate me from other humans. If the room isn’t too crowded, my creative edge really has a place to play as there are no steps to follow, just the inspiration of the moment. It is my time to explore my dance and feel the music wind through my tendons.

And there is nothing better than being soaking wet from dancing before 10 AM!

Tina Turner Still Has Legs

Do you remember when Tina Turner made a comeback in the 80s? MTV was the venue and her dress was short with beaded fringe ( I think?), her skin glowed and her legs were STUPENDOUS! She was almost 50 years old. Damn, she danced like she was possessed by the Goddess of Sexy Fire Tower Moves as she belted out I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. 

So. Years later, like last Saturday, some friends and I went to the new jazz club, Yoshi’s, in San Francisco. Pete Escoveda and his big band, including his daughter Sheila E, the symbol kicking sexy mama from Prince days, blasted out drum sizzling Latin riffs. It was hard to just sit there tapping toes and drumming fingers on the table top. We got up and danced even though no one else did. The band kept waving their hands upward in the inviting gesture, get off your butts! 

Jordan Scott and I spun and salsa-ed and shimmied and forgot that we were on our own isolated island of dance joy. Endorphins released and, boy, did we laugh and grin in between the spins. 

The show ended and we wandered with the crowds into the lobby. The hair was the first giveaway. The distinctive creamy mocha skin tone. Just to make sure, I stepped back and looked down. Sure enough, there were those chiseled legs in stylish high heels– the same shape as the MTV days. Tina Turner was in the audience and to my inner delight, I knew that she was probably getting an eye full of me on the dance floor at about the same age as she was when I’d watch her with admiration as she strutted about in those super short dresses belting out her song.

What’s the message for today — get up and dance! It is soul satisfaction on a big level. And ya never know who’s watching…

Hands Dancing Freely

There is a way to dance where the movement goes beyond the body. I use my hands to expand my range of movement beyond my physical perimeters. Having the movement continue out the finger tips, like invisible threads of expression, brings a core strength and passion that anchors me in the subtle yet strong unity of my creative movement. As if threads of movement snaking from my gut, up my torso, into my shoulders, winding their way through the elbow and wrist joints and unfurling through the fingers and out the tips are painting my dance on an airy canvas. This ability to see and feel the movement whoosh and weave from my feet or core and eventually travel out the fingers is quite engrossing. 

Try it! Connect your hands to your solar plexus and see viscus, stretchy threads unifying the two areas and no matter how far you reach and extend from your core with your hands (or feet), you are rooted in your self. 

I worked with a student yesterday on this focus. Her hands are her last frontier for free expression. They look stumpy when she dances, unlike the rest of her body that is fully engaged and visibly enlivened in the dance. I requested that she hyper focus the dance through her hands and since she is a singer too, to connect her hands with the vocal vibrations as she sang. Her hands came to life and appeared longer and finer and like butterflies instead of knotted, gnarled, angry disconnected stumps. Her hands turned crimson from the circulation and energy release. She confided that they had been aching for years and she had always hated their appearance. They manifested her controlled pain.

Let go Let go Let go. Fly and be fearless to reach beyond yourself!