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.
Beautiful, but stiffness is NOT the enemy. We NEED it. A certain amount. There is a middle way. I notice some yogi’s and yogini’s really overdo it. Stiff gets a bad rap. I aim to promote healthy stiffness.
Hi Jeffrey,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I’ve been on a solo writing retreat. I agree that being too stretched out is not a good thing for the body. I’ve seen dancers have tremendous and painful problems when they can’t tighten up the connective tissue and keep the vertebrae, knees and other spacial zones in the body in alignment.
Stiffness may not be the right term for the ideal interplay of dynamic tension and extension of the ligaments and muscles.
How do you know about this? I would like to dialog more about the topic and learn… Lisa
The style of writing is quite familiar to me. Have you written guest posts for other bloggers?
Hi,
Sorry for the delayed response–too busy dancing! No, I haven’t done any guests posts for other blogs. Out of curiosity, what is your remedy for heartburn?