gonna do what I’m gonna do…
Holding dance space in tumultuous times is a sensitive endeavor. A couple weeks ago I taught using current reality as metaphor for personal exploration. Half way through, between the two waves, I brought our communal attention to the fact that there are big personalities on our world stage right now. And the roots of those big personalities harken back many decades.
We all have unique stories that created the person the world experiences as you. This invitation was to go inside and feel the stories that live in our bodies. The issues in our tissues, as Ida Rolf said. Listen to old tales stored in our hearts. Be mindful of the ways we get caught in the nearly constant thought stream.
Dig down and be curious about what might be stored underneath our faces and postures and habits formed early in life. The obvious foreground is incredibly noisy right now. We can take some gentle respite in the background. Which is always underneath the noise, beneath the stories, ever patiently waiting.
I taught this same class in three different venues. At one venue an entire cohort of folks decided the invitation was way too political and left the dance space to complain to each other out in the lobby. Mostly I heard about it later. I guess it did not occur to their triggered sensibility to stay on the dance floor and work with what was arising.
At another venue the closing circle was lively, appreciative and full of personal insight. At the third venue a lone dancer approached me at the end of the set. She informed me that it had taken her the entire first wave to become present, to finally divorce herself from current events. To her dismay, my invitation brought her right back to her original despairing place. She was firmly polite but felt that I was in error.
This week, again at two different venues, I crafted a middle ground: a grounding practice---belly to feet, breath to earth, softening to gravity. I did not expressly mention why that might be useful in these insane times. See what I mean? Tricky. This work is the form my activism takes. I hold a safe and solid container for participants to feel what is arising. Turn their suffering into art. Turn their art into awareness. Turn that awareness into action.
And there are participants that a) want their dance floor to be an utter sanctuary where they can escape reality’s woes OR b) are so sensitive about their personal political stance that anything that smacks of opinionated raises their hackles. I learned long ago that I cannot please everybody. All I can do is show up time and again and be my authentic self and offer up what is most burning inside me. Doing this has been a bit more challenging of late.
But I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. Thanks for listening.
❤️Bella