Thank you for checking out our brand new blog! We're very excited to start this journey and share it with you as we move forward!
I want to share with you some of what inspired me personally to start this blog. There are so many reasons that I couldn't possibly begin to explain all at once, but I wanted to start by telling you one story...
Once upon a time in North Carolina, I studied contemporary dance at a conservatory. I had many incredibly inspiring teachers throughout the 4 years I was there. There was one teacher in particular, Sean, who, in his pursuit to push us further as dancers… as students… as artists… opened himself and us to an energy that was greater than all of us. It always began as a stream of….
More energy! Get lower to the ground! Jump higher, reach deeper and farther than you ever thought you could!
When it came to choreographing our own movement, he never hesitated to question us and our intentions….
Why are you doing this? What are you saying? Could you explore more? Could you look at it in a different way? Did you try it upside down? or backwards? Let go! Fall down! How do you know how far you can go until you push yourself to go there?
There was one class in particular he was teaching us on contact improvisation and partnering… and it was not going so well. Some of us were tired, some had already "checked out" for the day, or were just not that into it, but I remember what he said out of frustration so clearly…
Come on you guys! What are you doing? Dig in to it! I want you to really touch each other, I want you to lick the sweat from each others bodies!
He took one of my classmates, who was clearly one of the stronger men in the class, and began to demonstrate what he meant. This middle-aged teacher, a dad, unexpectedly (for us newbies at the time) threw himself as he danced! It was exciting, scary (we weren't sure if they would both get hurt… Sean even fell to the ground a few times! ) but ultimately it was beautiful. We were inspired by the freedom he embodied and possessed within himself.
This pursuit he was demonstrating, describing, constantly pushing us to discover throughout the entire 4 years I studied with him… was a raw-ness. Pushing us to go out of our comfort-zone, to honestly touch and feel… and to tap into the primal energy where our own creativity lives. It is infinite, and goes very deep… it is a life-long journey exploring all it has to offer.
One note he often liked to give my classmates and I was about being in-tune with the visceral connection to your body-mind. Allowing your instincts to lead you in the direction you need to go. In the context of dance, this is a liberating concept; to stop over-analyzing and allow your body and yourself to lead the way through your creative process.
I want to take this idea further. I think that we can approach any creative endeavor in any art form with this point of view, to allow trust to enter back into the process. Often, when entering into a process in this way, the pursuit can not help but become light, shining into something meaningful and exquisite. Fully realized, this concept can effect every aspect of our lives… body, mind, and soul.
This is what we want to share.
-Meghan
Visceral - adj Light - adj
intuitive understanding
innate illumination
instinctual radiance
intrinsic insight
spiritual illumination
emotional awareness
I want to share with you some of what inspired me personally to start this blog. There are so many reasons that I couldn't possibly begin to explain all at once, but I wanted to start by telling you one story...
Once upon a time in North Carolina, I studied contemporary dance at a conservatory. I had many incredibly inspiring teachers throughout the 4 years I was there. There was one teacher in particular, Sean, who, in his pursuit to push us further as dancers… as students… as artists… opened himself and us to an energy that was greater than all of us. It always began as a stream of….
More energy! Get lower to the ground! Jump higher, reach deeper and farther than you ever thought you could!
When it came to choreographing our own movement, he never hesitated to question us and our intentions….
Why are you doing this? What are you saying? Could you explore more? Could you look at it in a different way? Did you try it upside down? or backwards? Let go! Fall down! How do you know how far you can go until you push yourself to go there?
There was one class in particular he was teaching us on contact improvisation and partnering… and it was not going so well. Some of us were tired, some had already "checked out" for the day, or were just not that into it, but I remember what he said out of frustration so clearly…
Come on you guys! What are you doing? Dig in to it! I want you to really touch each other, I want you to lick the sweat from each others bodies!
He took one of my classmates, who was clearly one of the stronger men in the class, and began to demonstrate what he meant. This middle-aged teacher, a dad, unexpectedly (for us newbies at the time) threw himself as he danced! It was exciting, scary (we weren't sure if they would both get hurt… Sean even fell to the ground a few times! ) but ultimately it was beautiful. We were inspired by the freedom he embodied and possessed within himself.
This pursuit he was demonstrating, describing, constantly pushing us to discover throughout the entire 4 years I studied with him… was a raw-ness. Pushing us to go out of our comfort-zone, to honestly touch and feel… and to tap into the primal energy where our own creativity lives. It is infinite, and goes very deep… it is a life-long journey exploring all it has to offer.
One note he often liked to give my classmates and I was about being in-tune with the visceral connection to your body-mind. Allowing your instincts to lead you in the direction you need to go. In the context of dance, this is a liberating concept; to stop over-analyzing and allow your body and yourself to lead the way through your creative process.
I want to take this idea further. I think that we can approach any creative endeavor in any art form with this point of view, to allow trust to enter back into the process. Often, when entering into a process in this way, the pursuit can not help but become light, shining into something meaningful and exquisite. Fully realized, this concept can effect every aspect of our lives… body, mind, and soul.
This is what we want to share.
-Meghan
Visceral - adj Light - adj
intuitive understanding
innate illumination
instinctual radiance
intrinsic insight
spiritual illumination
emotional awareness
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