One of the things I love is structure–which is hilarious, since I am the Queen of Chaos (this mostly shows up in my everyday surroundings. Yes, I am a triple Virgo. Go figure). But I am pretty organized on the inside–and as an artist, composition, aka structure, brings freedom. This is why I am always…
It’s important for us to understand the meaning of lyrics in songs we dance on. It’s important to understand the cultural relevance of things like improvisation ad micromovement. Knowing these things makes our dance better, more nuanced, more authentic. It’s also important to understand the structure of our music–so we don’t get lost, so we…
One of the things I love about our dance is how adaptable and elastic it is. People throw the most amazingly odd things into it, and it just takes them in and makes them work (mostly, lol). It’s bizarre how free everyone feels doing this, too. Of course, some things work better than others, and…
There are a lot of ways to chart music. The most standard is proper written music with staff lines and notes. But most of us can’t sight-read music, and besides, as dancers, we don’t need to see the notes–we need the space to write what we’re going to do. There are many methods of doing…
Don’t like writing? Wish you did? Most teachers focus on spelling and grammar mistakes. Students get back papers full of red marks. It’s disheartening. Because of this legacy of shame, writing is difficult for many folks. Maybe for you, too? Imagine the fun of writing what you want to say–without the misery! But how? Cutting-edge…
Breath is pretty miraculous–it keeps us alive, for one. And it helps us thrive. A physical therapist was telling me about a mutual friend who was depressed, sitting home staring at the TV. She burst out, “The sympathetic nervous system runs down either side of the spine. You can google sympathetic chain,” she added. “You’ll…
I was going to share with you today the video I made for Eric Maisel’s Great Creativity Toolkit! This pretty amazing offering is made up of more than 50 video lessons from creativity coaches worldwide. Then I realized that my video was selected as one of the preview videos–so you can see the whole thing…
Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get out of bed in the morning. Worldwide conflagrations. Insane people doing insane things. Jaw-dropping lies being paraded around as truth. Pandemics. Violence. Hell. The suffering of the world has never been more raw and visceral. It’s a lot. Human beings are not built for long-term high…
I’ve been collecting all this cool stuff to help folks feel more grounded, to regulate the nervous system (so we can recover from the constant HIGH ALERT or Freeze states so many of us have been pushed into over the last—year? Decade? Lifetime? Generations? I’ve been developing windows into creativity and lowering my own bar,…
Bees pollinate flowers, right? So so some moths, and a few other insects. The flowers get to reproduce, and the bees get food. Symbiosis! Symbiosis is a process in which all parties to the arrangement benefit. Unlike its opposite, parasitism, in which one party benefits at the expense of another, symbiosis is the original win-win. …