http://joyinmotion.pmhclients.com/index.php en joy_in_motion3@yahoo.com Copyright 2011 2011-07-28T21:53:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/hidden_essence_is_your_dance_a_forgery/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/hidden_essence_is_your_dance_a_forgery/#When:21:53:00Z I love TED Talks; they have more awesome videos than I have time to watch! Yesterday I listened to Paul Bloom talk about how knowing the essence of something can make it more or less pleasurable. How could this not relate to dancing, and to our everyday lives? Here are some of the highlights of the talk (at least for me): First, a few sentences from Bloom that sum up his argument. As you read this, think about the hidden essences that you look and feel for when you’re dancing: “Humans are to some extent natural-born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don’t just respond to things as we see them or feel them or hear them. Rather our responses are conditioned by our beliefs about what they really are, where they came from, what they’re made of, what their hidden nature is. I want to suggest that this is true not just for how we think about things but how we react to things. So I want to suggest that pleasure is deep… Even the most seemingly simple pleasures are affected by our beliefs about their hidden essences.” I also love his thoughts about why the distinction between an original work of art and its forgery is (or should be) so important to us: Connection 2011-07-28T21:53:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/enduring_fascination_tango_and_chess/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/enduring_fascination_tango_and_chess/#When:22:03:00Z I just love pondering parallels between dance and other disciplines. Robert Grudin writes about this in The Grace of Great Things: Creativity and Innovation: Inspiration often expresses itself as a sudden connection or closed circuit between ideas that had never before been so connected. The mind is open to inspiration to the extent that it is open to such continuities, whether between details (as with the combination of words in a fresh poetic metaphor) or between larger subject areas (as with some new combination of materials in a manufacturing process). By extension, the sense of continuity can extend to dynamic relationships between whole disciplines or ways of thinking. In The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler names this process bisociation – the dynamic interaction between two normally distinct frames of reference. According to Koestler, all creative thought, from humor to philosophy and science, is bisociational, and creativity derives from a feeling for the implicit continuity of ideas. On a seemingly unrelated note, I recently revisited a video I first watched earlier this year of a very young girl dancing tango with her father. So precious. Actually, the original video of the performance they did was (sadly) removed from YouTube, but luckily I was able to find another video of them dancing at home that is also pretty sweet. Check it out: Connection, Quotes | Links | Videos 2011-07-27T22:03:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/the_difference_between_attraction_and_distraction/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/the_difference_between_attraction_and_distraction/#When:18:28:00Z What is it about someone’s dancing that makes us want to watch, and keep watching? Tango Beat’s post on April Fools’ Day brought me back to this question, which I think about often. Tango Beat wrote the following somewhat facetiously, but it echoes sentiments I’ve heard from many dancers. This was my realization: Why should I be so meek, dancing just for one person, the woman in front of me? In my dream I reasoned that if my partner were sitting at the tables, she too would be watching his awesomeness.  She would not notice me—the guy who was taking subtle steps and moving to nuances in the music. She would not see how I had connected directly to my tanguera’s heart and entire being. She would not see that I was dancing with my partner’s soul, led to move only by the music rather than showing off what I just learned from a stage star. I think it’s very common in the beginning to look at the biggest, the most obvious, the most dramatic. Unless we’ve had certain experiences in our lives that have made us sensitive to the nuances of movement, connection, and musicality, how do we know what to look for beyond what is most visually distracting? Connection 2011-07-21T18:28:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/happy_birthday_martha_graham/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/happy_birthday_martha_graham/#When:16:38:00Z I love what Google did in celebration of Martha Graham today – check out http://www.google.com today only to view it live, or check out the YouTube clip below. I also love The Story Behind the Graham Google Doodle that the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance posted on their website! I’m not sure how long this will be up for, so be sure to check it out today if you can. Also, here are two short quotes by Martha Graham (you can find a bunch more here): Dance is the hidden language of the soul. And I love this one: I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. Happy Birthday, Martha Graham! Quotes | Links | Videos 2011-05-11T16:38:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/ten_lessons_and_a_final_word_musicality_book_club_week_11/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/ten_lessons_and_a_final_word_musicality_book_club_week_11/#When:20:43:00Z We have finally arrived at the end of W.A. Mathieu’s book, Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World. What a journey! I really enjoyed taking my time to reflect on each chapter and sharing thoughts and experiences with many of you through the comments and by email. Even if you are joining us late, feel free to join in the discussion! The final chapter, Living the Waves, is pretty short and provides just some final parting thoughts, so I’d like to use this last post in our musicality book club to summarize my “take-aways” from this book before wrapping up with a final quote from Mathieu. These lessons are not necessarily new and not necessarily learned, but they are definitely the ones that most resonate with my own experience with dance and that I will continue to meditate on for quite a while. What truths do you keep returning to? Musicality Book Club 2011-05-10T20:43:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/unexpected_gifts_in_music_we_dont_like_musicality_book_club_week_10/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/unexpected_gifts_in_music_we_dont_like_musicality_book_club_week_10/#When:00:27:00Z A few days ago I read a guest article by Lindy hopper Coyle Parker on the Dance World Takeover blog. In it, he quotes an interview with teacher Dan Newsome, who lists “not connecting to the music” as one of the top three reasons dancers suffer from burnout (the other two are lack of helpful feedback to progress and unhappiness with their place in the community). There is sooo much in Chapter 9 of Bridge of Waves that relates to this and that I want to write more about, because they are things I have been reflecting on for quite some time, but for today I want stick to something short and simple. Experimenting with music outside my comfort zone has opened up whole new worlds to me, so I have always encouraged my friends and students to reconsider music they think they hate. There will always be music I don’t feel very connected to, but I prefer to think of it as music that I just haven’t gotten to know well enough – yet. It is natural to have tastes, preferences, and choices (and I definitely like mine!), but some of my most memorable dance/music experiences have happened because I opened myself up to something new and unexpected. Musicality Book Club 2011-05-04T00:27:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/still_empty_and_full_of_feeling_cadencia_musicality_book_club_week_9/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/still_empty_and_full_of_feeling_cadencia_musicality_book_club_week_9/#When:19:31:00Z Short intro, because it’s one of those days! We’re on Chapter 8, Music on the Zen Elevator in W.A. Mathieu’s Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World. I’m jumping straight to the sections that resonated with me the most this week: Our word passion derives from the Latin passio, which means exposed to suffering or strong emotion, that is, being acted upon by them, and relates to passive, meaning emptied out and acted upon. As the dance stills and empties, it is filled with feeling. My mantra for music making is “Listen actively, play passively.” Listening actively takes great effort, but you will then be filled. [pp. 189-190] And later in this chapter: Musicality Book Club 2011-04-27T19:31:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/the_positive_side_of_anticipation_play_humor_and_the_breaking_of_expectatio/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/the_positive_side_of_anticipation_play_humor_and_the_breaking_of_expectatio/#When:18:21:00Z We’re all taught that anticipation is a negative in the dance, especially when it comes to following. But once you have learned how not to, it can be fun (and funny) to consciously choose to anticipate. The other night I had a wonderful dance with a gentleman that was all about me anticipating, and enjoying the glorious feeling of jumping in and out of synchronicity with my partner. At times, we would be perfectly matched up in where we saw ourselves going. In other moments I would giggle at the difference in where our minds and bodies were moving and would find a creative way to jump back into his flow. I can’t remember the last time I felt so giddy in a dance. Playing with the natural expectations we form as movers, thinkers, and feelers is extraordinary, and I was lucky to be dancing with a partner who was able and willing (and skilled and flexible and fun enough) to play that game with me. Musicality, Creativity & Flow 2011-04-22T18:21:00-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/feel_out_feel_in_musicality_book_club_week_8/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/feel_out_feel_in_musicality_book_club_week_8/#When:23:45:01Z “We are the mirror, as well as the face in it… the sweet, cold water and the jar that pours.” – Rumi / Barks It’s finally spring in Alaska, so it seems fitting that this week’s chapter from Bridge of Waves - Music as Mirror - centers around the idea of music reflecting nature. The snowy white is melting, little by little revealing patches of green and blue, earth and water. We’re provided with only glimpses now, but in another month or so summer will be in full swing. Can hardly wait! But with this waiting comes reflection, both conscious and subconscious, about the significance of the passing of seasons and meandering of weather. Notice that these things have much to do with time, and so does music, so I am finding my thoughts about nature, humanity, music, and our inner worlds to be fluid and even interchangeable. Musicality Book Club 2011-04-19T23:45:01-09:00 http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/music_and_dance_as_social_ritual_and_personal_meditation_musicality_book_cl/ http://joy-in-motion.com/index.php/articles/music_and_dance_as_social_ritual_and_personal_meditation_musicality_book_cl/#When:23:45:00Z Last week was very relaxed, with just a few thoughts on goodness and how we judge it, particularly in the context of dancing with a partner (see The Complexity of Goodness: Musicality Book Club, Week 6). This week I felt much more intellectually engaged with Bridge of Waves. Chapter 6, Music as Story, delves into music as both a social ritual and a personal meditation. Let’s jump right in. Musicality Book Club 2011-04-12T23:45:00-09:00