RAW "Notes from Unexpected Lessons"

I'm stopping in the middle of my rehearsal process to write this.

Normally, this might have been a journal post. Part of this process is sharing the depth and the strength and the power of this thing we call dance. So, this post is raw. Real. Completely unfiltered. Present.

Notes from Unexpected Lessons is.......

just that. It's a piece created for eight very beautiful people. With material from them... well, from my memories and thoughts and feelings surrounding them. The piece could turn into a 90 minute dance, assuming a structure of 10 minutes for each individual and a short introduction and conclusion... but for now, it's a five and a half minute solo and I'm having enough emotional uprisings with that.

The piece is a whole, but in my creation, there are vignettes. The viewer might not see these and that's okay. They may just see an abstract, interesting dance. Cool.

But the individual pieces are about individual people. So, with the slightly broken, jagged movement and syncopation, I'm calling on Sean. The intra-verted, caved movements that explode into (what I perceived as non-judgmental love) are Kristine. The opening and closing, the encasing and embracing, Pickles. The sharp, precise, carefully placed strikes and  (insert a very pointed movement here as I try to describe in words) pauses, but more than pauses... places to think for a moment... these are Becca. Tom is wind-ey - not wind like the breeze, but twisty, like DNA. Explosive. Compacted. Reaching. Insert a deep sigh, grace, softness... this is Natalie. Circles, directional changes, jumps, this is the complex Rachel. Stillness, volcanic quietness, rippling explosion, deep-seeded understanding and grounding of self... this is Ashley.

(of course, not in that order in my heart or in the piece...)

And yet they are each in the others.

They are all in this dance.

As I rehearse, they come back to me. The piece created over a month ago.. I am afraid to revisit. Them. Us. The work that we did and created. The journeys that we all, individually continue and the power that is created through these adventures.

My heart cries and smiles as I remember each of them and I am strengthened. I remember that this wonderful gift of the dance is not just mine. It is not just me. It is ours. And it is a wonderful way to share the joy of the human experience.

With that. I return to rehearsal. See you on the stage.