Love will give you peace, happiness, creativity and serenity. Fear gives you anger, regret, jealousy, hate and resentment. It closes your door. Locks it up. Bolt after bolt, until there's no possible way you could ever get out. When people choose fear, they stay trapped and struggle to move past their locked door. Some try to dance in that tiny space. If you have the courage to choose love, you're free. Able to be unrestricted from yourself. You can do anything.
You have to make the choice.
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That is the gist of what our Caribbean teacher was telling us today. It has to start with the breath. Let the spirits move inside you - traveling to every part of your body. From there you can journey forward and become a different person.
I really enjoyed the class today. I think I might have benefited more from his words, than the movement itself. Which might have been his intention all along. He kept talking about how the movement has to come from within, and how it is important to follow what the gods tell you to do. He explained the history of the Caribbean dance and how it relates to the Vodun religion. One dance we did, Dambala is about the serpent spirit. Our hands are cupped and fingers are together to represent the snake. When our fingers are open, we are the spirit of waters. The actual movement was all about isolations and had a lot to do with waving of the arms (literally like an ocean wave). I'm sure my shoulders will be sore tomorrow.
I probably didn't explain the concept of Caribbean dance nearly as well as our teacher did. But hopefully you have somewhat of an idea. It was very insightful and thoroughly worthwhile. It was new and refreshing! I'll probably research more about the dance because I am very interested in why they move the way they do.
Another interesting comment that he made went something like this (in his adorable accent):
"I'm not a dancer. When people ask me what I do, I don't say dance. To be a dancer is to be restricted. It's more than that. I simply hear music and move the way the music tells me to. Whether the music tells me to do ballet, horton or jazz. If I knew what "dance" was, I'd be a millionaire. But I can't even say that word. I'm a Da-aa. Da-an. See it doesn't come out. Be more than a dancer."
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It's soooo hot in our apartment...
..as usual. And all I can think about is how much I want to go swimming. We tried keeping the windows closed today - since that's when it's seems to be the hottest. When we came back this afternoon, our first reaction was, "wow, I think it's actually a little cooler."
We are currently complaining about how hot it is in here.
I thought this picture was adorable. And I'm really jealous of her. I should just get off the couch and put my head in the freezer. Again. That's sort of like swimming I guess.
Tomorrow Alivia and I are taking a Horton master class at Ailey. Not until the afternoon though. So we'll be able to get some laundry done.
Hope all of you are having a lovely start to summer : )
Thanks for reading my blabble of a blog!
