Capitol Hill Neighborhood, Eastern Market, House Office Buildings, US Botanical Garden, Barbara Kruger at the Hirshhorn, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington Monument, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (Sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt), Vietnam Memorial, Street Art on George Washington University Campus, and various points in between.
When I enter into a contact improv jam, I make a commitment. I commit to paying attention with all of my being, to myself, to my partner or partners of the moment, to all the others in the room, and to a spatial, energetic, and creative attention to the dance itself and for the dancers as community and co-creators of the dance (and sometimes for the observers, too).
I think this is not unlike the commitment of the tantric yoga practitioner who ideally engages all of life with a simultaneous attention to the inner and the outer, to the dance between the self and all that to which ones self comes into relationship and to the dance of relationship.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Would that every last one of us could earn this accolade. It takes remembering, though, how wild and precious is life. I forget some times, and one of the blessings of yoga for me is that it reminds me of just that aspect of being.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I say without hesitation that Ravi Shankar is one of the influences that led me to the deep practices of yoga. When I was first exposed to it through the Beatles in my early childhood, the music appealed to me at a visceral level. Throughout my late childhood and teens, I loved to dance or allow myself to go into a trance state listening to Indian music. On reading of his leaving this body, I take a moment to honor Ravi Shankar.
The teachings can be found almost everywhere–as long as we are open to receiving them.
If you can find it within you to love what you must do, it is far easier to do what you love.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Um, seva…
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Dear Friends,
If your inbox and your schedule has been anything like mine, you don’t need another email to read during this busy season, so I’m keeping it short.
Last gentle/therapeutic class of this session at Willow Street is Friday, December 14th. Make-ups and drop-ins, friends and family, warmly welcomed. We’ll do some strengthening and stretching and then stretch out into a series of restorative poses to honor the Willow Street tradition and to get ready for the holidays.
No William Penn House classes on either Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. Classes run through December 18th and start again on January 8th. As always, please don’t let means keep you away. The already favorable pricing for the class, with a portion of the proceeds from each student going to benefit the work of William Penn House, is just a suggested amount. The more the merrier.
Classes start again with me at all locations Wednesday, January 2nd. I’ll be offering the Friday night gentle/therapeutics again at Willow Street. First class of the year is January 4th as part of Willow Street’s new $5 preview class week. To buy your $5 passes on-line and to check out the whole preview week schedule, please visit the Willow Street website. Registration for the Winter/Spring session is now open for the Friday night class; the first night of the Winter/Spring session is January 11th.
Wishing you the best of holidays–may they be full of both joyous connection and sweet time for yourself. I look forward to seeing many of you in the New Year. If the outrageous pulsation and dance of being–whether challenging or fulfilling or both–is keeping you from class, do send me a line and be in touch.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
The dance of yoga is about motion in stillness and stillness in motion, and in not letting oneself be frozen. Stillness is the space between vibrations, instead of the shutting down or closing off vibration. To experience the space between the vibrations (spanda) when changing shapes (poses; going from one thing to the next), one must emerge into the shape and disssolve out of it, with the expanding delight of the coming and going more important than achieving some precise, required shape to demonstrate self-control and mastery (not unlike the teaching in the Siva Sutra that knowledge both binds and liberates).
