I remember as a young dancer, having a little fright when I heard the word improv. After all the years of training with detail and precision foremost on my mind, I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around the idea of letting go in movement. To my eventual surprise I would find much joy and pleasure in trusting my body to move without the engagement of my mind. Being a very disciplined person it was interesting that I was able to trust the process and relinquish my control. The freedom to express and let impulse carry and move me, was pure delight.
Years later in my mid 20s, I deepened this improvisational dancing experience with daily morning classes of Contact Dance @edamdance and late night dance parties. So much so that I eventually started going out every evening by myself, just to dance. Now this is by no means a story held just for me. Dance has been a release for many cultures throughout the ages. But what I loved about my Contact Improv Dance classes was to learn the structure and skills to be able to stabilize and find strength within the framework of the beautiful spontaneous movements as it emerged in each moment. I see this as a metaphor for life. That we must build up our knowledge, wisdom and strength and use it as we flow on the wave of life, which is ultimately our dance. We reach an age where we realize that it’s impossible to control life. But we don’t just let go and let that wave pommel us. We learn and take the wisdom to make choices into which angle we will lean into this wave with the precise perfect amount. We flow with the wave because we know we have no other choice but the beauty and grace within that dance is up to us.
My Qigong teachers teach me, flexible body, flexible mind. Now this isn’t always the case 100%, but I’ve often found that there is a correlation between rigidity in the body and rigidity in the mind. Through my life and career with the body I’ve created a framework through the exploration of movement patterns that I can now lean on when I’m in motion, dancing or expressing. My movement vocabulary is expanded, so at a certain point I can just let go and trust my body and also the flow of spirit that wants to move through me.
I truly feel that the ability to find freedom in movement has also gifted me with a carry through into life. Like the same energetic feeling of letting go in movement I can carry forth into my approach and awareness in my mind and in life. On some level they are one in the same. Like riding that wave of the dance of life.
Dance like all arts seems to me a pure feminine aspect. Through these arts we learn the power of the non-doing and surrender to pure impulse. So how can we learn to dance, improv and let go into life? Perhaps it’s as simple as starting with your breath and the natural impulse to move. Put on some music that inspires and let go. No one is watching, no is one judging. Perhaps yourself, but let that go… Just feel spirit and the flow move through you. You’re not choreographing or making a dance. This is improvisation which is essentially life.
We were all born to move. I truly believe that to heal the body we need to be able to feel into the body. Notice the blocked places in your body. Breathe into it and gently move without the mind and see if the stagnation can move through you. Release into Mother Earth. Feel and let those emotions fly. Let this dance heal you. Find the inherent pleasure that is truly yours and your birthright.