• {Video} Ecstatic Flow Session- Lab for Technique andTrauma Release

    This was about 2am, but the end clip was another day and I actually have a toddler on my legs that you can’t see. When I am experiencing grief I just let myself dance. Editing is also a play space for me. Recently I have enjoyed exploring pop and lock techniques, but I can’t help but just wave around when the music tells me to. I don’t have music rights, just to my movement. “Arc” by Yoste #enjoy #contemporarydance #improv #traumarelease #healing #movement #ecstaticdance #train #flow #mom #professionaldancelife #likeitsyourlast #moments #freedom #chooselife 

  • A New Year… With New Focus

    I’m fairly certain that even people who say, I don’t believe in New Year’s #resolutions,” are prone to making them in January just like everyone else. It’s hard to avoid honestly. Even if you follow the Hebrew calendar, you still see “2019” everywhere you look. Each year I make different goals, but I thought I would share the ones I am sitting on for this trip around with more of an audience. You know, my own self vs. all of you, probably ought to keep me more on track than going at it alone! Feel free to hold me accountable to the things I’m about to list ;P 1.) Enjoy more…

  • Time Keeps On Slippin’

    Days roll by right now at such a pace I almost feel as though I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be in my 80’s. The really scary part is that everyone tells you the older you get the faster it all goes.. I can’t even imagine a speed increase. We have lived in Hawaii over a year now and I still feel as though we arrived yesterday. There is a strange elongation of time that occurs when I reflect on all we have done since we moved… from friends and family made and visiting, to new jobs, housing, and adventures. Our tiny baby is now walking and has begun…

  • One Maze To Rule Them All

    Fall traditions range far and wide in a chilly place like Montana, but none are so puzzling to me as the teenagers (and adults for that matter) who refuse to wear a coat while trudging through the snow at a straw bale maze. Don’t misunderstand me, I LOVE the maze, so much so that we returned from Hawaii for the entire month of October to visit our family and work at the Bozeman Maze (yes, we are working while on “vacation”) and this year has been one of the most impressive yet. (I just face the cold in honesty and wear a coat when required.) The shape for 2018 is a…

  • Living Outside- With CHILDREN

    As the title of this post suggests, we have just had an experience living outside with our children. Now, I know what you’re thinking- they live in Hawaii, so it can’t be that bad. You would be right in some respects, but there have been some rather in’tents’ moments…   Both kids have had the 24hr stomach flu that just made its way through many of my students. Nothing like a 2AM projectile vomit session with a toddler, followed by practically water boarding him via cold bottles of water (amidst his screams at the top of his lungs), to start things off just right. Had that been the end we…

  • Students… and their ability to Inspire

    I know it’s MY job as the teacher to captivate and drive, but I’m just always taken aback that the tables turn almost daily, and I find myself in awe of my dancers’ beauty- inside and out.   This week I had a fun exercise for my advanced class… to have them each choreograph a combo for the ballet barre ( I taught center) and experiment with that feeling of educating and guiding your peers. They did very well, some better than others, but I had a few students who were there that day and not the day before when I assigned the combinations. I gave one of the previously…

  • Reflections on Character Development- On and Off Stage

    To take the purest piece of yourself- to embrace naked vulnerability- and lay it before the judgement of other humans…. this is what it takes to perform on a level considered “free.” No one is drawn to the insincerity of a dancer performing from a false place. That being said, you do not always perform roles that are your truest “self,” but you CAN dig deeply enough to find the shared traits of humanity and manifest the character from there. A simple exercise to enable relation between yourself, and all others, is to break actions down to their root. You may not feel you have anything in common with Hitler-…

  • RDE Open Studio Show- Raw footage

    It is very difficult to allow the perfectionism in me to die for a moment, so that in its place great beauty might flourish in its rawest form. When the RDE company offered the opportunity to teach 4 choreographic installments over 1 month, and then to perform said pieces for an un-rehearsed showcase at the end of the month– Well, I was terrified, but inspired by the magnitude of the challenge. It is also rare that I am able to perform in pieces that I choreograph, as the rehearsal process often requires the choreographer to not actually be part of what is being created. The video at the bottom of…

  • Anxiety and Destiny

    It’s terribly difficult sometimes to overcome the anxiety induced when given a critique by a co-worker of seniority, with their smile intact, knowing the fullness of frustration will be brought to light at a later date. Waiting to find out just how much you’ve offended another person- seemingly simply by existing- can feel almost as though you’ve swallowed an entire bottle of vinegar in one go. The diplomacy of, “we can discuss that more later… have a great day!” coupled with the shifting gaze of a more informed onlooker, can only mean certain doom in the long run, or at least that’s how it feels in the moment. I’m not sure…