the cheer-leading universe (god, spirit, earth, ocean, life?)

dear toe-dipping dreamers,
this morning, a warning arrived: "What you don't know can hurt you!" the email went on to warn of "internet intrusions" and "hidden surveillance programs" that seemed to be lurking in some shadowy cyberzone, dangerously just outside my sphere of awareness. wow. talk about restimulating childhood fears of an unsafe world, waiting patiently, unstoppably, for me to drop my guard, anticipating the opportunity to nail my sorry, sweet, naive ass.
this is one way to consider, take in (or repel) the universe and how i am in it.
this week, as i continue to teach Tuesday in my dear teacher Zuza's absence, i am reminded of a deliriously different possibility she suggested some time ago: that the universe (god, spirit, earth, ocean, our life) is actually rooting for us, wishing the best for us, and always offering (however tragically veiled they may be) opportunities for us to express, exalt, shine and shimmer. and that our entering this field of work and play benefits not just our own souls, but is actually what serves all beings in this fractured world.
the chance to be and move and risk together is some of what i am so humbled to offer, this Tuesday in Berkeley, this Thursday in Oakland, this Saturday in Santa Rosa (see Events and Classes, top right of this page). come.

Desire and the End of Desire

dance dears,
i'm back from NCDC Dance Camp, having spent a long, luscious weekend teaching, eating marvelous food, engaging in worded and wordless conversations, gazing amazed at the Milky Way and the waxing moon, and dancing dancing dancing. in classes and, especially, in the nighttime boogies, i fell in love, in lust, aloud and in screaming silence. i felt myself melting, merging; exalting, expanding, extending. and comparing, vigilant and doubting. leaning into my desire, joyfully, mercifully. leaning out, over, down and crashing, sometimes, into that which i imagined would tell me, "i am enough. i am necessary. i am seen, felt, loved."
desire is the fuel to feeling, to creativity, to possibility; the leaning inward, the swirling of the nectar--my nectar-- in the mouth of the belly of my beast. in screaming silence and in "speaking out loud in the clear air." opening to desire, feeling, creation, possibility: first leaning in, then offering out. and being surprised.

Inside/Out: Travel the Soul Motion Landscapes This Saturday Morning in Berkeley

dear dance-casters of light and shadow,
do you give yourself away, when you step into the light?
do you stand in the shadows, because it's where you always stand?
do you find yourself inside the brilliant, shadowy, blinding calm of the solo dance, or do you hear your soul's sweet song most clearly when it's echoed back across the human canyons of one, two, twenty others?
let's explore all (or none) of these questions this Saturday morning, August 14, in the light-washed, bamboo-floored, open/protected Eighth Street Studio in Berkeley (Friday Dance Jam's Warm Room), 10am-noon, during Soul Motion: Spiral Odyssey.
after a luxuriously to-the-point warmup, we'll gather our attention together, and, supported by light, clear words and spacious music, travel through the Soul Motion landscapes of Dance Intimate (solo), Dance Communion (with one other), Dance Community (with more than one other) and Dance Infinite (with the One). spiral in; spiral out. bask in the fields of discovery, dialogue, discourse and devotion! all are welcome!

Dance in the Soft Light of Morning

dear friends known and soon-to-be known,
what if we were to consider each moment lush with the possibility of . . . we-don't-know-what?
what if we could return, again and again, to what's true for us, even as the exterior world spins off-kilter and there seems no ground on which to step that can hold us?
what if we could begin again, each morning, with curiosity and courage, supported by others, known and soon-to-be-known? and all that was asked of us was to be open, pay attention to what has meaning and heart, and to move with that?
come join me on the first Saturdays of June, July and August at the lovingly tended Movement Oasis in Santa Rosa from 10am-noon (see the sidebar, "Classes and Workshops," top right of this page), for Soul Motion™ Experience, a class inspired by the work of mentors Vinn Marti and Zuza Engler. and by you. and by me. and by all that moves through and around us.

Thursday 4/29: F R E E Soul Motion™ Experience 6:30pm, Rockridge

dear brave and curious travelers,
trees shake and bend, unbroken, as a spiraling late-season storm serves up an abundance of wind and rain from the south. asteroids approach and recede; planets rotate backwards on their axes. Arbor Day, Beltane, May Day beckon in riotous conspiracy, roses bloom, and Mother Earth--somehow, against all odds--holds it all, following Father Sun's slipstream at 9000 miles a minute. please join me this and every Thursday to celebrate gravity, momentum, stillness, together.

did i say this week's class is free, in observance of National Dance Week? oh, yes, i guess i did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Ocean Refuses No River
Soul Motion™-inspired movement practice
Thursdays 6:30 - 8:00pm
Jeffrey Bihr Studio
5390 Miles Avenue
Oakland 94618

dance the dance that you are, in this moment.
move with music, move in silence. alone, together.
listen, inside and out. exalt. dance.

i remain your host, Michael Z

Earth Day :: Dancing on Shared Skin

dear movers, shakers, rotating revolution-makers,
please join me this Thursday, from 6:30-8:00pm, in a special Earth Day exploration of our nature *as* nature, through the landscapes and points of view of Soul Motion. Surrender to gravity, even as we awaken and rise and dance on the earth's skin, alone/together, in consort with the Mother of us all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Ocean Refuses No River
Soul Motion™-inspired movement practice
Thursdays 6:30 - 8:00pm
Jeffrey Bihr Studio
5390 Miles Avenue
Oakland 94618

dance the dance that you are, in this moment.
move with music, move in silence. alone, together.
listen, inside and out. exalt. dance.

i remain your host, Michael Z

Soul Motion : : Momentum

dear spiral movers,
spring makes visible that which has been within ground and trunk and branch all winter: an undramatic but nevertheless potent deepening and extending of the roots of our matter.

how can we use our Soul Motion practice to encourage our above-ground growth -- the unfolding and flowering that is always available to us? if energy follows attention, can we enliven and extend our dance with soft, clear momentum, and cultivate the courage to share it with the world?

please join me this and every** Thursday as we listen, follow and flow.
**no class Thurs, 15 April.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Ocean Refuses No River
Soul Motion™-inspired movement
Thursdays 6:30 - 8:00pm
Jeffrey Bihr Studio
5390 Miles Avenue
Oakland 94618

dance the dance that you are, in this moment.
move with music, move in silence. alone, together.
listen, inside and out. exalt. dance.

i remain your host, Michael Z