The Pause::Class Break Until Sept 2

dear daring dance dippers, darling dreamers,
as this series of summer classes in settings new and known comes to a pause, i am grateful to those that provided opportunities for practice, presence and moving through the unknown: dear traveling teacher Zuza, in whose Tuesday and Sunday classes i stood, spoke, saw;  studio owners Jim Beatty (Eighth Street Studio), Jeffrey Bihr (his eponymous studio in Rockridge) and, especially, Michelle and David from Movement Oasis in Santa Rosa, whose welcoming arms have gathered new students and possibilities for their growing community of explorers.
and, mostly, to all the students, new and known, who have shown themselves to themselves and each other, as they were, as they were ready, i trust, with courage, conviction, hesitation, and glorious humanity.
and i Pause, in these last two weeks of August, to take stock, discover what's here as the ripples settle and the space shines.
The Ocean Refuses No River is on Pause until September 2. Move. Pause. Listen. Move. Pause.

Inspiration: A Workshop in Sonoma Co. 9/18

Is it likely, even possible, that what we have to offer to ourselves and each other is sufficient, complete, worthwhile? And that in discovering and sharing these gifts, we encourage these same "others" to do the same? Here's the invitation: come to Inspiration! a Soul Motion Experience, Sat, Sept 18, from 11am-3pm, at Movement Oasis, 1808-B Empire Industrial Court, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. With supple guidance, simple, spacious structures, and evocative music, we'll move with what is. And, we will dance; oh, yes: we will dance.
Cost: $35 (if payment received by 9/3); $45 (if received thereafter or at the door). Please send a check to Michael Zipkin, 447 Beloit Ave, Kensington, CA 94708. Seeking more inspiration? lucid.ocean@gmail.com  510-847-7736  www.lucidmz.blogspot.com

Give Back Your Heart to Itself

Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Derek Walcott, Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986

Trusting the Practice

1. Set the space and the score and the intent with as much grace, love, clarity and humility as is available, this morning.

2. Breathe in, breathe out.

3. Be surprised at what happens.

Listening with the Inner Ear

Gary Snyder says,
As the crickets' soft autumn hum
is to us
so are we to the trees
as are they
to the rocks and the hills
{thanks, Steve}


Soothe and be soothed
See and be seen
Dance and be danced
Move and be moved

Soul Motion practice, this week:
Tuesday in Berkeley, 6-7:30pm
Thursday in Rockridge, 6:30-8pm
Sunday in Sebastopol, 10:15-noon

Isn't That Something?

Rumi says,
I like it when the music happens like this:
Something in His eye grabs hold of
  a tambourine in me,
then I turn and lift a violin in someone else,
  and they turn, and this turning continues;
it has reached you now. Isn't that something?

This week, the grand opportunities to experience the web of interdependence continue: Enter The Ocean Refuses No River this Thursday, 6:30-8pm at Jeffrey Bihr Studio. And this Saturday morning, July 10, in the light-washed, bamboo-floored Eighth Street Studio in Berkeley (Friday Dance Jam's Warm Room), 10am-noon, Soul Motion: Spiral Odyssey, a journey through the Soul Motion landscapes. And to round out the weekend in the same room, Sunday I deejay 7:30-11pm at the venerable (and still unpredictable) Barefoot Boogie. Come shine, reflect, radiate!

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.