closing::opening::next year at Eighth Street

darling duality-defeating dancers,
no doubt, you've heard the oft-quoted paean to possibility, "When one door closes another door opens." Something--a thought, a relationship, a physical or metaphysical space--ends, crashes, shifts. Whether it was as I wished or left much to be desired, I am the line that carries and continues, the bridge over the dark (or light) waters of uncertainty. I want to have compassion for the one who yearns for ease and comfort even as he knows there is no telling what will come next. Can I carry the yearning for a more engaged existence as a flame that illuminates and warms, rather than one with a sharper, more brittle burning? Hell, maybe the whole thing just wants to turn into glorious and fully exhaled ash that scatters in a good breeze and leaves the hearth scrubbed and ready for the next fires. 

But I digress, ever-so-melodramatically. 

I say adieu and fare thee well to Jeffrey Bihr Studio, site of Thursday night Soul Motion, The Ocean Refuses No River. Thank you for your settled intimacy, your warm maple floor, the kimonos that witness patiently from the north and south walls. 
I say bonjour and let's dance! to Eighth Street Studio (aka Soul Motion Central, aka Berkeley Dance Jam's Warm Room). Thank you for your clean bamboo floor, your white muslin curtains and relaxed, open feel. Beginning January 6, Soul Motion classes will be a full two hours, from 6-8pm every Thursday. Class cards will price sessions very close to the current suggested cost of $10; single entries will be $15.

Excited! You?

A Berkeley Soul Motion New Year's Day Dance

dear depth chargers,
shall we dance together on New Year's Day, bringing our intentions, our openness, our enthusiasm*, our hesitations, our hopes; our feet, bellies, hearts, hands and eyes? and, together, inspire each other to offer these gifts to each newly birthed moment, today of all days?

yes.

Begin Again: A Soul Motion New Year's Day Dance

Saturday, January 1, 2011
11am-2pm (opening circle at noon)
Western Sky Studio, Berkeley
2525 Eighth Street, bet Dwight & Parker
$10-15 entry; no one turned away; all are welcome!

*[ARCHAIC] Religious fervor resulting directly from divine inspiration, typically involving speaking in tongues and wild, uncoordinated movements of the body.

(e)merge (into, from) the darkness: dance!

how about:
The Ocean Refuses No River
weekly Soul Motion practice
this thursday, 12/2, 6:30-8:00pm
Jeffrey Bihr Studio
5390 Miles Avenue
Oakland 94618

Soul Motion in Nevada City
this Friday, 12/3, 5:15-7:15pm
this Sunday, 12/5, 10-noon
South Yuba Club
555 Searles Avenue
Nevada City 95959

the way out is the way in

dear teachers,
there is patience, and there is procrastination. {i know both}
there is acceptance, and there is complacency. {i know both}
there is fear, and there is love. {i know both}
there is solitude, and there is isolation. {i know both}

six and a half years of practice {ongoing, not ending}
a year and a half of training modules {ongoing, not ending}
two plus years of local weekly teaching (one to eight students), and covering for my traveling teachers (20-80 students) {ongoing, not ending}
ditto local special events (SM Odysseys, 1/2 day workshops) {ongoing, not ending}
ditto ditto advice and support from my teachers, students, fellows, friends
one daylong workshop

countless hours absorbed in class plans, music choices, marketing, blogging; reaching out, reaching in; shpilkis beyond belief. joy and satisfaction beyond the beyond.

and now i am a certified Soul Motion teacher.

thank you vinn, zuza, you, me, god, sky and earth and water and fire!

perserverance

inkBoat and AXIS dancers

In Limbo, Odd Nerdrom

Over the weekend, I saw ODD, a bracing collaboration between two dance companies (Shinichi Iova-Koga's inkBoat, and Oakland's physically integrated AXIS Dance Company), and cellist/composer Joan Jeanrenaud, inspired by the mythic, figurative work of Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrom. I was struck by the commitment to move, to express, to interact; how the use of internal and external propulsion looked from the outside, and what it "accomplished"; and by the dynamic, vital springboard of stillness. Sheer will to take space; perhaps not ironically, the "disabled," wheelchair-bound AXIS dancers telegraphed a strength and ferocious vitality that held and propelled them. inkBoat's contorting, convulsing motions carried them to the other shore, as it were, without consideration of elegance or conventional notions of prettiness. The routes were indirect and inefficient in the directional dimension only; the fuel was potent, true, unrelenting; the encounters between "abled" and "disabled" dancers were dynamic, brisk, startlingly crucial. And the stillness between gestures--Iova-Koga refers to them as "suspensions, holding points between actions..."--were "... alive, ripe for change and development." The Pause Presence, in the Soul Motion lexicon.

ODD moves to the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA 94612 for another weekend of performances Friday and Saturday November 12 and 13, with an afternoon show Sunday the 14th at 2:00pm. Tickets here. 

Freedom in the Framing

dear dance delineators,
can following what comes from the inside create freedom on the outside?
can working with a choice of shapes or qualities offered from the outside enlarge and enliven our inner dance?
what's the difference between moving with a goal in mind and moving within a soft and clear frame of possibility? on our own? with one or more or all?
Jeremy W and Vinn M dropped these inquiries into the personal and collective field this past weekend at Esalen, and what emerged danced with startling brilliance and joy. please join me in two rooms this week, and we will see and be with what happens, big or small, in, out or onward. thank you!

The Ocean Refuses No River

Soul Motion-Inspired Dance Practice 

Thursdays, 6:30-8pm

Pay what you can ($5-$15 suggested) until 1.1.11

Jeffrey Bihr Studio
5390 Miles Avenue
Oakland 94618

Soul Motion Experience

Saturday, November 6 (and 13)

10am-noon / $10

Movement Oasis
1808-B Empire Industrial Court
Santa Rosa 95403

Reflecting Brilliance, in Motion

The moon appears in every season, it is true,
But surely it's best in fall.
In autumn, mountains loom and water runs clear.
A brilliant disk floats across the infinite sky,
And there is no sense of light and darkness,
For everything is permeated with its presence.
--Ryokan, 1758-1831

I see the moon,
the moon sees me.
God bless the moon,
and God bless me.
--traditional nursery rhyme
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I open fully, I reflect the brilliance of the oft-hidden sun.
And in shining clear and true, I show myself, too.

This Thursday, 10/21 at Jeffrey Bihr in Oakland:
The Ocean Refuses No River, 6:30-8pm

This Saturday, 10/23 at Movement Oasis in Santa Rosa:
Soul Motion-inspired dance practice, 10-noon.
Full Moon Barefoot Boogie, 7-9pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~