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Statement of Intention PDF Print E-mail
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Thursday, 01 January 2009 23:27

When students join the Axis Syllabus Teacher's Training Program they are asked to submit a written statement of their intention and an explanation of their personal interest in becoming a Certified Axis Syllabus Practitioner.  Click "Read more . . . " below the photo to view my statement from January 2005.  I received my certification to teach in January 2006.  There are currently 11 Certified Teachers and 20 Candidates for certification worldwide. Active Image

The dreams of falling and of flying are common.  Most people know the euphoria of sensing their body lifting up and off of the ground, suddenly weightless, with ease and effortlessness, looking around from a whole new perspective, and thinking briefly before waking up that this is really happening, it feels so natural.  Natural, too, is the sudden pelvic jolt from the dream of falling, off of a high cliff, or even a low curb.  Why do we have these dreams?  Flying, as a figment of our subconscious, is probably our prehistory. And the dream of falling is maybe an awakening to what is truly happening to our bodies all the time, and the level of fear and resistance that can often be internalized because of it. Whatever the connection, we share these dreams with other humans all over the earth. They are very old, and gravity is even older.

The first time I completed a two week Axis workshop I felt like a little kid who doesn’t want to leave the sandbox. Though I had been dancing for as long as I could remember, I experienced the play of kinetic energy in my body like never before, transitioning from one moment to the next to the next to the next, so naturally I didn’t want it to stop. I threw a tantrum. How can there be a beginning and an end? When a bone flies through space, willingly catapulted by the same system that ushered its existence forward through time, its fall cushioned by the softness of the flesh embracing it, only to return to flight like a stone skipping across water, space and time become a limitless friend rather than the enemy, the source as well as the container. This relative world describes the foundation of a nature whose evolution we can only begin to trace back, which has no beginning that we yet fully understand.  So, the sandbox is everywhere I go, all the time.

One thing that I love about the Axis work is that if something that I am doing is not working, or I am struggling with it, through study of these principles and how they work, I can usually figure out why I am struggling, adjust what I am doing, and alter my experience.  It is not a matter of not being strong enough, or flexible enough, or anything enough. There is nothing inherently wrong with the instrument, so the struggle does not have to terminate with a definition of the self as inadequate, but can evolve into an appreciation for what is, and a desire to experience more of it. And what joy and love we receive when we willingly play within the strong, well intentioned arms of gravity. It wants to pull us towards the earth’s core like a mother‘s hungry hug.

At the time of that workshop, dance had a recreational role in my life, and I was preparing to start law school later that year allowing space and time for dance as an indulgence and a fancy for a while longer before getting serious and losing myself in study.  It was a turning point.  After the workshop I felt I had found something that I couldn’t ignore, and decided to take a little more time to explore it.  Now, several years later, I find myself seriously concerned with physical, mental, energetic, emotional, and poetic justice, but never did make it to law school.

One way to maintain something’s mobile inertia is to pass it on. I feel drawn to the practice of sharing with people how to more consciously interact with their environment, sharing space, learning from each other, and accepting what is.  The practice of moving is the practice of living. Falling and allowing gravity to work its magic through us teaches us to allow truth to govern our interpersonal relationships, our relationship to the earth and to the universe.  This way we can allow life to happen rather than living with the burden that we must make life happen. Gravity is probably not going away, nor is death. Knowing this makes living and moving joyful, because it is truthful. In a world carved up with lines of separation, sharing this universal truth gives me hope.

Read other statements at the Axis Website.
Last Updated on Saturday, 28 March 2009 11:04