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| Mama Yemanja |
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| Written by ana |
| Wednesday, 12 August 2009 15:15 |
 We’ve been in Brazil for a month and are now in Porto Alegre, but we got to see quite a bit of progress on our land in Canoa Quebrada before we left. The dance floor is almost done, and we have started construction on an outdoor kiosk which will have a little kitchen and several bathrooms. The land is now pretty covered with coconut and fruit trees, as well as patches of succulents, colorful flowers and jasmine. Plans are rolling along for the Nomadic College Brazil, March 2010, and my goal is to have registration online by the end of September. We will do our best to keep prices low and provide helpful information for planning your trip there, which promises to be unforgettable, and hopefully the first of many!!I will be teaching a class in the Nomadic College titled “Off Balance,” and had the opportunity in Canoa to do some research. I am intrigued with finding ways of inducing and taking advantage of the state of being off balance as it is a rather fundamental Axis Syllabus concept, yet one which can be hard to recognize and embrace. It makes sense that we develop many subtle and unconscious ways of avoiding being off balance, as most of our daily activities involve being vertical and in control, so it is necessary to recognize these patterns in ourselves in order to play with the infinite potential and movement possibilities that are available when we truly let ourselves go, at least for a moment, at least in part. I plan to take advantage of the landscape in this class and hold at least one of the classes on the beach and in the water. We are building this beautiful dance floor, but it would be an injustice not to take advantage of the spectacular topography, as well, and the ocean herself right in our front yard. Several years ago I wrote an article on my blog titled “God’s Ballroom” in which I described how I would go to the beach during low tide and dance, alone, removed from the pressures of language, free from the cages of structure and identity. I wrote about how I would slowly surrender to the pull of the ocean. This time I went to the ocean even more and played in deeper waters. The beach in Canoa is the perfect laboratory in which to explore going off balance. The water is warm, not too salty, and there is a nice gentle slope which starts up on the sand, flattens out for a while, which is evident at low tide as a nice, long flat surface with a slightly firm floor from the dampness, and then gently slopes again out into the water. The waves tend to be small and well spaced apart, except when the tide is coming back in and they become a bit rougher, but still they are welcoming and easy enough to play in. There is a familiar pull on the beach that I only have to allow for and engage with, and each time I come I am drawn in a little bit deeper until I can spend hours in the water, going into states of bliss and timelessness. I’ve been collecting some very simple concepts to play with in the water – focusing on the pelvis and tracking its movements as I surrender to the push and pull of the waves, returning to rootedness through my legs and feet, or allowing for small steps which follow the movement of my pelvis as the water initiates different pathways. I have mostly played with having a soft focus, something to return to, but allowing lots of space for direct experience, sensation, surrender, and interplay between surrender and will. Different depths in the water offer different types of exploration, different rhythms, but the movement is initiated by the waves and energy generated from the ocean and by all of the forces at play in the water. I feel drawn onto this path of discovery. This is where my work with movement and dance and performance has been taking me. Everything I have learned about allowing for movement and listening for impulse feels heightened as I play in and out of the water in Canoa Quebrada. There is logic to the idea that the ocean and the moon and the sand can teach us, but the logic of it is not the end. The idea is not the real thing. These forces cannot be accurately described, but they are available to us to engage with directly. We have complete access to this wisdom. And in Canoa it feels like a big open hand giving us free reign and clear messages. The teachings are pure and authentic. To have this intimacy with the elements feels very instinctual. I began to think about Yemanja, Goddess of the ocean, though I know little about her aside from music and myth. I can learn many things by studying traditions that have evolved out of these forces, but I need no teaching to learn from the forces themselves, no ability aside from the ability to stay present. To allow my body to fall into her arms, she teaches me so much. There is such a beautiful dance in her push and pull, her rolling invitations. The earth may be our first dance partner, but we must also dance with the ocean, with the wind, with the sun and moon, to their rhythms, and the rhythms of everything that they have all created together. It’s the overarching artist’s collective. And here are these opportunities to feel something so real and pure, something that has been around since way before we humans stepped onto the scene with a swagger. We’re not dominating the waves or the wind. They are not our cross to bare or our dragon to slay. They are a source of universal wisdom and power, simple, pure, loving and fierce. We are of them. They are not really of us, although we try mightily to force them into our stories. I think there is no coincidence that the ocean and the wind are also areas of current interest in the search for renewable forms of energy, energy for production, transportation, etc., etc. When I chose the topic of “off-balance” for my class I hadn’t been planning to take the class to the beach and into the water, but it seems so obvious now, and the opportunity is here for the whole month to use Canoa's vast resources. What a waste of energy it would be not to. I hope you come. I hope this is just the beginning. Maybe by dancing here, we will be welcoming many great and powerful unknown forces. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 October 2011 08:55 |