Spirit-Moving Inspiration: Source


 I think we need to hold a place for what is beautiful and what is healing and what is wisdom and profound and real, and invent those things if we don’t know what they are. 

“But there’s no beauty in my life”?

Invent it.

-Margie Gillis

 

Watching this film, I am blown away by the sheer visual lushness of the slow motion, high definition photography. It takes something that would have been beautiful on its own, and it ramps it up. Suddenly, the film isn’t just showing a woman dancing, it’s revealing the dance that is everywhere.

~The shifting folds in the falling fabric of her cloak and scarf.

~The simple beauty of a foot taking a single step—the shift of the weight and the movement of the joints.

~The stretch and reach of her fingers.

~The swirl and billow of her hair.

~The shine of her smile as she moves.

These are all dances in their own right. They are all beautiful.

The world dances around you. How many dances do you witness every single day?

~The glint of an icicle.

~The swoop and soar of a seagull.

~The billow of smoke from a chimney.

~The staccato passage of pedestrians.

~The stretch and shiver of an awakening cat.

How can you hold a place for what is beautiful?

What beauty do you see in your everyday life?

Dance 3: Don’t Look Back

Happy Saturday!

I know that I’ve written a lot about moving through fear and pushing into resistance during this Delicious Body Dance-a-thon…but have I mentioned that I AM LOVING IT?! Because I am!

This time, I experimented with editing footage together. This is the first time I’ve ever seriously played with editing, and I’m so happy with the results. I’m also grateful that the unexpected snowstorm yesterday made the outside all white and pretty for me (you say weather, I say personal aesthetic gift from the Universe just for this video).

This is one of my favourite songs by Alex Day. Thank you to Matthew for helping me film the  outside part, and thank you to Xander for being easily distracted while I finished it.

 

Dancing with Fear Part 2: Lullaby

Really, I could say “Dancing with Fear part 1 of 12,” but you get my point.

I present…me. Dancing.

 

This process was difficult. Difficult even apart from the technical difficulties and the massive learning curve of my video camera. As someone who was trained to base a dancer’s (read: my own) worth by their (read: my) body size and ability, to see myself moving on film is hard. Even though I embrace my size. Even though I have made great strides down the road of body-love. Even though I’m working to increase my strength and range of motion. And even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE my dance in this video. It was still hard.

Hard…but ultimately good. The more I watched the video the more I loved it. And the more I saw past my initial reaction. I’m proud of myself for taking the next step out into the world. I’m looking forward to exploring my body’s movement as I keep making videos (because I WILL keep making them…part 2 is already “in the can”). I feel like this dance-a-thon is a rite of passage, a healing journey to the heart of the wounds I still carry when it comes to my body and dance. And I can’t wait to see what comes of it.

Want to join in the Delicious Body Dance-a-thon? Find out what’s going on by heading over to Rachael Maddox’s blog!