This weekend we are heading to Joshua Tree to teach a workshop to veterans, guide them through a movement ritual on my sculpture, and perform Cross-Pollination. My workshop is a series of exercises to help people feel their bodies from the inside.
When we are on the inside of our bodies and on the inside of our lives, we are less concerned with appearances and comparing ourselves to others. We are more preoccupied with our own experience: Does this feel good? Does that feel good? How can I get more of that?
We get only one body in this life. Are we going to feel it?
We get only one life. Are we going to miss it?
Before a performance, I tell the dancers, ‘Don’t miss it.’ We work so hard to prepare for this experience - we want to be here for it.
After the workshop I taught last weekend, one of the participants wondered if dancers experience their bodies and lives differently. I have noticed that there are times that I am more or less in my body and by this I mean, more or less aware of what is going on on the inside. It is a pleasure to be in the body, using the full potential of this remarkable mechanism and its ability to sense the world within and without. It is a pleasure to be on the inside of a life, feeling it as it unfolds.