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Why do I dance?

I dance to feel more connected to myself
I dance to feel more connected to others

It’s a practice for me—a present moment awareness practice. I come to dance to take myself in;to embrace myself, to savor myself and to express myself.

But that is only the first level.
I come to dance to embrace others, to partner with them, to take them in, to savor each person and all of his or her energy.. I come to play with others. To invite them to give themselves to me and to receive me as they are able.

Dance Jam is a temple for me.
I come to heal and be healed
To love and to be loved
To lose my self and find my Self
To have my Self reflected back to me

I come to commune.
To come into union
To become one with.
I come to taste myself more deeply and to celebrate my aliveness.
I come to invite you to connect with your own ecstatic source and explode into exuberant self love and celebration.

I come for the sweet intimacy of being met as I embrace, say yes to, fall in love with.
Each partner I join, I fall more deeply into loving myself. Meeting my partner, embrachin my partner, is meeting and embracing myself.

I come to dance to give myself away.
I come full of love, life and energy. I find others I can pour my energy into.
I come to ignite myself and others to burn in the passion of being alive.
I come to feel delight.

I don’t dance by any rules except to follow my impulses.
To say yes to what really feels good.
I merge with the music, I unleash my energy, I ride my body, I follow my heart.
I trust my impulses. I drop my social conditioning and I merge with who ever will say yes to joining me.

I dance to I embrace and express my aliveness
To join with others in the celebration
Of Being
Alive
In a body.
I dance to give and receive nurturing, supportive touch and savor the pleasure and warmth of human body contact.
I dance to spend myself and be refilled.

I empty my mind,open my heart, unbridle my energy and ride my body.

What I believe:

Something magical happens when we are honestly met physically by another. we affect each other emotionally. we influence and regulate each others nervous systems by the way we take each other in, by the way we attend to each other, by the way we touch each other. Deep and profound healing and re-wiring of the limbic or emotional brain occurs when we are ‘seen’ and embraced—when we are ‘met’ in this total way. Just as we learn how to sense and move our bodies under the constant, consistent influence of gravity, We similarly learn to feel and regulate our emotions according to the responses we receive from others.

Dancing with others helps keep me emotionally balanced.

I’ve followed dance as a healing path and practice. Dancing in my wonderful dance community has allowed me to heal the social isolation of my childhood. From a timid, socially anxious and disconnected indivitual I’ve grown to become someone who can connect easily with others, inviting them and myself to feel comfort and ease with each other.

I danced socially to rock and roll music as a teenager and in college.
In my 30’s I halted all dancing except waltzing, as this was the dictum of the Religious Cult I was involved in.
I re-discovered myself through dance when I exited the cult, first through Country Western and Swing dance (I was living in Montana). Then when I found Contact Improv in my early 40’s I was hooked and found I was compelled to study it. After a year or two of Contact workshops and classes, I found Dance Jam and Barefoot Boogie. I’m constantly bridging the gap between these two forms, inviting touch and initiatiating dancers into shared weight dancing. This has been my dance playground and paratner movement lab for the past 12 years. Additionally I’ve been bridging bodywork and Contact Dance to create a healing modality I calli BodyRide. BodyRide is a practice that expands and integrates the whole self through interactive relational movement, or ‘whole body listening’.

Dance has been a path of healing and self-expansion for me.
Dancing and moving by or with myself has been a rich avenue of inquiry and self-discovery.
Dancing and moving with others, especially in dynamic physical contact; being received and receiving another physically, has fed me more deeply than any other activity I’ve experienced.

In my work:

I consider myself a pioneer in the field of somatic relating. I have spent the past 15 years intensely exploring the culture of free-style and contact dance and the relational dynamics of partner movement.. I’m captivated by the social, emotional and physical aspects of partner dance and espcially Contact Improvisation Dance.

My dance and my work is informed by exposure
to many spiritual teachings as well
as the practices of Authentic Movement*,
Contact Improvisation Dance*, Dance Alive*,
Continuum*, Watsu* Yoga,and the Anat Baniel Method*, among others.


On the dance floor, and in the private healing work I offer, I bring infectious enthusiasm and focused energy. I am a dance catalyst and a master at drawing out the self-expression in others: inviting, igniting, and embracing. Building intimacy,trust and support. This elicts direct connection and genuinely intimate encounters.

"What I know about Contact Improv Dance is that it brings me fully into my body, and fully into the present moment. I Reach out in a listening way to my moving partner. I reach in and listen to my own movement pleasure and enjoyment, This challenges me to stay attentive, honest, and curious in relationship to myself and to my partners. It brings me an indescribably deep sense of well-being. Its the most effective actity I've found for learning and experiencing the rewards of deeply satisfying human relating." - Harmony Gates

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