I teach a dance form called Contact Improvisation. It is, as the name suggests, completely improvisational and involving following a moving point of contact between two or more bodies, using such elements as momentum, sharing weight, gravity, responsiveness. It can look very slow and meditative or very fast and acrobatic but at its heart is the practice of a deep awareness of self and other, of sensation and movement, connection.
On the dance floor I am able to be amazingly in the moment and in the flow. My body, indeed my whole being, is relaxed, alive, instantaneously responsive, graceful, playful, joyous and expressive. I am able to bring a constantly changing dynamic of allowing/release and intention/creativity to my dance, so that my ideas flow in a moving dialogue with those of the others I am dancing with and with my surroundings. I may approach someone with the idea of lifting them, but if the moment changes or the momentum is not there, I adapt immediately and change direction, enjoying the new experience fully.
So the question arises: If I can do this so well on the dance floor, why not in every moment of my life? How can i transfer this valuable skill of present moment awareness, aliveness, playfulness, adaptability to every area of my life? How can i allow fully what is happening, fee free to bring my own impetus/intention to life, and then adapt as circumstances shift around me, finding a fluid and enjoyable relation to the flow? And then how can i teach it to others? I become fascinated by this question. How can my dancing self teach my whole being to flow so beautifully and expressively and effortlessly? How can i be my dancing self in all of my life?
