Dance and the mind, body and spirit

Mind body connection means to me a plethora of things. Initially I go to how my mind can heal my body through positive thoughts and actions, Then to how the body is a vessel of the mind. This awareness helps hone in the powerful creativity we have within ourselves. As a dancer and artist in general I utilize this often and more often than not. I participated for a few years as a competitive dancer but felt as if the dances were for the sake of dancing, and there is nothing wrong with that but personally dance held a place for me more emotionally energizing than anything.

Dance in high school represented for me an exploration of myself and my social abilities I wanted to have more friends, and a less competitive environment with the girls I spent so much time with. spent so much time with. The technicalities weren't as important as the social and emotional bonds created through movement.

Once in college I was in an extremely different situation than the girls I went to school with. This opened my mind to thinking about dance again more mentally, it felt as if I was in competition again with dancers to see which of us would beat the other and go on to be a successful professional. I did create dances based on the spiritual connection still and am always less focused on the mental in my choreography 1 and 2 classes.

In choreography 3 I was forced out of that box and into one of mental disturbance, I was required now to take movement and work it in different directions and manipulate and was unable to throw the work away. This forced a new approach on me in which I discovered I liked in a new way and had appreciation for.

When I teach It is like an open and unwritten art piece. We take the class as it goes and it is not a competitive environment. I let students breathe, we improvise a lot and do a lot of emotional sharing through movement. When creating a dance on film last year the entire dance was an spiritual/emotional expression from a part of me that needed to be released. This is why I dance - for my mind, body and spirit.