Yet another post on a day before the arrival of business guests. What a misrepresentation though. Nothing stodgy or mundane about these folks. Today's guest is a woman named Cammi Vance, who keeps a really striking website about herself at www.darshandances.com. It should be an interesting weekend. Had my a/c not pulled yet another blowout this morning, all skies would look sunny. But I'm hoping/praying that the gods of cool air will yet descend into my beloved studio and make things right with the world by this evening. Here's to that.
It's been so busy here, unbelievably so. I haven't even had time to get sick, although my voice has been on strike since Sunday (it's Friday now) and my body has been trying like hell to follow suit. Can't do it, though. There's so much to do. We introduced a Pilates class into the schedule yesterday, to the delight of many of our students, and in July, we'll be having bellydance classes in the space twice a week. I love love love the dance additions. Turns out that the Pilates teacher is quite capable of teaching adult modern dance, so perhaps we'll bring her on board for that option too one of these days. This business is all about realizing my own personal fantasy, a movement studio that's completely aligned with my kinesthetic interests. What a dream.
I crafted Wednesday's quasi-restorative class around the theme of being expansive, being really really BIG. Oh, what fun. I kept telling them to take up lots of space on the ground -- to really expand into every extremity in the body with awareness, to just fill up all the space of themselves and to let the body become bigger in the space it occupies. It got pretty silly, what with trees becoming redwoods that you could drive a car through, warriors that became Xena, and soggybright half-moons just hanging out on the wall -- but they all grinned through it and looked quite happy and refreshed throughout the class and afterwards. And I ended up feeling big too -- which is a great thing to cultivate, because it's so easy to let the world make you small. So easy to shrink up and nitpick at your self till you chip and chip away at all the delight and wonder of who you can be. So class floated along that idea, and the results really were gorgeous. I'll have to use that one again. So fun, so silly, such release.
But still, what I wouldn't give for some time off. Just to be away from the stress, away from my a/c unit, away from being "on" and working to inspire. I want to go watch a movie in a dark theater. I want to sit on a beach at night watching the moon, but I think I said that last time too. See why I haven't written? I'm just a broken record.
Went to a play a few weekends ago called "Get This Lake off my House" staged along the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. That was fun. Wine and cheese and getting drunk to local theater along with Jesse, Chris and Claire. The people on the blanket next to us had a box of Popeye's. It felt good to be feeling at home. Shared sentiments of grief and comedy in the writing of the play -- it kept cracking us up and then bringing us close to tears -- such sweet release, such lovely writing, such good balance of all the emotional upheaval -- uphill downhill -- that's sped us along since last August. And knowing everyone in the crowd was riding the same emotional waves too. That's been one of the good effects of the storm -- the sharedness of collective experience, provides a sort of touchstone, a you-and-I-have-seen-all-this, a can-you-believe-that-we've-survived-so-far, much watery muck to get to it, an ugly route to take to a destination that in some ways is not so bad. Community-building. More strength, a sense of neighborliness, a common handshake. It's nice.
