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| Tiles by Heather Lezla |
Musing…
“A young dancer thinks
dancing is about big things - jumps, turns, energy. An
older one knows it is about the small things, like simplicity and breathing.”
- Sarah Kaufman (from her
interview with Julie Kent)
“This is an art… and
if you don’t cultivate your soul, and if you don’t cultivate your education and
your knowledge of life and beauty and other things, there are limited things
you can share on the stage with other people.” -Xiomara
Reyes
Charise’s Turn:
Both Julie Kent and Xiomara Reyes are retiring from their principal roles with the American Ballet Theatre. Their perspectives point to the wisdom
of a seasoned performing artist as well as what constitutes star appeal. Let’s make a leap here (balletic or
otherwise) to the general concept of approach. How to approach an endeavor or
project of any type is another way of saying how to bring your self to it (and in to
it). This is where you connect with
what you are creating or saying, and when you connect, then others will too. The
form of what you are doing is a funnel to hold the vitality of your
coming-into-the-creative-moment. The funnel is critical, but it’s empty without
your pouring into it.
My friend and mentor, Charmaine Lee, advocates for dance as a healing art. The following poem, inspired by her teaching, is in response to a
prompt to write a “machine” poem via the April Poem A Day challenge of The Writer’s Digest.
Charmaine's
Class
"Do you want to be mechanical, or move with spirit?"
she
shouted across the DC studio all the way
from South
Africa where outspoken against
the
machinery of Apartheid too soon too loud
once
exiled she chooses this homeland of dance.
- Charise M. Hoge
Get Fired Up:
This is my shout out to you to move with spirit into the form
of your creative expression!
