SOUND REVERENCE • GIVING TRENDS • TRAVEL NEW ENGLAND CONSCIOUS WINTER 2011 ISSUE #17 movement for a better worldDANCER time to embody occupy the movement with love Roots of Contact Improvisation Evolution Being Danced Lead with the Body Nothing is more important than feeling good: Onesie Harmony. See our clothing line at WarriorWithinDesigns.com To schedule a tting at our San Francisco showroom contact [email protected] All of our garments are proudly made in San Francisco, California. 2 CONSCIOUS DANCER | WINTER 2011 CONSCIOUS DANCER | WINTER 2011 3 PHOTO: COURTESY OF WWW.JOURNEYDANCE.COM 4 CONSCIOUS DANCER | WINTER 2011 Quixotic Fusion exemplifies aerial dance. 22 FEATURES 18 Being Danced Philip Shepherd has lived a many-faceted life leading up to his current incarnation as visionary author. His recent book New Self, New World 18 tackles the question of what it means to be embodied in today’s world, 9 INSPIRATION: TransDanced and why bodily wisdom is an essential partner to rational thought. TransDance founder Heather Munro Pierce holds space in the High Sierra. 11 CURRENT: Occupy Movement 22 As Above, So Below Dancing flash mobs occupy love in support of Performers are no longer bound by gravity in today’s cutting-edge the movement. world of aerial and underwater dances. We take a visual tour of these 13 SPOTLIGHT: The Rosen Method new dimensions of movement. Odile Atthalin shares her experience with the elder-friendly form of Rosen Movement. Departments IKAELA M – 14 DESTINATION: New England 26 Making Contact DJ Root of Journeydance fame gives a tour of As culture was evolving through the 20th century, a sea change took hotspots for dancers. place in the world of movement. Contributing Editor Elana 16 WARMUPS • Bodhitrix: The Players Deck Silverman scans dance innovations before the ’60s, and Contact • Debbie Rosas: The Body’s Business Quarterly Editor Nancy Stark Smith reveals the people and process • Seven Surefire Class Fillers that led to the appearance of Contact Improvisation. 30 VITALITY: Tasteful Giving Our readers dish up sweet ideas for sharing and caring. 32 SOUNDS: Reverence and Resonance Lloyd Barde explores the power of music for con- nection and healing. 30 35 MOVEMENT MENU • Winter Highlights • Book Reviews: Sleight, Uncertainty, Spark • DVD: Vine of the Soul • MixMaster: Alia Rhythms : COURTESY OF WWW.QUIXOTICFUSION.COM / PHOTO MIDDLE: IGOR ZENIN BOTTOM: FLICKR : COURTESY OF WWW.QUIXOTICFUSION.COM P 46 RESULTS: InterPlay Enlivens O T Learn to follow the wisdom of your PHOTO own intuition. CONSCIOUS DANCER | WINTER 2011 5 Readers Share MOVING IN A BLUR assumption — usually correct — that nobody My glasses remain in place as I surrender to is watching or judging me. Instead, I can inter- the floor. In a 20/20 world, I stretch and roll, act with bodies as wholes, moving into and waking up every muscle and joint, stimulat- out of shared dances, protecting myself and ing my organs, and helping my mind relax looking out for those near me in a general way. its captainship. I get vertical as the music Just to sense the bodies around me and to transitions from tempo-free soundscapes to feel my own extremities without needing to something with a beat. Soon I am moving to examine them is a miracle of sorts. It feels the rhythms, my revitalized self easing into like swimming, like surrender. In the uncer- the holy exercise. tain world of 20/300 vision, forms are only Now I start to perspire (I’m quite good as defined as they need to be, and it is truly at this), so I find my way back to where I’ve impossible to sweat the details. I can get lost left my shoes and water bottle. Before my in motion without being tripped up by uncer- glasses get the chance to fly off my sweat-slick tainty, awkwardness, titillation, or anybody face, I store them in my shoe. The dance floor else’s mental dance. instantly becomes a moving Monet: fuzzy This is what I imagine it would be like to swatches of color and momentum without dance inside an Impressionist painting. The specific features or points. In a way, this is world around is vibrant but soft. We are all how I know that I’m no longer warming up just brush strokes, motions who only mean but dancing. themselves. The only drawback I can think In this field of kinetic impressionism, the of is that I might not recognize you if I see last fleck of logical governance is free to leave you there. Don’t think I’m being unfriendly— my movement. For me, this is an unmitigated I just can’t see that it’s you. If you remember positive. I feel safe where I dance, so not this when you see me dancing with my glasses seeing sharply doesn’t worry me. Moreover, off, please come dance with me to say hello. as someone prone to self-consciousness, the Perspective by Daniel Ari inability to read faces lets me maintain the Berkeley, CA OUR APOLOGIES! In the last issue (#17), we inadvertently movement modalities including Movement omitted some important information about Montage created and led by Liz Tucker every our friends in Dallas in the Destination: T is Tuesday evening. And, Mati Vargas-Gibson for Texas spread. To start, our writer Monica offers 5Rhythms classes weekly at the Sam- Blossom hosts a monthly outdoor Ecstatic mons Center for the Arts. Hats off to the Community Moondance at White Rock vibrant Texas dance community; we thank Lake. Our friends at Move Studios in Dallas you for all you do! Please write to us at offer Nia classes every day along with other [email protected]. 6 CONSCIOUS DANCER | WINTER 2011 ConsciousDancer.com ou probably have some experience transition point in our evolution and are in your life where you find yourself parting ways at the helm of Conscious ydeep in appreciation. For me it Dancer. I’m eternally grateful for her could be while I’m dancing or playing dedication and spirit and will always records, or doing a jigsaw puzzle with value her tremendous contribution to the my four-year-old. These moments are community. I feel fortunate and blessed like gratitude anchors that pull me out by the chance to lead Conscious Dancer of the troubles of the world and remind into the future. me of that old book by Voltaire when the We bring the passion of Occupy into character Candide says, “Everything is these pages, highlighting the natural and exactly as it should be, in this most perfect human element of the movement. We also of all possible worlds.” Indeed, while that bring you author Philip Shepherd’s wisdom may seem trite, it is Candide’s unflagging on embodiment, improvisation pioneer positive attitude that leads him through Checking In Nancy Stark Smith’s look at the history of extraordinary travails to peace and safety. Contact Improvisation, and a spine-tingling Like Candide, I try to remember that when change for 100% of us. My hope is that photo essay on aerial and underwater things get tough, it’s possibly just the trial I dancers can help to infuse a serious dance. Plus a tip of the hat to three favorite need—and I strive to replace fear with love situation with some levity, and help modalities, TransDance, InterPlay, and the wherever I can. connect the global community with Rosen Method. Enjoy our winter serving! For society on the whole a moment “movement for a better world.” With warm wishes and gratitude, of serious upheaval and adjustment has Another moment has arrived here at arrived. Large numbers of people are the heart of this magazine. After 17 issues willing to brave serious discomfort and of collaboration, my co-founder Aspen grave danger to bring about positive Madrone and I have come to a healthy MARK METZ, Editor - in - Chief STAFF CONTRIBUTORS Philip Shepherd is the author of New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in FOUNDED IN 2007 BY Mark Metz & Aspen Madrone the Twenty-first Century. He is also a workshop leader, lecturer, private coach and PUBLISHED BY Moving Arts International actor. As a teen he cycled alone through Europe, the Middle East, Iran, India, and EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mark Metz finally Japan, where he studied classical Noh theatre. That trip deeply informed his CREATIVE DIRECTION Aspen Madrone ability to critique Western culture and the assumptions that shape it. His feature DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Isabelle Metz & Brian Yee story discusses an aspect of Noh theatre and its relevance to embodied move- MANAGING EDITOR Rachel Trachten ment, with excerpts from his book. www.philipshepherd.com OFFICE MANAGER Karina Louise CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Liz Mac, Jetta Martin, Elana Silverman, Mariana Rose Thorn Elana Silverman is a Bay Area writer, educator, dancer, and regular contributor to Conscious Dancer magazine. In this issue, she covers the development of dance in STAFF WRITERS Rachel Trachten, Elana Silverman the 20th century and New England’s hot spots for movement and dining. She also SALES AND COMMUNITY Aspen Madrone & Liz Mac performs with Deep Root Dance Collective and works at a local high school. Every WEBMASTER Steve Shaw summer, Elana skips town to live in a tent and lead whitewater rafting trips for the I.T. ANGEL Luis Echeverria American River Touring Association. She holds a BA in dance from Smith College. LICENSING Efrain Correal [email protected] SPECIAL THANKS TO Laura Cirolia, Deborah Meyer, Casie Casados, Emily Anderson, and Veronica Lloyd Barde is music editor of Common Ground magazine and a frequent con- Ramirez. tributor to various publications. His story “The Cure is Curiosity” appears in the book Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Lives: Defining Moments.