#sweatspotla

Warm-up music sets the tone for a class. It brings you through a vast or focused emotional landscape. Back in one of our favorite teacher’s class (Denise Leitner) I realized a major change had taken place. Where were the warm-up songs I craved? SHE CHANGED THEM!!? WHYYYYY!? Ah yes, the change of seasons. It is almost summer after all. Time for rebirth. Yipee. 

I can’t say I loved the change. Part of what I loved so much about the previous warm-up music is that is matched my mood; it melded with the moves so smoothly. Now, anything different feels lesser, a little less well-matched. 

But then Radiohead came on. Mystical, sparkly, emotional Daydreaming. 

Maybe change is welcome after-all. This seems to be a popular song of-the-moment. On Tuesday Jess and I danced @thesweatspotla to this song in Jasmine Albuquerque’s Pulse class. Man I loved it. I felt like a gorgeous woodland fairie. And I love fairies! Jasmine has a way of making you feel beautiful. I’m not quite sure how. 

I suppose part of it is that she looks at you, smiles at you, makes you feel welcome and seen. I felt that our dancing influenced her in a way. She also has this authentic quality about her. She’s not being the teacher she thinks she should be, or who she thinks we want. She’s however she is feeling that day. I really wish her class was 1.5 hours. I liked feeling beautiful. <3

Back to the music!!  This is a playlist I’m personally liking. Very moody. 

And what is my favorite summer dance jam? 

LETTING GO (DUTTY LOVE)!!!! 

This song makes me so indescribably happy. It makes me thrilled to be alive, to grow, to dance with others. Dutty Love! Ah! 

What are your songs of the summer shaping up to be? Curious to know!

-Catherine

I have been attending a meditation class, and realized that I have very BIG emotions. I am very excited, curious, joyful, sad, confused, angry.

Did you ever hear that dancing reveals one’s interior landscape? Mikhail Baryshnikov says so, “When a body moves, it’s the most revealing thing. Dance for me a minute, and I’ll tell you who you are.” 

So you might imagine, this week I found my dancing very big. Just big. Mainly… big. Dancing big is risky; you are constantly in danger of losing control, of falling behind and missing a move. 

While big dancing is innately neither good nor bad, dance at its best has levels of intensity. It is large, soft, gliding, graceful, then sharp, slight, quick, contracting. The contrast of movement surprises, draws interest, and communicates the subtleties of emotion. As I take my next classes, I will focus on the minute. I’ll channel Fosse’s captivating isolations, so minuscule, you are tantalized when at last the movements are grand and sweeping.

It’s funny. Since I started this project, I was thinking that my learning would come directly from a teacher, that I needed someone to take me under their wing. And I am excited to develop that connection, but my classmates are also my teachers, and I am reminded most of what I need to learn comes from inside. I am the one who knows what I need to dance. To reinterpret Rihanna, “(I forgot) I needed me”:

“Bet you never could imagine Never told you you could have it

You needed me Oooh, you needed me To feel a little more, and give a little less Know you hate to confess But baby ooo, you needed me”