Happiness First, For a Change
Recently, during a group conversation, each member was asked to describe what makes them happy. In Spanish. After all, it was a Spanish language group, although the response would have been the same in any language. My own answer came quickly to mind: salsa dancing. It has been an ongoing source of entertainment and joy for quite some time. Another thought soon followed: if certain things make us feel that happy, shouldn’t we do them as often as possible?
It can be difficult to find time to set aside for things that aren’t work or family-related, but if they are essential components for our ongoing happiness, then it seems like we can’t afford not to set some time aside. The reality is that there will always be a million excuses, a million reasons why not. Maybe it’s time to make a different mental list, a list that instead spells out all the reasons why.
Ask yourself simply, “What makes me happy?” and see what comes to mind. Follow it with the next obvious questions, “Am I setting enough time aside to do this activity?” and “What are some creative ways to add a little bit more of it into my week?” For instance, you may also be a salsa dance addict, and while it is not always possible to get dressed up and dance the night away, it probably is possible to blast your favorite tunes in the living room and dance your heart out.
Whatever it is that puts a smile on your face is important. A sense of happiness is important. Isn’t it worth putting happiness first?
Pain is a message
Pain of any sort is a message that there is something requiring our attention. Whether it is emotional or physical pain, we have to stop, check in, and decipher the clues in order to come to full comprehension of what the pain is trying to tell us. If the pain is emotional, dance can be a wonderful way to release those feelings and experience catharsis. If the pain is physical, then we need to take a close look at how we are treating our bodies.
Every so often, students mention feeling pain after doing certain movements. My response is that pain is a very clear voice that is instructing us to do less, proceed more slowly and gently, or maybe not do a certain movement at all. The most common reason for physical pain is forcing. This might mean forcing the body too far in a certain pose, or moving too quickly or strenuously. Remind students that we have an ongoing dialogue with our bodies; they speak to us all the time, letting us know what is needed. For instance, when our body needs water, we feel thirsty. It is our job to listen carefully and take the very best care of our bodies that we can. They are containers for the mind and spirit; we only get one, so we’d better keep it happy and healthy.
Emotional pain is a different type of message, and dance can be helpful as a means of exploration. If we can approach dance as a form of moving meditation, allowing ourselves to simultaneously feel powerful emotions and explore their underlying causes, we can come to a place of clarity and release. It is quite amazing to experience the feet moving rhythmically and the mind circling in an ongoing state of inquiry, sifting through thoughts and ideas. If it is something you have never tried before, you might find it to be incredibly liberating and helpful. It can be incredibly beneficial to children to have a means of understanding, naming, accepting and expressing their feelings. It is an incredibly empowering tool they can carry for the rest of their lives.
Sometimes the “small, quiet voice” of our subconscious, or inner guidance system gets easily drowned out by the many other competing voices and projects. Pain, however, is not so easily ignored. Its message is clear; it is time to listen and adjust. It’s in our best interests to do so.
Today is the final day of the blog chain; please feel free to enjoy it:http://www.terri-forehand.blogspot.com/
Breathing For More Power in Your Dance
Breath is not only life, it is also an important component of dance. Consciously linking breathing to our dance enhances each movement and makes them more powerful. Breath evenly also gives us another way to maintain a rhythm while we move.
The simplest way to test this theory is to begin with focusing on the breath, focusing our attention on each cycle of inhaling and exhaling. After following a few cycles, begin to move one way on the inhale, and a different way on the exhale. For example, rise on tiptoes with the arms reaching toward the sky while inhaling, and then bend the knees and let the body sag on the exhale.
As always, experimenting with a new technique will help you gain mastery. In general, inhaling makes us more buoyant, so this part of the breath brings more power to expansive poses, like stretches and jumps. Exhaling brings power to poses that involve contraction, or folding parts of the body together, such as bending, kicking.
To teach the technique to children, begin slowly and simply. Have them come into a standing position, and close their eyes so they can begin to focus on their breath. After a few breaths, have them open their eyes, and move the arms first, reaching them up to the sky, fingers spread wide while inhaling, then letting them float down to their hips on the exhale. From there, you can make it into an inhale/exhale breathing game. The teacher will be the first leader, showing one pose for inhale and a different pose for exhale. Switch leaders every few minutes until everyone has a turn.
Breathing brings oxygen to our muscles and power to our dance. Take a deep breath and begin.
Mirror Your Partner
Mirroring movements is a short, fun exercise to try whenever you have a few spare minutes. Just like in cartoons, it’s guaranteed to get a few laughs, but it’s also a great way to foster connection between partners. Connection is so much of what dance is about, anyway, whether it’s connection to our own emotions and experiences, connection with our Higher Selves, or connection with others. Watching a partner’s movements and mimicking them with our own bodies is a playful way to learn about focusing attention on someone else.
Each child needs a partner, so either have them choose for themselves, or divide the class into two lines, and pair up one child from each line. Next, partners face one another and decide who will lead first and who will follow. Initially, you may want to have them stand in one place and simplify the movements, using one body part at a time, such as the arms, legs, or head. Before starting the music, remind children to proceed slowly in the beginning, so the followers are able to keep up with the leaders.
Once they have mastered simple mirroring, begin to encourage them to explore moving multiple body parts, expanding their shapes, and moving around the room. In the spirit of equality, be sure to set a time limit for the leaders, such as five minutes, and then switch so that leaders will get a chance to be followers and vice versa.
Next time you need a quick break, or a simple exercise to fill in a few extra minutes, try mirroring; it’s guaranteed fun.
I hope you’ll visit the next blog in this week’s blog chain: http://www.terri-forehand.blogspot.com/
Teaching is an Ongoing Experiment
It has been said more than once that great teachers are continuously in the process of learning. After all, it is only by evolving our knowledge that we will have things to share with students, and the way to come up with new ideas is to experiment. In other words, we have to walk the walk first to be able to demonstrate it later.
This means that if we are looking to share dance and movement exercises with children, the best place to begin is with ourselves. First, set the intention to incorporate movement experiments and play into your day to day routine, and then be sure to set aside time and space to enjoy and explore. The fact that you are simultaneously learning and doing something good for your body is a huge bonus.
Inspiring music that speaks to your heart and a little bit of floor room are the only required ingredients. It can be helpful to have a wall mirror to evaluate what you are doing from time to time, to see which shapes and movements work better together. Seeing your movements helps with remembering later on.
The best teachers are enthusiastic about their material, evolving dynamically in their own quest for ideas and inspiration. Setting aside some time for playful experimentation is a rich source of value for you as a teacher and for every student you meet along your path.
Please be sure to visit the next blog in this weeks blog chain: http://www.terri-forehand.blogspot.com/
Why We Dance
January 29, 2010 by admin
Filed under Inspiration
For as long as we have been upright creatures, human beings have been dancing. Dance is a form of expression that supersedes verbal language; it is possible to convey far more meaning in a sweeping gesture than a simple phrase. But why do we dance? What compels us?
Celebration. Every culture across the globe celebrates for many different reasons. Social events, such as birth and marriage are two of the most common causes for festivity. There are also dances to praise the merits of each season. In Africa, for instance, there are dances of praise for fertility, of both crops and offspring. Other dances may be more specific to a particular area, or tribe, such as dances to celebrate a recent victory. One could argue that dance rituals of death fall in this category. While dancers grieve over the loss of a loved one, they simultaneously celebrate the life of that person.
Communion. Most humans believe in a Higher Power, and with this belief comes the desire to communicate and receive blessings from that entity. Sacred dances have been practiced for centuries, and are still quite common in places such as India, Asia, Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East. Dancing for communion is intricately linked with prayer, as well.
Connection. Humans are social creatures, and dance has long been a way for people to find connection and community. The array of group dances over time is staggering, from the simple maypole dance of spring, to waltzing, contra dancing, square dancing, and the ubiquitous conga line. Never has the old adage “no man is an island” ever been more correct than on the dance floor.
In the end, the simplest reason of all may be that it feels good to move our bodies to music. It is one of the most natural forms of expression, and a common language we all share. Young children are the most accurate barometers of how innate dance is for humans. If they hear a beat, they move their feet. Or hips, or anything else they can think of. Dance is not only our heritage, but also our birthright.
A Dictionary of Dance
January 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under must-haves
Title: A Dictionary of Dance
Author: Liz Murray
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Blue Apple Books, 2007
ISBN: 978-1593546137
Learning to dance means learning an entire new language, and this book covers the dance ABC’s, from arabesque to zones. Colorful, expressive line drawings add a dynamic, playful quality that makes learning fun.
Dance as Expression
When we dance, we use our bodies to express feelings and ideas. Movement is a powerful alternative to speech, and can often say much more in a shorter amount of time. Helping children learn how to use their bodies as an expressive tool can give them an entirely new emotional outlet to deal with feelings, which at times are intense or overwhelming. It is important and healing to have positive ways to deal with feelings and to move that energy out of the body, instead of squelching or repressing it.
Naming a feeling is the first step. Help the children get in touch with what they are feeling by standing still in one place, closing their eyes and focusing on their bodies. Ask the following questions to help them get in touch with their emotions. Do they feel heavy or light, hot or cold, hard, or soft? What is their face saying right now? Are they smiling or frowning?
There will probably be a range of answers, and of course, the ubiquitous, “I don’t know”. Use whatever clear answer comes first and work from there. As an example, suppose the answer is “Mad. My friend said something that I didn’t like.”
As a teacher, any feeling that arises is something to work with. Put on music and let them create a dance about how they are feeling. The response can be, “Great. That sounds like a very clear feeling. You are mad. How can you show that with your body? Can you show that feeling with movements instead of words? What does your body want to do when it is mad?”
We all need healthy ways to deal with intense emotions, and dance is a potent alternative to hitting a pillow or yelling from the peak of the nearest hillside. Humans are emotional creatures, which is both our greatest blessing and our largest challenge. Having the proper tools to ride those powerful currents can help make the ride a whole lot more fun.
Trance Dance To Beat Winter Blues
This past summer there was a stretch of time when the sun did not make an appearance for thirteen out of sixteen days. It felt like the sun might never return. Things began to get a bit squirrely when cabin fever began to set in. Something had to be done. The Facebook entry for the day read, ”I am all about frantic trance dance in the living room in order to combat cabin fever”. Several friends gave it the thumbs up, and the ensuing daily trance dance in the living room truly became a key element in the preservation of sanity. Plus, it felt good. Real good. It was a successful experiment, because, let’s face it, we humans have hundreds of joints in our bodies for a reason: namely, to move. Even more importantly, the old adage “move it or lose it” applies directly to us moving our bodies, often, and every day. When we don’t, we feel it. Maybe not right away, but over time heaviness, fatigue, lethargy, and inertia build until they simply can no longer be ignored.
At this moment we find ourselves in the dead of winter. While a great many creatures are busy sleeping it off, for the rest of us there is an overwhelming feeling of wanting to either stay in bed for as long as possible, or just get the heck out of dodge to someplace far, far away where the sun is shining. Since neither is possible right this second it’s obviously time for the Daily Dose of Dance.
Thus is born The Living Room Challenge, a no-holds-barred, simple-to-do exercise, where there are no excuses and no rules…except one: for thirty minutes, each and every day, crank the music (whatever makes you want to move your butt), and move your butt. Be forewarned, it’s contagious. Kids, dogs, and husbands might just jump into the game, too.
How about you? Are you up for the Challenge?
