It was in early summer that the second edition of our dance retreat “shapes of my emotions (2)” took place.
We have decided to repeat this retreat that we did the previous year and to change the term intensive to retreat, which is more relevant to the content of this experience. This retreat was a beginning, of a new awareness, an awakening of the dancer in total alignment with the first concepts addressed in our online school.
The International Dance Committee (CDI, in relation with UNESCO) established the International Dance Day in 1982 and its date of April 29th was chosen to commemorate the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet.
The goals of International Dance Day are to unite the world of dance, to pay tribute to dance, to celebrate its universality, crossing all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, to bring humanity together in friendship and peace around dance, the universal language.
The Dancer’s Ways’ dance retreat «The heart’s cartography» was yet again: EPIC!
It was cold outside and warm inside.
We worked hard; we looked deeply inside ourselves, where things are hidden.
Everything was beating, beating faster, beating harder. Looking for our strength, connecting with our soul and the one of our ancestors. Continue reading
Our first Intensive was wonderful, we were able to count on a group that was motivated, inspired and curious!
Under the watchful eyes of the trees, our teachers, we were able to work on our posture, our anchoring, our presence, we were able to meditate, bury our secrets...
Thanks to the gentle caress of a swimming pond’s water we transposed the different states of the latter to our bodies. We shared our emotions with it, and we danced with it!
The wind, always present to carry our karmas and clean our spirits, let us take advantage of its force to let ourselves go to a light movement…
The imposing rocks, that surrounded this place filled with nature and mystery, that were our secret cave during these few days, laughed at us sometimes when we tried to imitate their forms and outlines, but were rather impressed when our bodies turned into rocks to resemble them.
With Dancer’s Ways, I learned a new way of working in a team, with love and enthusiasm, with the goal of turning a big idea into reality, impossible to achieve alone… And what a team! On one side we have Alhazar and Illan Rivière, for me two amazing dancers by their pedagogies, their open hearts, their ideas and above all, their dancing! On another side we have Le petit gerhard and his music, where each sound reveals a life experience, a story, a smell, a culture, a sensation; Albert, who became my photography teacher along the way, with an unbreakable knowledge, always eager to teach me something to improve a picture; Last but not least, Pablo, our web designer, accountant, legal expert, and much more; who works night and day to give birth to this project and make the internal vision just as beautiful in reality.
Silence doesn’t exist. You can chose to ignore it, not listen to it, but it is here, constantly, vibrating, swaying. It appears from nothing and joins what’s already in presence, colours the present moment and disappears again, leaving space to more sounds. This has no end, and is everywhere.
Listening to sounds relaxes me. Discovering the perfect harmony of each place, each street I walk on, each wood I walk through. Everything resonates in a certain way, with its own intensity, in due time.
When I met Illan, something changed in my dance. I discovered another vision, I discovered that dance was everywhere, in all that surrounds us, in the trees, the stars, the wind, the water, the animals… In nature, in the buildings, in the factories, the streets, the people, on the train, on the plane, at home, in you, in me …everything took another meaning, a new vision, a new learning. All that seemed significant no longer is and what I didn’t even see before is now crucial. We learn by observing, listening, but if no one shows you what it is to be seen or what paths are to be walked on, our own path, we remain blind.
Whether being on stage, at home, in a dance class…have you ever had this feeling that something was missing while your were dancing? Your body is there, your technical skills are there, your choreography is there…but you…are you really there? If you feel that something is missing, it is probably because you are not being present…you and your stories, something to express, to share, to feel, to cure, something new to experiment.
We’ve been talking about creating a project like this for three years now. I remember very clearly, in a small coffee shop in Dusseldorf, we all thought that this idea would stay an idea.
Little by little our enthusiasm grew while the essence of the project was going through changes, taking many different faces to finally look like something completely different from what we imagined in the beginning; something bigger, deeper, something that we felt would transform our lives in the creation process... With Dancer’s Ways, you cannot stop growing, dreaming, thinking, feeling, dancing … whether you are a student or a teacher.
