Honoring Nancy Stark Smith
In honor of Nancy Stark Smith (1952-2020). The percolation of your profound movement wisdom reached me last year and through the Underscore I learned how to see my body as firmly whole in its own place. Embodying "streaming" (the sense of ongoing lifeforce flowing from one's body) gave my work Like Water depth and perspective. In your honor, I share some of my authentic reflections after the first two Underscores I participated in. In addition, a short (very silhouetted) dance ruminating on the wisdom of your teachings.
"In the beginning, I was a sea creature. A jellyfish, a squid, a fish swimming around the dark ocean trying to find her school. I was underwater but I could breathe, floating, diving, slithering along the ocean floor, luxuriating in the feel of the sand on me. I am not sure who I am but I transform, ahh legs to carry me. Wanting to curl up like a leaf in the crest of her tree's trunk, nestled just right. Play like newborn jaguars, along the straight we roll and leap, we are a pair. Focus moves in a fascinated way.
I sometimes feel overwhelmed, unsure--do I need permission to join in? Who do I become if I allow myself to engage, to be held too. Is this a deep longing? Human contact, a gift.
To share in the breath of another soul makes me cry with sheer gratitude. Holding on to my own breath, my own body. I feel like we enter a new dimension, its transportation. Its reincarnation of the past and of the future past that we didn't even know existed. Do I live more when I dance with others, when I share in this energy? Is this the process of unmuting? This is the real dance, a constant opening." (10/16/19)
"Rainstorm. I look up at the ceiling. So many lines. What if the wood became permeable, like mesh, and the rain fell through. The droplets falling, tumbling, plummeting from the cloud to gently strike my face. I try to cup my hands towards the ceiling. They have never cupped like that before. The sides of my hands, overlapping for the first time this way.
Play the piano forever, you gentle creature. Water touching inside of the mouth, bursts of energy. This healing triangle, we ended up marvelously edging this shape with gifts of presence, energy, touch. I felt filled up with flowing, golden energy streaming between all three of us. Raw human moves of the limbs. A ball of yarn, like a spider's silk, holds us together." (12/9/19).
"In the beginning, I was a sea creature. A jellyfish, a squid, a fish swimming around the dark ocean trying to find her school. I was underwater but I could breathe, floating, diving, slithering along the ocean floor, luxuriating in the feel of the sand on me. I am not sure who I am but I transform, ahh legs to carry me. Wanting to curl up like a leaf in the crest of her tree's trunk, nestled just right. Play like newborn jaguars, along the straight we roll and leap, we are a pair. Focus moves in a fascinated way.
I sometimes feel overwhelmed, unsure--do I need permission to join in? Who do I become if I allow myself to engage, to be held too. Is this a deep longing? Human contact, a gift.
To share in the breath of another soul makes me cry with sheer gratitude. Holding on to my own breath, my own body. I feel like we enter a new dimension, its transportation. Its reincarnation of the past and of the future past that we didn't even know existed. Do I live more when I dance with others, when I share in this energy? Is this the process of unmuting? This is the real dance, a constant opening." (10/16/19)
"Rainstorm. I look up at the ceiling. So many lines. What if the wood became permeable, like mesh, and the rain fell through. The droplets falling, tumbling, plummeting from the cloud to gently strike my face. I try to cup my hands towards the ceiling. They have never cupped like that before. The sides of my hands, overlapping for the first time this way.
Play the piano forever, you gentle creature. Water touching inside of the mouth, bursts of energy. This healing triangle, we ended up marvelously edging this shape with gifts of presence, energy, touch. I felt filled up with flowing, golden energy streaming between all three of us. Raw human moves of the limbs. A ball of yarn, like a spider's silk, holds us together." (12/9/19).
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