Balance is not the still point,poised and complete.Balance is the still point and the counter,as they dance. The invitation in the mix is to play with your balance, find rocking motions in your movements, explore how you use gravity, your centre & your body awareness to find that balance again and again as each moment …
Conscious dance = a practice of moving with awareness. Gratitude = a practice of appreciative awareness. Conscious dance + Gratitude = a practice of moving with appreciative awareness:) With deep appreciation, Jolene
I ‘ve been contemplating Bones. How I often think of them as rigid and straight, because mostly I see them only when they’re out of their body, as skeletons, dried out and brittle. But I’ve been wondering about them alive in my body. Holding structure, holding form, also breathing and moving. Made up of living, …
No one I know Moves only in straight lines Our paths twist and curve The journey unfurling We come back around Though never to the same place Our bodies too Circle and spiral With poetic efficiency
This is a Dance Awake mix that was the first in a series called Women Dancing (not because you needed to be any particular type of woman to join, simply because something different happens in a space where there is only women – obvs, now that it’s online, all are welcome to enjoy!). In the …
Every day we have feelings and movements that want to be experienced, that want to be felt. Some days it doesn’t feel like there’s time for that. So, I made this short mix as a window of time carved out for you. It’s 33 minutes, but sometimes taking even just 5 minutes “out of time”, …
Belong to your bodyLet your body belong to you.Own each movementLet the movement own you.Be inextricably part of this planet’s whole,Belonging, in whatever moment (awkward, powerful, beautiful, broken)You find yourself in. Themes are always an invitation, a thread to pull that might bring deeper awareness or expansion in the practice, and “Belonging” is no different. …
What you push againstShows you your formYour NoInforms your YesYour strength is forged in your Resistance “Should” is one of my least favourite words. The impression I’m getting is that if you think “you should” but your body is in resistance, then you probably “shouldn’t”. This is not a validation of procrastination or distraction, but …
Deep listeningTakes place without strainSimply presenceAnd tuning in to receive
Close your eyesAnd see your body As you moveSee your body See inside your bodySee your body in relationship Part of the groundPart of the musicPart of this living world See your body Visualisation in dance can be seeing a move (or series of moves) in the mind’s eye before making it (or them) which …
Matter
Draws so much attention
I wonder sometimes
How much I’m missing out
On the quiet pleasures of spaciousness
This mix starts with about 30 secs or so of quiet (so set your speaker at it’s normal range and let the music appear in it’s own time). Part of the practice of dance awake is tuning in to our breath, however it is in the moment. The invitation here though is to start lying …
Read more “Let the Waves of your Breath wash over the Shore of your Being”
And you’ll know them because they’ll be dancing… The more I dance my own dance, the more I spot them in the crowd, the special fellow humans with that willingness to dance. Who show up with whatever they are feeling. Who pay attention and meet with their whole being. Radiating their embodied wisdom, and honouring …
Nourishment is found Down deep in your wellTake time to fill from waters clear Drink deep the soul elixir The invitation in this movement practice is to, like water, find yourself deeply connected to gravity. Follow the dance of least resistance. That is not to say stop moving, but instead of expending energy in forcing …
There is nothing you are not connected to, patiently waiting for you to notice.
Listen with your skin, as you breath in.
Let your ears open like flowers to every sound and silence.
Touch, as you breath out, and with your weight as you lean in.
Letting your eyes soften to dissolve the illusion of space between.
Being all this beautiful entangled mess that is life, as you let it in.
When you’ve tried harder, and still harder And those illusory places you grasp for The should be like this and the must get to there Leave you dry and dying A burnt out hot mess Then maybe it’s time to try softer. Gently finding yourself In the it is like this and I am here …
Grief comes in many forms and for many reasons. I made this mix because my dad passed away last year and a lot of grief has washed through me since. Dancing has given space to be with that grief, to move with it (even if sometimes it’s just the movement of a tear down a …
I rarely dance in a gendered cornerWhat with the whole dancefloor available to this human shuffleAnd the space of a whole universe for this to soul boogie in But what delicious flavours can be found in being a woman?Sometimes searing, sometimes softOften bound, gagged and shackledIn attempt to contain The shear overwhelming beauty, passion, power, …
This theme came about as a result of wanting to re-build trust in myself. There are so many voices vying for our attention and people, intentionally or unintentionally, swaying us this way or that, that sometimes we end up making choices that aren’t the best for us (well, I have in the past). The course …
Dear Life, Thank you for dancing with me. Even when I’m awkward and don’t want to come out of the corner. Or step on your toes. Sometimes you step on mine too, and that hurts!I know this is often when I get distracted and forget I’m dancing. Or when we’re learning a particularly challenging move. …
“God speaks to each of us as he makes us,then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall,go to the limits of your longing.Embody me. Flare up like a flameand make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: …
We are the stardustand the stars. Dancing Specks of dustAnd the whole universe
Dance
Listening with your body
As it reveals you
Twilight a sensory threshold temporarily dissolved borders, no man’s land moving fluid and malleable the dark phase of liminality breaking down to make whole source creative power making space, time, place for feeling where we end and where we begin
With love and a deep appreciation I dance. We have only this moment.
“Be like water, my friend” — Bruce Lee
Finding our feet Kissing with each stepThe earth beneath Some in rapid successionSome slow and lingering Always this dance, Merging, flying, Out breath, inOur feet and the groundAre Lovers that can’t be kept apart.
Deep in your Heart is a tiny doorTo which you always hold the keyThrough that tiny doorLies the Source of all Life Dancing into your heartWith whatever you might findAnd through that tiny doorFind your Soul restored
we’re coming roundeyes opening blinking in this dawn’s half lightas it dances through our eyelashes seeing more than we’ve ever dareddrinking it inletting it move usin ways we’ve never been moved One of the invitations in Dance Awake is to dance with eyes open or closed. Eyes open generally brings more awareness to the space …
Like the phoenix, we rise when the time is ripe… Through the mess, through the fire. Patiently, let your body be. It’ll move when it’s ready.
Be curious. Of where the light comes from. Of how it feels. And the expanding of dense spaces. Exploring it’s dance with the shadows. And how you are filled with it.
“Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul, be just another human soul.” C. G. Jung
Invitation for the Dance – What: Be.Where: Here.When: Now. With Love…
Why, feelings need space to move and to dance. They don’t like being pent up inside. But why feel? Because, just perhaps, feeling is reason enough for this existence. Create space to feel and to move with those feelings. Trust your body to know what it’s doing and lean into it. There is no space …
Choosing to dance to a curated conscious dance mix is different to putting on a favorite track & dancing around the room. With the wave of music you making the opportunity to dance through all the feelings in you (and perhaps haven’t expressed). Sometimes we feel resistance to certain tracks because of the feelings they …
Feeling your spirit in your body – in your breath, in your movements, in your stillness. In your dance with gravity, in your will and in your surrender. In each facet of your biospiritual ecology. How does your spirit express, without words, in your dance?
Open just a little more To all the possibilities in you Those parts kept hidden Let the cool air touch them The fire warm them Let the ground receive them Years spent unmoving Allow them to flow through you To be seen To be danced To be loved
Close your eyes. Finding yourself in this body. In this dance. In this skin. Allowing yourself to go beyond this body. Feel what it might be like to dance in the skin of another. The subtle and unsubtle differences. Allowing understanding beyond limited experience. Understanding from your heart, as it connects to another heart. Expanding …
“We forget that we are in an exquisite miracle of beauty everyday… Love is not the fabric of everything. The fabric of everything is beauty. And our reaction to seeing the beauty is Love. ” Dr Zach Bush The invitation for this mix is to find patterns in your dance – old patterns or new …
“Whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.” – e. e. cummings Invitation for today’s dance: As you move (big movements or micro-movements) become aware of how each movement (or space between movement) feels. And meet these feelings with movement (or …
“Umntu ngumntu ngabantu (I am because you are)” The invitation for this mix is to explore the universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity… Or just to enjoy your connection with each and every cell in that amazing body of yours:)
A dance awake mix for your conscious dance practice. This one is dedicated to everyone stuck in a small space with no nature around during this lockdown period – especially my cousin B… I’m not sure if he’ll like the tunes, but the secret to the practice is just to keep on dancing, whatever comes …
“Now is not the time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”– Ernest Hemingway A Dance Awake mix for your conscious dance practice –how it works: 1. All you need to do is just keep dancing, whatever comes at you. Your dance can be …
This too, shall pass. And all we can do is to just keep dancing. Dropping into our bodies, feeling all the feelings that move through us, letting them move us. Breathing in and then fully letting go of that breath. Feeling the full weight of our bodies, the texture of our own flesh. Your beating …
BreatheFeel the weight of your body, connected to this EarthAir on your skinEach cell vibrating Heart beatingAnd all there is to do, is Just Keep Dancing:) With so much Love, Jolene:)
I’ve made some stretched out transitions in this one, as the invitation is to deepen our awareness of how we go from one place, state, feeling, move to another. How we do change. I recommend a little warm up and a dash of embodied meditation (just a dash should be enough) before starting this journey. …