Shake It Baby

Cues.

Every spring Seattle hosts a three day belly dance festival called Cues and Tattoos. What makes this event special is it's emphasis on the role of improvisation in the belly dance form. There are many branches of American belly dance, each with an emphasis on a particular movement style or regional music and movements, but improvisation is a fundamental part of nearly every kind of belly dance being practiced in the United States. That being so, in recent years there has been a marked shift way from improvisation and towards set choreography. Not so at Cues and Tattoos. One of the requirements for participating in their performance showcase is that at least 50 percent of the performance be improvised, which is especially challenging for any group that wants to present something other than the well-known and easily recognized movements of American Tribal or International Tribal styles.

My solution,  to play with "weaving" choreography and improvisation, unconventional formations, and a little bit of impish playfulness. What I have to show for it is a deeply textured and seamless piece that is, in fact, different every time. Time to put it on the stage.

Photograph:
www.rubygonewild.com

A Walk In The Woods

Saunterer.

***From a 2009 post that has become the basis for a new essay on walking and the wilderness***

A long weekend and the beginning of summer do a lot to remind us to go outside, breath the fresh air, listen to the birds, stretch our legs, and experience wildness. I think it’s important, amid the beer, fireworks, weenie roasts, and recreational vehicles that mark the American camping experience, to make sure that we do just that, stretch our legs and experience wildness. It’s not often anymore that the majority of us find ourselves away from the crush of noise, information, and development that comes with “civilized society”, and I think our distance from the wild plays a key role in our health and well-being, and our decision making as a people. Distancing ourselves from the wild is part of why we are able to devalue the environment, and that devaluation reveals itself in our politics, policies, and way of life. It allows us to waste resources, diminish habitat, allow entire species to go extinct, and engineer our bodies and our food.

I feel at my most engaged in the environment when walking through it. A walk in the wilderness does more to ease my mind, body, and soul than almost anything else. And it reminds me, in a tangible and profound way, that I am connected to this place, this world, this land, that it sustains me. Thoreau, in his 1862 essay, Walking, had this to say about the value of a walk in the woods, “I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering; which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about the country, in the middle ages, and asked charity, under pretence of going à la sainteterre" — to the holy land… They who never go to the holy land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds, but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering.”

We can make no progress in the improvement of our daily lives, in the fostering of health, community, sustainability, or peace, until we acknowledge and embrace our connection to the wilderness. Take a first step, take a walk.

To read the full text of Thoreau’s Walking:

http://thoreau.eserver.org/walking.html

To Read Emerson’s Nature:

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/emerson/nature-emerson-a.html#Chapter%20I

Landslide Brings You Down

Mud.

This week an entire community in northern Washington was buried under a massive landslide. The human part of this tragedy is still playing out as people search for loved ones, pets, and the remnants of their lives. As in most disasters, people are asking why. The geologist in me knows that this is really a rhetorical or spiritual question, but wants to answer it in tangible terms anyway.

Landslides happen when the downward forces on a slope exceed the strength of the material to hold it in place. Steep slopes, undercutting of the leading edge, and lack of vegetation are all contributing factors, but in this case,as with many others, it was rain that tipped the balance. Like when building a sandcastle, some water helps a slope stabilize up to a point; too much water though increases the weight of a slope and its likelihood to flow. Also, areas that have already failed are more prone to secondary events as the slide itself exposes subsurface materials, removes stabilizing vegetation, and over-steepens the slope. The Washington community buried this week had seen another large slide event in the last ten years.

So there it is. Rain. Steep slopes. Previous slides. Undercutting. Why. And not at all satisfying to know. Look around at the world. Understand how it works. Make good choices. Hope for the best.

Yes, And...

Improv.

The first rule of theatrical improvisation is "Yes, and." Meaning, in order to keep the action moving forward, to progress the story or develop the plot and characters, you have to say yes to what you are given, and add to it. That means that if the other person decides in the first moments of the scene that they are a frog even though you have been asked to improvise, say, a scene in a doctors office, you have to accept the fact that in your new world, there are frogs in doctors offices. In dance, we call this "saying yes to your choices" and "keep dancing". Not as lyrical or succinct, but the idea is the same. No amount of pre-planning or rehearsal can completely prepare you for whatever will happen on stage, in that moment your only course of action is to keep moving forward, pressing into the piece and the other performers, not away. To stop, or roadblock is the only sure way to fail.

I think that the same rule is useful when applied to life, which is, after all, really just a grand improvisation. So today, say "Yes, and..." to the things you are given and push forward into the scenes you play.

The Stuff Of Life

Things.

Scenes from a dance bag:

oranges
pointe shoes
duct tape
water
sparkles
safety pins
stitch kit
banana
leg warmers
notes
fleece pants
hair pins
toe pads
arnica

Photograph:
www.rubygonewild.com

Less Than A Foot II

Priorities.

This week a town hall meeting in Ashland, Oregon was packed to standing room only capacity, and no wonder, one might think, their Mt. Ashland Ski Resort announced the first cancelled ski season in their fifty year history and impending bankruptcy. The loss of the ski area will have a huge impact on the local economy which thrives on tourism and access to outdoor activities. But no. The whole town did not show up in support of their local business or to discuss the growth of their economy, they showed up in protest of a local ordinance proposing placing a ban on carrying loaded firearms in public. Many people attended the meeting wearing their side arms.  And...scene.

Too Hot To Handle

Collapse.

NASA has just released a massive report concerning climate change, population growth, resource distribution and economic justice this week. Their conclusion? Bad things come to those who wait. Based on empirical data, numerical modeling, and historical precedent, this study is one of the first mainstream, high-profile reports to conclude that the collapse of civilization in the coming decades is not only possible, but probable.

They sound like activists or radicals or that crazy guy that mutters to himself on the street corner or a character from the X Files. But they're not. They're NASA, telling it like it is. It is time to accept the fact that all those environmental and economic models that predicted collapse of one kind or another, predicted it by 2050. And it turns out the people making those models knew a thing or two about what they were doing.

The up side is, NASA also reminds us that we can do all the same things people have been telling us to do to save ourselves (kind of  like the dentist reminding you to floss). Live sustainably,  distribute wealth and resources among the people, make less people in general. Simple. And not up to everyone else to do for you.

To read the outstanding summary of NASA's report published in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-civilisation-irreversible-collapse-study-scientists

Photograph Courtesy of NASA via the Guardian