As an experienced Contacter, I am delighted at how much my dancing benefits from the practice of AWE. Again and again, my awareness deepens, and I discover new insights that nourish my dance. Wow!
Elizabeth
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What can I say?
AWEsome.
We coalesced in a room at Breitenbush on a rainy winter evening, each one bringing an alive and aware Being into collective Presence. I journeyed in sensations, following inner witnessing of my experiences of Self and Other, sound, and light and darkness, moving on through into reaching out. Touch happened. I witnessed my experiences of contact. I immersed in awareness of all of That. Listening, always coming back to witnessing, I responded in acceptance of just what IS, and with the truth of my being.
Always, permission; seldom did judgements last longer than a flicker. Right and wrong were no longer there. The Sufi poet, Rumi, has written:
Out beyond ideas of
wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
The experience was transformative. We had created that field.
David
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winter Contact Jam
There are many reasons I love the Winter Contact Jam with Carolyn and Patrick.
It gives me a focused place to become more aware of my body in a gentle, playful and deeply thoughtful way. It is both safe, and allowing unusually broad permission to just experience, and at the same time, or because of that permission, it often brings up unconscious fears, tensions, avoidance, or old trauma. But it brings it up in a space of acceptance and love so there is this healing environment into which to bring those old or habitual negatives.
I also go to be with this amazing group of people. People who are there to consciously explore their bodies and their bodies relationship to others. It is both a kind of scientific investigation and a return to a childlike place of freedom and joy. Everyone is thoughtful, carefully investigating their own process, aware of each other, respectful, and sharing their experience in movement and words. There is a deep bonding that still allows each person the integrity of their separateness.
I go because the insights I have in this special environment translate out into all of my life.
And then there is the snow and the quiet. And the hot water and steam . There is the amazing food at Breitenbush and that amazing community of loving people that live there.
And then there are Carolyn and Patrick. Two of the most unusual and deeply dedicated and self respectful people I know. You can go to Carolyn with any question, whether about gravity or how to fall or how to lift or how to share a point of contact or any thing that seems to you awkward or silly or even stupid and she will give you her complete presences and go so deeply into that question that you will forget that it seemed foolish. You will learn on such a basic and yet profound level that you will want to spend the next few days only exploring that new understanding which keeps expanding into more.
And Patrick is a master of self presence. He is there completely for himself and yet he is able to give on this expanded level of kindness and permission and invitation to join with him in some experience of movement, of shared touch, the tiniest relaxed motion of surrender or some wild dramatic gesture of dance. He can perform without any selfconsciousness but just as easily he encourages others to get up and put on the show. He has an unusual capacity for inwardness, self absorption and connection on that deep level with others and then dramatic gestures and performance.
Audy
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WOW is such an appropriate term.
A friend tells me that I speak the word in my sleep... still exploring what that means.
There are "shifts" occurring deep inside of me, like gigantic trees sprouting sky-ward - that I'm searching to discover among the shadows that swirl in my being. I continue to unravel my shadows (past traumas and current disbeliefs) and find the brilliant illumination that resides there.
I posted this on Facebook yesterday and I'd like to share it with you:
I feel changes in my life, I am swirling and flowing - I feel like a leaf in the eddies of a mountain stream. I twist this way and that flowing up and down and swirling around... but I am neither broken nor stranded on a rock.
I am different in every moment, passing through change, like phases of the moon... I am the moonlight, I am water, I change. All stillness and separation are illusions.
Love shines brightly in every spirit - shadow is the illusion.
Fear fades - so does the illusion of darkness.
I love - I accept - I fear less - I feel joy - the "I" is illusion.
I hope my writings make sense, I'm in spaces that words lack vibrance to relate...
I would like to share my experience of the dances...
I'll start with a brief summary of my metamorphosis. The profound changes started 5 years ago, when I attended Massage School and my class visited Breitenbush as part of Hydrotherapy studies. Then two years ago, I found my community and tribe (Seattle area currently), which provided me with mentors, wisdoms, new tools and keys (insights?). This proved to be essential for my exploration of the path to forgiving myself, accepting the universe and opening to the magic that occurs between conscious (awakened) spirits. Along the way, I also discovered my purpose, gifts, and the increasing depth of my being.
Last year, at the WOW of Contact, I had my first exploration along this path of my life. The path I found appears to have facets connecting to all aspects of my being. These range from gut wrenching fear and childhood trauma, to the greatest adventures of friendship, including exploration of the unknown landscapes deep in my essential being (spirit & body)! And the discovery of dancing with myself in the brilliant light of love for my spirit embodied!
The changes in me over the past year have been so profound, that individuals who met me just two years ago have noticed.
I have a small love/hate relationship with this concept I'm calling "change" - it is wonderful to release habits and fears that obscured my true being. However, it is also annoying to find another layer underneath that is just as "yuckie". What I experience - I release fear but then find jealousy. Accepting that often leads me into selfishness, followed by frustration, anxiety, self consciousness, anger, back to fear and then finally, I reach acceptance and serenity! This pattern often occurs during the course of a single day!
Sometimes I feel like a shirt being tossed in the washing machine every other day. But I'm sure everyone else has the same experience, right?! LOL That is another part of my acceptance - I'm not in this alone and other folks DO have similar experiences - part of the wonder of life.
Please know that I greatly appreciate everyone's presence at the dances during the week of WOW. I felt each individual's unique energy and contribution to the dance. It was wonderful to experience you!
Thank you for being who you are!
Blessings and Hugs,
Mark
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enter gently, take care of yourself first, move from your center, the taller you are the lighter you are, when you look at the floor you end up there--if you want to stay upright look up and out, meet the floor before it meets you, be kind, assess what support is available in every moment, keep in contact, know your options at the point of contact, leave gently
The reason I do contact improv is because of the lateral transfer of knowledge and experience I can take to the rest of my life. I also do it because it challenges my edges of intimacy, physical contact, touch, trust, not taking things personally, testing my limits and assumptions about what I think is permissible.
Well, that and it's an awful lot of fun, too. And its so nice to be around adults who give themselves permission to play. Given the right environment, we have the endless capacity to amuse ourselves.
Contact jams can move pretty fast for me. There's a wealth of information available in each moment-to-moment-to-moment. WOW asks us to simply show up. But to show up deeply and fully for every moment of the dance.
During the time of year when things lay fallow and consolidate their energies for a new cycle of seasons, WOW invites us to focus our awareness into our movement practices, first with our selves, then with one or more partners, and finally with the group as a whole.
I feel like I bring back so many questions to research in my movement practices, and the opportunities to learn are endless.
My soul, mind and body were all deeply fed by the environment WOW at Breitenbush mid-January. The pace feels slower, the pools less crowded. Somehow the stars shine a little brighter.
The only thing that's hard is coming back to the city after a week of delicious food, soaking, and dancing.
Love,
Robin
