Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI don't know if it has been very obvious, but I haven't said a word since a week ago Monday. And that isn't like me. Though the formal part of my fellowship is over, the learning has just begun. In the days and weeks ahead, I know that I will reflect and re-learn from the experience I have been through.
Maybe, I am just a little wistful about not having a scheduled class on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I just needed to rest.
But I did lay the groundwork for dance technique classes. Armed with my Ailey "key card" I have already begun plotting about going just for the day to New York, and taking a class. You say, why don't you take a dance class in Boston? There are plenty to choose from and instructors of the highest quality.
I don't know if this will make sense, but the feeling of being away from one's home base, at least for me, is terribly liberating. It allows me to challenge myself, take risks, even look ridiculous. But it feels like it is restructuring not only my body but allowing my brain to stretch and evolve. The act of new experiences (I had never taken class in New York) has in fact, "revived" my heart, my creativity, my spirit.
And so as we head for the last holiday weekend, it is now a fact that I will be going to New York for a day and can go and challenge myself again.
But certainly not for the last time this academic year. Nor will this be my last entry in the blog. Writing is a tool that I have rediscovered just in time.
Image via WikipediaSunday was day 2 of my Laban workshop, and to say it was emotional is an understatement. In the first place I had stayed up "past my bedtime" the night before, to be able to go to see "Fela" on Broadway, and so I was simply exhausted, but primarily it was about saying my good-byes to three of the women that had been in all 3 of the classes I had taken, and that was difficult.
But here is the true gift of this fellowship. I now have a community of dancers in New York that I feel a connection to and that I will continue to nurture. Tara, a wonderful actress who originally went to Boston Conservatory lives in Brooklyn and teaches Pilates. I plan to visit and take her class. Lauren who graduated from University of North Carolina and is entering the LIMS program in the near future and Laura from Connecticut who is a dancer who visits New York often. I will miss them but plan to keep in touch.
The other gift this fellowship has given me is in the title of today's blog. It is a reference to Hansel and Gretel, and how they plan to find their way home from the woods in which they are venturing. Like Grimm fairytale counterparts, I am dropping crumbs of bread to find my way back home (New York) during the year, to keep the renewal fresh.
I now have courage to come and take classes at Ailey during the year to work holistically while savoring and nurturing the artistic self that has resurfaced during August in New York.
So as I start the next phase of my year, I plan to write each day about my continued growth and development. And hopefully to be able to write once a month about taking a class in New York.
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