DCDanceBlog

i have nothing to say about dance right now. no rants, no raves, nothing i’m reading or thinking deeply about.

but it’s still with me, more subconscious thoughts about movement. while brushing my teeth, i become aware of my shoulders hunching up near my ears, and allow myself to breathe, take a moment, fully feel the floor and extend up and out. it’s amazing how long it takes for those little things, small alignment issues, to work their way into one’s consciousness and unconscious. there was a time when i only noticed my posture once every few days; now it’s every few hours or minutes, and i stand better even when i’m not thinking about it. but that process has taken a few years.

change is slow. altering our habits–especially our physical ones, i think–takes an achingly long time and requires a hell of a lot of determination. i see my mother, with her hunched shoulders, and have to accept that no matter how many times i say to her, “mom, shoulders!”, it will probably never change. 

but i hate it when someone says, “people never change.” of course they do; we’re all capable of it. it’s just very very slow. i watch myself in dance class and little by little, my awareness of my center, knees over ankles, head up, eyes aware, fingers extended–all those small things–is increasing. little by little. just like my ability to let go of things that bother me, accept my idiosyncracies, stay in the present, has increased. little by little.