How I do love to travel! Sadly due to the global pandemic, I am not able to travel as far afield at present as I ordinarily like to do regularly. Thankfully, I am still able to walk around the city of Cologne, and also dance! Walking, strutting, marching, sliding, under-curves, over-curves, crawling, turning, rolling, grapevines, […]
Given that I’ve been thinking and researching about this blog for a while, it’s serendipitous that I also just learned a new German saying: “Gehüpft wie gesprungen.” It means literally “Hopped as jumped,” or more-or-less “It doesn’t matter if you hop or jump to get there.” Sort of like the English “six of one, half […]
As I mentioned in the “My Minimalism Memoir” Blog and Podcast 041, having first played in 2019 in preparation to move to Cologne, I played the 30-Day Minimalist Game (or “Minsgame”) again this March, in order to curb encroaching clutter so that I have more space for what is most important. Now this round of […]
In her introduction to the book Hip Hop Speaks to Children: a celebration of poetry with a beat*, Nikki Giovanni explains the genesis of rhythm in language, music, and ultimately hip hop: “When humans were beginning to develop our own language, separate from the growls and howls, separate from the buzz and the birdsongs, we […]
“Time is a matter of how long the duration between two events takes to achieve itself.” (The Nikolais/Louis Dance Technique* p.176) In “real time,” we have just had St. Patrick’s Day, are looking ahead at the end of March and Lent, and here in Cologne it is very much spring. Daylight savings has already sprung […]
According to Agrippina Vaganova in Basic Principles of Classical Ballet**, Pas Balancé “Is one of the simple pas allegro, which is easily done even by children. In classical dancing it is often used in waltz tempo.” (p.99) I love to waltz alone or as a pair, in ballet, ballroom and other styles, and find it’s […]
I am realizing that there are two ways to look at my approach to achieving my goals, especially when it comes to today’s topic of physical fitness and training: there is the positive interpretation, or “efficient,” and the negative way, or “lazy.” But it doesn’t matter how my behavior is interpreted, as long as it […]
“Whatever you stockpile–be it diamonds, big houses, fame, money, proficiency at advanced yoga poses, or less flashy things, you will inevitably encounter two certainties. First […], all will be lost. Second, these things, in and of themselves, will never satisfy your cravings, which are expressions of your fear and emptiness.” -Judith Lasater in Living Your […]
This article explores the classic splitting shape of Hanumanasana in yoga or “The Splits,” which becomes leaps like Grand Jete in Ballet dancing technique and others, in mythology, proper stretching practices, and performance.
CONTENT WARNING: Death, Mortality, Tribulations [but with the intent to create greater meaning and motivation in life!] To Free the Heart by Francis C. Anderson, Jr. Through dreary sodden daysThe field sponged upThe greying skies. And now the sunLies soft as birth againAs if the earth had just begun. And blossoms on the vinesDesigned in […]
