What do a carpenter swinging a hammer, an office worker closing a drawer, a police officer directing traffic, and a ballerina’s storytelling have in common? All of their movements are traveling through space in relationship to other objects (concrete or abstract), taking specific pathways with particular attitudes. The hammer arcs up and then down to […]
Spring cleaning this month included the fridge, and it was high time! To entice myself to do that cleaning and improve the kitchen environment and my own nutrition this season, I bought some nice jars for my minimal “meal prep,” in order to have something good ready to snack on at all times. My habits […]
For nearly a year, the A Blythe Coach podcast has consisted of weekly bite-sized insights on dance, yoga, well-being, creativity, and joy! But, to celebrate the 50th episode of my podcast, I’ve decided to share a special longer-form (1-hour) interview, kicking off a regular interview series to be interspersed with my solo episodes. I’m so […]
What qualities of focus are required to be a creative and effective person? How do dancers attend to the space within and around them, using focus to direct the viewer’s attention and to give shape to their environment? Let’s start with four haiku poems I wrote to distill qualities of focus as introduction to the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
