[note: I'm loathe to bump Visudha's post of Michael Stone's fine interview with Gabrielle Roth down the queue by dropping my latest wordbomb, but here goes ... and please scroll down because it is well worth the listen.]
Okay, Mirrors … now 23 days gone and slip-sliding rapidly from memory as thoughts shift from then to next – which (lucky me) is Lori Saltzman in Olympia followed by Andrea Juhan the weekend after here on home turf. But in the mirror of Mirrors, my best attempt at a one-word précis is "zowie.” Let me explain …
Point one: All those core teachers (GR, KA, LS, JH) in one fantastic lap-of-the-gods dance space, blue waters laid out at our feet, pelicans and hawks gliding by on the updrafts + a supporting cast of teachers DJing the sweats - Peter, Margaret, Sara, Michael, Shawn, Davida - each with their own spin on the rhythms from candied worldbeat to Bittersweet Symphony, Groove Is In The Heart & (mamma mia!) did i dream this, or was there also three golden minutes of classic ABBA?
Point two: The rare pleasure of swimming through Tiburon waters with 80-plus dedicated rhythmatists, a UN of dancers from multiple points of the compass, all of us going broke (“I” statements please!) in pursuit of community and personal growth and more/more/more of this transplendent practice.
Point three: The initial sense that there wouldn't be nearly enough dance time, what with many hours of fresh hell in the form of a glue-stickathon art project and the dreaded (speaking strictly for myself) Rhythm & Repetition … only to be followed by the dawning realization that the entire 10 days (and all life for that matter – yes, I’m finally getting it) was a dance on and off the floor - from airport to hotel, hardwood to redwoods, Cafe Gratitude to men's night out in Sausalito, Marin Suite parties to Fairfax hot tubs, Muir Beach bonfire to home fires burning.
A few alternative words for the experience: “krunch bam kapow ouch whamm zap kapow urkkk zok biff zzzzzwap splatt” (to quote the cartoon bubbles from episode two of the original Batman TV series, courtesy of the website www.batmania.com). (no surprise, this continues overleaf ...)
Here’s what I wrote to one 5R friend minutes after my return: “Let me merely say that Mirrors and Gabrielle rocked me in a million subtle, transformative ways. I feel the spirit of the age running through me somehow, a dedication to art and the moment and the instinctual truths of ancient embodied knowledge coiled deep in DNA spirals. A refreshed dedication to listening to the transmissions - astral and beyond radiating from the summer triangle in the northeastern night sky and also right here in teachers as brilliant, funny, serious and dedicated to the growth of their students. There were times when I felt like I was in a birthing pool, surrounded by wise guardians who are clear that their purpose here is to be of service to the greater unfolding of consciousness - evolutionary petals flowering into the light of ever-expansion ... an expansion that is now moving at warp speed as some or perhaps all of us - the 99th monkeys of this world - reach the Gladwellian tipping point and discover that we are transdimensional beings who are here to love and be loved. It seems to me that this is one (among many) cores of the teaching. Lost & Profound Pete wrote this last paragraph. Depressive Dan is in the house as well, and I do miss the hothouse connection with our remarkable gang of brave souls. What a practice! A rest of my life practice at last!!”
Rhythm & Repetition proved not so daunting after all. I was in the neophyte group ‘C’ and Jonathan & Gabrielle were gentle with us – patiently explaining the guidelines and steering us back on course when we veered into stunned silence or nonsensical babble or those reductionist “you’ve got arms and legs”/”I’ve got arms and legs” exchanges. It was fascinating to witness self in the hot seat and others from a distance – our personal alpha/beta defaults, the ease with which some of us can hammer out the “you” statements while being incapable of owning any rebounded “I” declarations … all give, no take … all take, no give … … the lions that roar, the meek who squeak. Then there were the cultural and language gaps (and the bravery of those who soldiered on even though English is not their first language). Ultimately, the difficulty in arriving at a fair balance in the relational dyad – evidence of why, in this televisual age of one-way communication, the art of conversation is all but dead. And yet, as was often evident in those sessions, it still breathes … and becomes immensely rewarding when the two parties clicked and the verbal dance flowed.
The art project? Surprisingly (for me, who had an art attack as a kid and found solace in the written word), it was pure pleasure. Kathy and Peter were our ever-available guides and advisors. Lori played great music on her laptop. The time flew as we assembled our journals, festooning brown Kraft envelopes with mythic imagery, feathers, wallpaper samples, magazine clippings and rainbow dustings of paint, ink and crayon. While Gabrielle reminded us of her “no note-taking” dictum, Kathy didn’t – so my sneaky rebel managed to capture a few of her directions in the moment, to wit: “We’ve all got art and writing wounds … we’re silenced by red pencil anxiety.” And my favorite: “The situation is serious but not hopeless.”
I could ramble on about the theatre, the mirroring exercises, the people and the truly remarkable, downright holy energies that were generated by the sweats, but it is time for a concluding statement - as if any one sentence could sum up as rich and marbled and social and challenging and ultimately delightful an experience as Mirrors. As if any one of the ‘me’ plural who made their appearance during those heady embodied summer days and nights has earned the right to speak for the others.
One of these ... the higher soul/self – the witness consciousness that awoke to the reality of so many subpersonalities ... simply extends sincere all-for-one, one-for-all gratitude to student peers and teachers dear alike. The rest of the cast and crew simply can’t wait to do it all over again …
signed
Fearless Fred
Peter Polite
Thomas Torn
Alistair Anxious
Orlando the Outsider
RuPaul2
JC the Messiah
Brad Pitiful
Love-Me Lawrence
Needy Ned
Heartsick Hank
Luigi Lothario
The Good Boy
WTFu Manchu
Joyous Jeffrey
