Dance Your Way Forward

“Movement is the song of the body.”

-Vanda Scaravelli

Today is my son’s 9th birthday and while celebrating him is of utmost importance, I admit I always take some time to celebrate myself as well. After all, it’s my birthing day...the day I became a mother.

When women give birth, more than one thing happens. A new baby is born and a mother is born. Typically in Western culture much more attention is given to the new baby than to the new mother. Often this means a woman is left to navigate her own way through her “becoming” unless she has the knowledge and means to set herself up with solid, tender-loving care surrounding her sacred rite of passage into motherhood.

My own becoming was filled with challenges, some of which you can learn more about by listening here or watching here. I struggled quietly for many months until my teacher at the time looked me in the eyes and told me it was time to dance. And that’s how I started to find my way back to myself…

I danced alone - with myself and for myself - for almost 90 minutes. I danced despair, fear, rage, and heartbreak. I danced in communication with who I had known myself to be before motherhood and asked the transformed me to introduce herself. Once I’d danced the wild dance of tempestuous expression, I started dancing with curiosity. I asked my body to reveal to me who I was in this new body, this new role, this new woman. It felt like a battle of ‘before and after’ motherhood.

The most vivid memory I have of my epic solo dance party was of dropping my head backward in an expression of “help me” and feeling the gentle tickle of my hair on the small of my back. Never before had my hair been long enough to experience this and I was instantly enraptured by the sensation. It was the first true moment of physical pleasure I had felt since becoming a mom. I let that brand new sensation lead me further into flow. I let pleasure lead me back into my body and into the embodiment of the woman I was becoming.

This is the potential power of sensuality and pleasure.

This is why I teach sensual movement.

In reverence to big life transitions of all kinds, I’ve put together a playlist of songs I might have moved to that day in 2012. It’s a wild musical roller coaster ride if you’re called to have a solo dance party of your own. I invite you to put on the music and let the sounds become your body’s dance partner.

I’d love to move with you! Join me here.