Building Community - Park Street Style

I've been blessed to dance and play with the young folks and their teachers at Park Street School in Springfield, VT this past week and will continue moving with them through this week. Jan Rounds, the school's best-ever guidance counselor who has a massage chair in her office, helped to bring me in the dance with all the students while exploring the this month's theme: RESPECT. I go from kindergarten to 5th grade making sculptures, leading through space with different body parts, and calming our bodies down with deep breaths.

The kids are awake and ready to rock when I come into class, often surprising me with their willingness to take risks. Enthusiastic responses make me want to hunker down and stay with these groups the whole year, exploring what we could do if we had the opportunity to dance every week, but I hold these precious weeks close to me heart, breathing in life at this sweet school.

The Rutland Herald featured the residency on this Saturday's front page. Check it out here.

And because inspiration comes in many forms...

Keeping Things Whole

by Mark Strand

In a field

I am the absence

of field.

This is

always the case.

Wherever I am

I am what is missing.

When I walk

I part the air

and always

the air moves in

to fill the spaces

where my body’s been.

We all have reasons

for moving.

I move

to keep things whole.

Year 2: Life without internet...

Mmm... How sweet it is to settle in at the public library for a few minutes and update a sorry little blog that barely reflects just how much dancing is happening in southern Vermont. My home in Springfield is occupied by a great family that includes a young dancer at the Dance Factory and I have made my way over to Chester - ten minutes from the still up-and-coming metropolis that is Springfield - to live on a town farm with sheep, pigs, chickens, a turkey, Tasha the cat, and Sean the tall teacher farmer man. Although we have a slew of animals that this little vegetarian gets a kick out of, we are without internet, and I miss the opportunity to write regularly. I do relish the limited access to my overwhelming e-mail inbox.

But fall brings back paper-writing for the kids and I find myself craving written reflection of all the movement that is carrying me through my days, months, and apparently years in this country home of mine.

So far... fall has been full of yoga dance with Ms. Rebecca. We danced in Cavendish and are about to start a new session in Chester. The Dance Factory welcomes middle school modern and cradles me practically every day with teaching, taking class, and Nutcracker rehearsals. Family Dance continues regularly and the libraries are dancing as well. School residencies are up and running, including working with Springfield High School's Performance class on a site-specific dance in the lobby of the school and folk dancing with Russian and German classes. And... gulp... dance team? Who knew varsity coaching would be in my future... More soon, hopefully with pictures and video too.

Little Prince, Crane-Flying, and Bright-my-face please

Ain't no opera like opera in Vermont come summertime when the church is hot and the singers are sweet. The Little Prince sounds like a ride through the green mountains when each peak leaves you wondering why we drive on anything but dirt roads. Professional drove and flew in from New York and Texas while our kids hailed from Chester, Ludlow, Springfield, and many other little towns to preview Rachel Portman's opera before we rock in full-length come January. The Londonderry Church provided an easy, comforting rehearsal space and the fantastic Saturday farmers' market gave us a full house before we packed up and performed at Grace Congregational in Rutland.


Summer choreographing proved to be kind to me. I found myself enamored with the singers and the children were so playful and ready that often they choreographed for me. After directing the past couple years, I appreciated the opportunity to see the whole production as both a collaborator and audience member, feeling fortunate to learn from master Diana Stugger as she pulled together scenes in quick days.



I am reminded in this time where resources feel limited that when people give a little and put their heart into their work, life can feel pretty gosh darn abundant. Artistic directors Nan and Lise have made a one-of-a-kind creation that many of us are blessed to experience again and again.

Ash and Rebecca do dance and yoga

I took a yoga class in Peru this week with some snazzy singers and found myself thinking sweet thoughts of our crew of yoga dancers who participated in Yoga/Dance with myself and Ms. Rebecca Salem (check out her blog at http://yogayourself.blogspot.com/). This class was a new adventure in exploring the connection between our internal and external selves in the Chester Andover Elementary School Library, summertime style. What a gift it was to co-teach and feel refreshed and inspired by a woman so dedicated to her craft... as well as spend my mornings walking from the farm downtown to play and move with young folk I grew to deeply adore. We moved from centering exercises to space walks around the room to sun salutations and poses to improvisation across the carpeted well-loved library floor. The kids made choreography every day: creating a group phrase where every child included a movement, linked poses based on secret messages from the animal poses in yoga, and opposite explorations (hot/cold, slow/fast, left/right). Families came of the last day to partner up and learn a little more about their moving young ones.


I swear I did not hurt this dear child...


Families connecting their way across the floor...

More to come thanks to a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund. Rebecca and I will be teaching Tuesdays afternoons, free of charge to the young folks of that community.

Breaking Rules

Rachel, Jess, Eliza, and I find ourselves making and breaking rules Wednesday evening when we gather to improvise and choreograph. The sun is still bright, the downtown traffic lights starting to work (although the promise of more construction looms in Springfield's future), and it almost feels like summer in the way we enter maybe carefree into the dance studio...

Mirroring with Rules
What's important to think about when mirroring?
slow, eye contact, how are you responding to your partner

Leader:
Cannot move your feet
Do not make eye contact
MUST make eye contact
Cannot move your arms
Much always be changing levels
Eye contact with another person
Don't know who is leading
Pushing away the floor

My partner is breaking rules and making me feel like less of the rebelrouser than I believe I am. And I like her for it.

Pathways
What do you hear and think about when I say pathways?
yellow brink road, getting from one point to another, a straight line, jagged

Start by choosing one pathway and move along it by walking. Explore other forms of locomotion. When you are ready, BREAK, and switch to a new pathway, trying to allow yourself time to explore each pathway and perhaps returning to past pathways.

Break the Rule
Everyone is following the same directions but one person must always be breaking the rule.

Rules:
Start by just walking.
Add arms.
Move in slow motion.
Pick up tempo.
Spin.
Jump.
Move at a low level.
High level.

Come get the bench...

Choreography: Sit Down
Make a dance where no one can leave the bench.

My kiddos are prop-obsessed and tonight I see why as they rediscover a tool I thought I knew well only to be surprised by legs coming down, seeing each other from different heights, and bodies being lifted. This dance is quiet with loud moments and I want them to make it again but different. And they kindly break my rules without alienating me.

Driving home

My aunt visited Vermont while I was staying at her house in Richmond, MA this week and came home praising the spot where I-91 leaves Massachusetts and finds its way winding through hilly southern Vermont. I feel my shoulder blades sink deep as I pass this spot today, leaving the Berkshires for my Springfield heartspot. I leave something good down here in the rural, picturesque towns of Sheffield and New Marlborough and feel myself smiling thinking of little bodies jumping from one array to the next as 2nd graders dip their toes into multiplication and the challenge of finding the biggest foot in a group of fifth graders to make me the largest possible area to dance in during math.

I have been treated well by these teachers, students, and Jane of Flying Cloud who is so obviously in love with living, breathing, realizing integration of arts and other curricular subjects. I found myself sitting around mini elementary school tables again, debriefing with teachers about their experiences dancing math with me and their students, and talking about how to improve my practice, develop ideas further, and what it means to be 9 and a student these days. You would never know that the end of school is right around the corner the way these folks talk about the learning and doing that is happening in their classrooms. For a moment, it feels like September when the possibilities for what will happen in school this year are rich and overwhelming.

But I cross state lines and look forward to the summer season as the lushness that is my home state envelops me and says, "Welcome home."