Can I just say that Jesse is a beautiful dancer & absolutely inspired me to get my ass into gear & practise more?! It was so great to be at Tribal Ford (in the UK), watching all the performances then see Jesse & the girls get up and do pure FatChance - makes you really feel part of something : )

The path I seek for demonstrating ATS to the public is this:

Tribe Salons & New Moon Dances => Informal Public Drum Circles => Small Music/Art Oriented Gigs => Local Ren Faires => Small Local Bellydance Gigs

After that, I'm not sure where we'll go and we're leaving it open because our vision will probably change.

I am not interested in dancing in front of a huge crowd of other dancers until I can accept that their reactions are theirs. Audiences need the mythic story of the dance to give them the opportunity to really feel their own pain, glory, sadness, anger, happiness, frustrations etc. I am not ready to ground and shield from that yet. I still tend to take things very personally.

I know myself. I would freeze up in front of a knowledgeable witness right now. I'm too judgmental and that would mirror right back at me. So I'm taking it "easy" and giving us plenty of opportunity to practice being mirrors for other people in gentle venues. I have all the time in the world and I plan on unfolding in a Southern slow kind of way ;o).

I know this is going to work for my particular tribe because we are becoming more and more comfortable with being in front of people in everyday situations demoing a move to one another etc. (We just a bunch of intellectual introverts, I swear! LOL) What we are doing now is renting a studio and working on really understanding the body-science of the FC-ATS moves. Carolena has said it's all there on the DVDs and she's really so not kidding. There's so much information packed in there. It's like genetic encoding. It just keeps going on and on... What a gift! Our next focus is working on group flow and feeling that connection once you know what the cues are and what you are supposed to do after those cues.

Here's some more philosophy to ponder:

Therapy / Yoga / Spirituality

These things really get mixed up and they are very much their own entities.

Therapy takes dysfunction to function. (Which is what my tribe is doing in the physical realm making sure our bodies are aligned properly, our ligaments are ready, and our muscles are trained to support us.) You need a safe environment to do this work. You need to do this work in order to properly support yourself. Therapy fixes that which is broken. Think of a stained glass window that is broken and dirty. Therapy replaces broken panes and reinforces the lead supports and frame.

Yoga is art. It works with edges. It's always pushing us into the very realm of the impossible. It is not safe. But it should be done carefully, with compassion and kindness. Yoga can be done while broken. Obviously, it would be a more full experience to fix things before clearing things out. But life does not always allow things to proceed in a logical, rational manner and art is anything but logical and rational in a lot of ways. (This is where my tribe is headed.) It is the Flow. Yoga clears the dust and grime off of the window.

Spirituality is The Glowing. The light shines through and it is a way of Being. You can be broken and have no particular edge and have a spiritual epiphany. But the light shining through a gorgeous clear stained glass window is quite spectacular, no?

Function, Flow, Glow. All that to show that FC-ATS, for me, is a very powerful personal Way. So performance isn't the end-all be-all for me. It is another tool for discovery. Dancing in front of other dancers will be a very powerful experience for me. But is it so much more powerful than an uninformed Witness? I think other dancers witness in a much different way, but a Joe Blow audience might not see that really tough transition and be impressed or see how you flubbed something and then wove it back into the experience. Eventually, I will find out, yes? :)

I would like to shine in all my imperfect glory and be filled up with that golden elixir of Being in the Now. I want to use the dance to be an alchemist and transform the energy of the Witness (The Dark, Shiva) and the energy of the Dancer (The Light, Shakti) into pure gold.

Perfectionism has no place there.

Peace and Love,

Andrea.

P.S. The Function/Flow/Glow is from Integral Psychology. I can't remember the particular teacher's name off of the top of my head. Wikipedia "Ken Wilbur" for more info.