Banjos, mosaics, dance and friends.

What follows is a bit of yesterdays posting thoughts that I jotted down after getting situated in Chicago...

It’s Chicagoland time for a while; we’re passing through and taking in the town and the people for a few days.  Nick (husbandy) and Mary Sue (our gracious host) are noodling away on banjos and I’m yawning a lot.  We’re here because paths crossed and there were a lot of separate things that we wanted to do here before we took off for the Great West.  

Banjos

After departing Dubuque this morning, and after an unwelcoming Chicago traffic battle, I got to take my favorite dance class, with mentor teacher thinker Molly Shanahan.  It’s never enough, but I got my easy fix for a while, at least until November when I will be back to perform in an improvisational show.  I felt okay, though I never slip into my cozy, dancing body as quick as I would like to.  I love to think that my dancing body is the same as my everyday body, when boundaries bleed porously and are both one and the same.   And it is, but to be in the body that I like best, I recognize that it takes openness, practice and space.  Heading West on Wednesday will definitely offer me the space, as we will eventually get to big sky country and I will be able to dance to my delight across the plains.  Or so I hope; I keep playing over in my mind ways to make this time of discovery travel also a fertile time for dance and growth as an improviser.  The book I am reading, Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv, is making me anxious to get out and engage with and be immersed in nature.  He has assembled a body of knowledge about the relationship between humans and nature that truly inspires and encourages my thinking about nature and it's human benefits.  Early this morning when I couldn't sleep, I learned about horticultural therapy, which, clearly, I've been missing out on my whole life.  This must be why the most sound people I know spend time in their gardens, hands in dirt, tending plants and watching them grow.  Being in nature is a quantitative way of increasing our well being. Louv asserts that children that do not spend enough time in nature are more likely to develop mental illnesses, he also mentions several studies that point to nature being positively correlated with physical change in the body, ie. quicker healing time after surgery, and less illnesses in prison inmates.  It's kind of amazing.  I am really wondering about my dancing self, and if spending lots of time in beautiful places, immersed in nature for an extended amount of time, will change, deepen, alter, grow my dance practice and way I think about dance.   

Today has been a delight so far.  We woke up to rain and thunderstorms and the freedom to really take it easy.  Since we've only been away from Chicago for a few weeks, there is no pressure to engage with nostalgia or visit the old stomping grounds.  We've been hanging with Mary Sue and her fiance Matt this morning, ordered garden pizza for lunch, and made mosaics!  There is nothing like a craft Saturday with friends.  

We make awesome mosaics, Mary Sue and Matt are using these for candle platters for their wedding. 

Last night I took Nick on a date to the Other Dance Festival, and again, I got to bask in the glow of friends and dance and it was so sweet.  I keep reminding myself that not being in Chicago doesn't mean that I'm not a dancer, dance is something that goes with me and that will continue to grow, no matter where I am.  The pieces in the variety show were good, it was great to see my college friend Emma dance up a storm, and my friends in MadShak were beautifully luminous. 

We're off to brave the blue line for a visit with more friends, Holly and Tom, and hopefully their beautiful 1 year old, Frost!