A Week on the Mend

Monday: I find I have more confidence than I expected in the studio this morning. I expected the pain in my back to command a greater degree of regret or grief. Instead, I find that I feel sure, although I may not dance as fully as on other days.

I moved from the sacrum today: as if there were a pair of hands on front and back of it, flexing and extending the sacrum and, successively, the rest of the spine and tail. It was an image of comfort, of cradling. My core, it seems has cushioning.

Thursday: In the studio today, I experimented with climbing the floor as if it were a wall. This was a rich exploration of giving weight through proximal joints, as well as hands and feet. It reminded me of watching rock climbers in the gym. Core support is so central to rock climbing: the power for the hands comes through the core. They do not hang limp from throbbing fingers, but extend their limbs through their cores, passing the support from one limb to the next.

This is a lesson I hope to present to the Nova Scotia capoieristas in July. The power for a strike comes through the core, which channels the foundation of the ground through the stabilizing limbs (which, in capoiera, might be lower or upper limbs) to the striking limb. A mental focus only on the striking limb is a distraction--a solid strike comes from below. Integrating core support will be a big goal in these sessions.

Sunday, one week after my injury. Today, I took some pain killer before rehearsal. It's clear to me that organizing the show is adding to my pain. I stay up too late working on the program text, I don't leave myself enough time to warm up because I'm on the phone with the lighting designer, etc. Such things have to happen, yet they wear me down.

Nevertheless, I made it through rehearsal; practiced my tai chi form while waiting for a bus that never came; walked with heavy bags to the contact improv jam; had a lovely, low-stress jam; walked home afterward…it was a good day, a busy day. It was a good and busy week.

Saturday July 9 at 8pm and Sunday July 10 at 7pm, Human Landscape Dance of Washington DC and Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Co of Philly present The Washington DC/Philadelphia Exchange at Dance Place, 3225 8th St NE, a short walk from the Brookland-CUA metro on the red line. We will premiere "Odysseus Comes Home" and "Icarus and Daedalus;" Anne-Marie Mulgrew will premiere SALT. Buy half-price tickets online at sowhatsthedeal.com.