My Dance and Art practices are breath to me. Enlivening and enriching, they provide wild exciting sustenance for my experience of being alive.
Each time I step on the open dance floor I am reminded how really good it feels to just move and be. Allowing my busy mind to settle into the background, my body resting into the music as if curling back into a cosy, comfortable, perfectly cushioned armchair, and all with a deep audible sigh of relief. Enjoying the simple pleasure of my curling wrist leading my dance, or the delicious stretching and unfolding of my shoulders, perhaps letting my feet play with the myriad of ways they can carry me through the room … and all without these movements needing to be a function towards being ‘on task doing something!’
Taking time out to pause and be in a way that feels good helps to bring a sense of simplicity back into my day. And for me resting into the dance offers exactly that. Moving just however I feel, no concern for how it looks, because it’s the quality of how I feel as my body moves that matters the most, not how my dance is perceived from the outside.
It can truly be that simple! Dancing has this wonderful habit of feeing really, really good!!
Open Floor Dance Instructor and local friend of Mana
Discover More Articles Like This
Tara School Reunion
Tara School – Then and Now Thirty-five years ago, inspired by a vision to establish the inaugural Mana Retreat Centre, the first buildings were constructed on the land. Originally, it
Qi Gong for Spring
A Spring Qi Gong Practice to Increase Health and Vitality Qi Gong is a gentle movement practice and a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to cultivate and improve your
Why Kindness Matters
Compassion Hear from one of our presenters, Anna Friis, who co-facilitates the Mindful Self Compassion Retreats alongside Mara Elwood. Anna beautifully articulates what it means to be kind to oneself