In Seeking a spiritual teacher and physical practice to bring into my dance I began to study with Neva Ingalls each Wednesday evening this semester at 6-7:30 pm. Ultimately this was a space to authentically begin to align with my body and goals in real time. I am not yet ready to open a healing spa or center. I know I have physical work to do to integrate dance and spirituality directly in a concrete and directed manner. Neva has been a trained classical and modern dancer as well as a yoga instructor for three decades. She blends both practices most skillfully in her classes. I also investigated her certification 5 elements coursework and determined my next step is 500 hour yoga certification as I have 300 hours, I have 100 more than is needed to teach classes but I need 200 more hours to become a master teacher of yoga teachers. With healing arts this is really my next step. I am interested in one to one yoga/healing sessions integrating my intuitive work and partner yoga as well as creating retreats that include this element I will develop in master teacher training for a proposed thesis. I will also integrate my creation of art with my students and workshop/retreat focus bringing dance performance and practice elements to yoga instructors and healing artists rather than general student populations. All of this became clear through seeking out mentors, role models, and interviews and realizing Neva was the strongest Mentor to help ground my spiritual physical manifestation for me at this time. I learned I am truly more committed to experiential learning and creating practice as well as art rather than products or a center at this time. "Life is too short not to explore your ultimate potential for experience and manifestation.
Take the first step. Blessing on your journey." Key research info: 300/500 Hour Course Description The soul’s journey continues into mastery through personal transformation The Inner Domain 300/500 hour program and is specifically designed for those who have determined that a Self-Realization and the fruit of that which is the empowerment of others, is their passion and personal destiny. Completion of a 200- hour curriculum is required and a minimum of one year of teaching experience recommended. This level of training will give teachers tools to deepen and strengthen their experience of higher consciousness and bring that inspiration and healing to a variety of groups, from the strong and energetic to those challenged with limitations and scary labels. (in recognition of the power of the mind we avoid the use of fear inducing labels). Mastery or skillful action is learned and applied from the most physical to the most subtle, with an understanding of how the part affects the whole. In addition to completion of the Elemental modules, attainment of the 500 hour level Registration with Yoga Alliance will include: Identifying your personal passion ( dharma) and writing a thesis describing the understanding derived from embarking on this path. Journaling a daily meditation practice Ongoing study including reading from selected categories, book reports and attendance of documented master classes with approved teachers. “As long as we are engrossed in our own needs, in ‘I’ and ‘mine’ we will remain insecure. Cultivating surrender and devotion replaces such self-preoccupation with a sense of our connection that sustains the entire universe. A sense of devotion and surrender opens us to experiences of being nurtured. We also learn that we have the capacity to become instruments of higher consciousness, serving and giving what we can to help others in their own awakening.”– Swami Ajaya

The Nutcracker

ABT Working Rehersal

Environmental Performance, The Gaze

Look at my Channel on Youtube for....

Artefacts Dance; The Gaze:

Dancers at the Window
Dancers beyond Art Objects

Jacques Lacan in Book XI takes a twist and a turn veering away from Sartre in his theory of the gaze. Sartre looks at the "Other" as opposed to dolls, mannaquins, and puppets as distinct.

Lacan diverges and investigates solitude and the intrusion of the the human gaze within the field of conciousness.

I am aware of the feminine legacy in dance and seek to challenge the space that dancers take up in the art world. This brings into question the history of power relations in the art world.

Do dancers have the right to be acknowledged as art?
Is the pedastool an elevation and a very small space of control?
Do we look at the gallery and acceptance within the art world longingly or do the arts patron look at dancers through the glass never truly humanizing us?
Are we one step away from exile or are we embraced within the cannon of art history as action artists?
Is the nature of dance as a female pyramid with the few men at the point ready to toppel?
Are we still just pressed against the glass or elevated in the end?


As the leaves fall I ask myself about the nature of the Gaze in a dancers life.

Much love,
Heather

Choreography Project

http://www.youtube.com/user/dancerHEP

Hello everyone,

Please watch my choreographic project "Strange Angels" here looking at the spine as a source of stability and fluidity both anchoring and transforming our basic movements into lush liquid dance. I am looking at natural forms like fall leaves for inspiration and ripe golden hours in our lives where we transcend our blind spots in love and life and the shy opens within.

Enjoy
Heather

Choreography Final Performance

All are welcome to some view the latest dance creation by Artefacts Dance. "Melodies and Desires" at Lisner Auditorium November 22 at 1:30 pm as part of a celebration of the arts for the Thanksgiving season, dare to connect with artists, students, and instructors in this annual GWU/Walls arts event.

Upcoming Artefacts Dance performances

All please feel free to come by The Smith Gallery of Art on November 15 from 6-8 for a gallery opening of Obstruction which explores the perception of blocks and blindspots in perception and arts ability to remove them within. ArtefactsDancers will perform at 7 surrounding the Gallery, on the Bridge suspend in the Sky and into the gallery space. The exhibit runs through December 2 and an Artefacts DanceFilm will be the media installation within the exhibit. Come out and celebrate art in all of it's forms!

Nov. 7 Environmental Performance Assignment

All check out you tube video, just got the IPad and videoed on it but uploading to vimeo from it requires an expensive app. !!! So just google you tube then enter: ArtefactsDance Environmental Performance out of the box, that's it. I challenged myself to do improv in public, something I never do, also I used the concept of speed, spins, and aggression and connectivity to the architecture again all foreign moves for me on an external bridge, maybe the program is moving me quickly across this bridge into a divergent performance space.