Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Tantra of Contact Improv

The past four days I have been nourished by the rituals and compassionate conversations of those occupying the new paradigm.  Many of the Occupy Wall Street folks have joined Starhawk in trainings for co-empowerment and leaderless groups this past weekend.  What is becoming clear to me is that the culture of the new paradigm is liberating us.  It's different than the old paradigm of activism where we have a lot of work that may or may not be effective and if the revolution happens then we will be liberated post revolution.  No, it's the relationships and CONNECTIONS that are forming in this soil of Occupy that are liberating us.  It's who we are being, who we are occupying that is liberating us... occupy to me is an invocation to be here now in our Earth bodies fully present and connected.  In light of that I have retitled my blog, Occupy Passion.


Our relationships and connections are the ecosystem of our Love and Life Force Energy.  When we nourish them with the rich soil of boundaries and accountability, water them with our sacred love fluids, and heat them with the fire of our passion, we have the energy to contribute to the world we envision.  This is the tantra of politics my loves.


Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary activist for the past 60 years, has just published her new book The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty First Century. She calls our attention to the paradigm shift happening now, it is as transformative as our paradigm shift from hunter/gatherer to agriculture.  She reminds us that as this new MOVEMENT is beginning to emerge it is less about critical mass than it is about critical CONNECTIONS.  


MOVEMENT and CONNECTIONS is exactly what we'll be exploring tonight at the Tantra of Contact ImprovConnections includes the oneness between people and it also includes connecting the parts of us that have learned not to know each other, like sex and spirit.  


And where does the revolution occur? It's right here baby, in our bodies and our relationships.  When I pay attention to where a MOVEMENT initiates from in my body, I feel that deep life impulse that comes from the channel of energy running Earth to Sky through each of our bodies.  To align with it does not always bring peace, to be in nature is not always comfortable, but it is pure.  


In the new paradigm security is rooted in our nervous system and our reverence for our bodies, including our Earth body.  In the new paradigm our resources are:
  • social responsibility
  • creativity
  • trust
  • conscious communication
These resources are inexhaustable and create value for us in ways that replace the values class, race, and gender have constructed.

In the new paradigm Contact Improv is a tool to build connection, to build shared new realities, to consciously initiate leadership and willingness.  It is the art of sharing energy and intimacy with gravity and space, Mother Earth and possibility.  It is the template for our capacity to trust, love, and co-create.  In the new paradigm every physical practice is a doorway to cultivating emotional, erotic, and soul intelligence.  

Tonight I'm so thrilled to offer the Tantra of Contact Improv, to share the magic of Contact Improv with you to deepen a relationship in your life.  Bring someone who is in a relationship with you.  Relationships are delicacies and boot camps for our souls.  Bring em in to the studio, let's play.



Friday, December 2, 2011

Dance for God, because that's what you do on a Thursday night

Tonight I joined an amazing circle of dancers with my teacher, Banafsheh, "an embodied mystic of the divine feminine."

We started the class bowing to the Beloved, the Divine.  As we opened our hips and our hearts we were asked to focus on who we are dancing for.  We partnered up dancing while connecting deeply into the eyes of another.  Dancing is like the condensed essence of the soul for me.  Some of it brought wet eyes, some moments brought protective politeness, some moments I glimpsed a deep sadness meeting my openess.  The intensity of this connection is far more compact than conversation, it is our whole being in communication.  Dance like sex asks us to be fully in our bodies while giving and receiving energy and I feel is the most intimate request of our human forms.

Tonight we were invited to channel spirit through the crown of our heads and into our sex.  We were reminded that dance is the core practice of igniting our life force energy.  I know this deeply and I often find myself teaching this, but to hear it from teachers around me, and especially those older than myself feels unbelievably nourishing.  Most of my students are older than me and explicitly comment on their desire to connect to their youthful sexual energy through my age.  But I know that this wisdom is ageless and the transmission of it across generations is becoming restored.

What I'm so moved by is that the healing is happening everywhere.  In our dancing tonight we sat in a circle where a young woman gifted us with her trust and her story of rape and depletion.  The room felt more relaxed and present than I have ever felt when hearing this story.  We gently spoke our questions our experiences and moved into prayer for her wholeness.  I intend to share this here and now without revealing her identity holding the intention that more dance classes penetrate us so deeply and so collectively.  Banafsheh reminded us that we are not whole if one of us is not whole.  This sisterhood feels incredible, it trembles me with love.  It feels so different than the unconscious competition or comparison that can so easily slide between gorgeous women.

We all rose from the Earth to Dance for God, because that's what you do on a Thursday night in the city.  It's becoming simpler. Being whole, being sisters...is becoming simpler.  Thank you for reminding me tonight.