This speaks to me on so many levels...thank you for your beautiful art and words.

xo

I just had a breakdown today, an emotional transition knocking me over, and so this post really clicked with me and helped me to view this change in a different light. Thank you for this post. The universe speaks in wonderful ways.

Also worth noting is that one move in ballet is actually called "tomber" meaning "to fall."

Being married to a dancer has allowed me the great benefit of seeing graceful falling on a constant basis. Plus, I'm an animator, so the concept of how it's all in the transitions makes it all the more important. In animation, we draw "key poses" of our character in motion--that is, basically the storytelling poses that convey to the viewer what the character is doing. Then we draw "inbetweens." These are the drawings that go "in-between" the "keys." Alot of bad animation out there is bad mainly because someone decided that a lesser artist has to draw the inbetweens because they are considered lesser drawings. Not so. I've always felt that the inbetweens are just as important, if not more so, than the keys for it is in the transitions you can read so much in what a character is doing and/or thinking.

I find it interesting that my wife and I are both involved with studying movement. She with her body, I with my pencil.

I never thought of the transitions with dance. Your instructor made a great point.

side note, but i recently got my how newsletter and wanted to congradulate you for being mentioned. I think highly of the how and print mags, ive been following your work for sometime and am happy to see others recognize it and hope to some day be recognized for my artistic talent. Your movements in teh art world give others like myself some motivation./insperation.

So again congradulations and Thanks
Kelly

lots of times i feel like the universe is speaking to me through your journal! it's deliciously mysterious.

thank you keri!

yeah . . . transistions . . . when you don't quite feel like yourself (where did I go?) and one of the challenges is how do I find myself again? and something in the looking and in the rediscovery means that while parts of me get lost, other parts get found . . . and oh sweet Life, thank you for nature and kitties and green and lilacs and water and blue sky :) thank you for reminding me that living is a dance and that it really is the space between that is requiring my attention :)

i think your dance teacher gave a fabulous response. it reminds me loosely of a quote by Isadora Duncan, who said: "could i tell you what it was about there would be no need to dance it." i think both recognize that the beauty or the meaning lies in between and does not relate necessarily to the form or the word: it speaks to us from an unconcsious notion TO an unconscious notion. that is also why you need to practize in such repetitivum. it takes long before your body can store a physical movement in the unconscious center, before it becomes an expression of your own mental room and not just a forced memory of your consciousness.

it was aldous huxley who said human´s essential problem is their search for grace - which they seem to have lost. human behaviour is corrupted by an overall awareness of self, of doing things to achieve a goal (or being liked) and not of just simply doing it. perhaps the space between the movement is the stillness of mind, when we shut off any intentions.

sorry for talking away in your lj when i don´t even know you.
best,
c.v.

ps. teenagers alway need to be watched with a suspicious eye! ;)

thank you so much for this post. for the last seven years I've felt I've been doing this dance of almost falling, tripping, never really walking or running. never really seeming to get it right.

it's still going on, but I have faith I'll get to wherever I'm going someday without feeling like I'm doing it wrong.

cheers from Australia! (it's getting cold here now)

I know someone with MS. She says that for her watching people walk is the same as for us watching the ballet.

What a great thing for me to read today. Thank you, Keri. :)

When I was reading your post it reminded me of a song of Laurie Anderson called: "Walking and Falling"

Give it a listen if you get a chance:

"I wanted you. And I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you. I wanted you. And I was looking for you all day. But I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you. You're walking. And you don't always realize it, but you're always falling. With each step you fall forward slightly. And then catch yourself from falling. Over and over, you're falling. And then catching yourself from falling. And this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time."

Thanks for the memories of my college days!

oh my....yes

I'm facing transition (moving between places and jobs and people, again) over the next week and I'm going to take Helen and your words to heart.

I'm afraid of falling, of having made another bad career decision, but thankyou for reminding me that if I think about it too much, I might be too afraid to continue.

btw. isn't sitting, drinking a cup of tea at the perfect temperature, with the sun hitting against your back one of the absolutely best things ever?

I love what you said about the universe talking to you through the body of your dance teacher. I think that the universe/god/goddess/nature/tao speaks to us so often, every minute. We just need to keep still and listen to its whisper.

Mystery is beautiful. When we embrace it, the universe rolls at our feet in ecstasy.

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery."

Keep shining the light.

yes - it's all a process! :) as you very well know, the beauty and grace of being an artist is realizing every little part of that process is necessary. we never perfect it, we just get better at listening and realizing that's what's happening. and most importantly we can be nurturing to ourselves in the meantime instead of beating ourselves up, because that does nobody any good! :)

so good for you, keri - keep exploring, allowing yourself to free your mind and be seduced by the begging winds of the beautiful organic nature around you... and most importantly keep sharing with us! your brave spirit and commitment to your creativity, expression and art is inspiring and encouraging.

xoxox