giving
/Morning everyone,
Well, it looks like I am writing to you 3 Wednesdays in a row, rather than my regular every other Wednesday.
Don’t know if I’ll keep that up yet or not, but for now.
I have an idea for us, but before I leap, I just want to say how lucky I am to be learning from, and growing with those who choose to engage in this practice of Dog Dance with me.
That people have decided to dedicate two hours of their time, each week, toward listening to the body in the world right now….I don’t know, it honestly moves me to tears.
And when I say tears, I mean literally — yesterday was the second time I balled my eyes out in front of my class. And as someone who has trained herself not to cry in front of ANYONE, especially my students — I guess being called a cry baby by Billy Bender in second grade really got to me — I can’t stop crying.
I have four Dog Dance ensembles running right now, on zoom, with people from Canada, Costa Rica, France, Sweden, and also all over The United States…and I’m just blown away by the kindness, intelligence, and care of everyone who chooses to show up.
This Dog Dance -- it is a practice that is unspectacular in anyway, and yet, here we are. All of us, honing in on that pristine clarity of listening.
Thank you Dog Dancers.
From every dusty little corner of my being — thank you
Okay, the idea:
As you know, all the money I raise for my Sunday Dog Dance Class (used to be Wednesday too, but that class got dissolved, so now it’s only Sunday) will go to organizations that are working toward:
Dismantling white supremacy by responding to and addressing the harm and violence this system creates and perpetuates.
Supporting and uplifting possibility, potential, and connection in our communities.
Each month I’ll choose a different organization to focus on. Last month it was Casa de Paz, this month it's Mirror Image Arts.
It felt really good to send a full $1,000 to Casa de Paz last month, and to include all the names of so many dedicated Dog Dancers.
So I thought, because that felt so good, why not extend this opportunity out to everyone who reads this newsletter? As a collective, we could donate money to a different organization each month that upholds the two values stated above.
Here’s what I wrote about Mirror Image Arts two weeks ago, just to refresh all of our memories:
As a teaching artist in our state prisons, this one is personal for me as these guys do the work with young people before they get to prison, with the hope that they never end up there. And they do that work through highly embodied theater and improv with all kinds of kids.
The work that Mirror Image Arts is doing is the under the radar, not super flashy, committed to people and community kind of work that I’m interested in and value.
As Julie Rada, board member of Mirror Image Arts, friend, and colleague said to me when we were talking about all this, "Mirror Image Arts is proactive rather than reactive, with a politic built on care.”
If you’d like to chip in and be part of a collective giving, send whatever amount of money you wish to my email address, joanna@joannaandtheagitators.com, through pay pal.
Choose the “Send money to a friend” option so that I don't get charged an extra fee. In the memo, write “Mirror Image Arts”.
If you are not on pay pal, but want to take part, email me.
I’ll pool 100% of the money I receive from you all, and on Tuesday, June 30th, I'll send an old fashioned check to Mirror Image Arts, with a list of the names of folks who are part of this giving. I’ll include where you are from in the card I send, with the check tucked inside.
Do you think we could get to $1,000 again??
I’ll end with these two comments from readers of this newsletter.
This one from Clare Kritter, a current student of mine, who says, about dancing and the work of anti-racism:
“Another thing I've been thinking quite a bit about is the importance of regulating the nervous system when we do antiracist work. For many people, uncomfortable feelings shut them down and they give up on the very important process of dismantling racism within themselves. The more we as white people can learn to work with our emotions, the more effectively we'll be able to engage in this work. For me, dance is an indirect part of this process. It doesn't directly teach me how to regulate my emotions, but it does teach me how to notice changes in my body so that when I'm away from the dance studio, I'm more practiced in noticing the sensations in my body, tracking them, naming when I'm feeling uncomfortable, etc. From there, I have a bit more self-awareness, and it's less likely that my emotions will get the better of me.”
And this from Joyce Herman, who has been dedicated to working toward justice and equity for the past 40 years:
“(Dancing) has given me a grounding in oppression work and the emotional healing on behalf of liberation.”
Oh, one more thing…
I’m reading White Fragility over the phone to my mom right now. Before that I was reading her the work of Paulette Fire, about being the child of Holocaust survivors. Reading aloud to my mom right now — it has been a tender and exquisite thing.
Since we are reading so much lately, my mom found this fantastic black owned book store in the Bronx, where she grew up. It's called The Lit. Bar, and it's where we are buying all of our books from these days.
Speaking of…you’ve all read Between The World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at this point, yes?
If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend it, highly. It's a book that is what someone means when they say “of the body” --- it comes from there.
A DANCE MISSION (then I promise, I’ll stop):
Find a comfortable place to be.
Sitting, standing, lying down, walking, swimming.
Notice your breath.
Inhale.
Gap.
Exhale.
Gap.
For a long time.
Notice.
And as you notice, see if you sense a pull of movement inside of you.
Might just be a fragment, a trace, a glimmer.
Might be no movement at all — which is fine — imagine.
Now follow that glimmer of real or imagined movement and see where it takes you.
With trust, with curiosity, with, dare I say…hope? Let that fragment, that trace, that glimmer of movement, of stillness, guide you toward an opening, a portal, a shooting star, a drop to earth’s center, so that you are now dancing.
With love —
Honest to god love because I don’t know how else to move through this world if it isn’t in that stream.
Joanna