Dancing help us feel more alive, present and connected. Dance opens our heart, reduces stress, increases oxygen and blood-flow, and stimulates feel-good chemicals associated with bonding and contentment. Music is Dance’s lover, muse, and constant companion. Listening to music elevates the mood, reduces stress, relieves depression, eases pain, stimulates memories, and more. When these two lovers, Music and Dance, intertwine in an embodied aural embrace, the symphonic sparks fly and the heart pumps with vibratory resonance.
Speaking of the heart, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, it is worth asking: how did the heart become associated with love? For more insight, read this article based on the book by the esteemed social historian and author Marilyn Yalom (I’ve read virtually all of her books) entitled The Amorous Heart: An Unconventional Story of Love.
SAVE THE DATE! I will be performing with Helm at the Wu Wei Tea Temple in Fairfax Friday February 24.
Belly dance for a strong and supple heart
A strong heart knows when to lead and when to yield. Among embodied art forms the Argentine tango, with its intimate heart-to-heart embrace, stands out as a profound movement meditation and teaching in communication. For that reason, it is associated in the popular imagination with romance, though the history and sentiments of the dance are far more intricate.
To celebrate the month dedicated to love and sensuality, I will be teaching a tango fusion solo choreography in my classes during February, blending belly dance (and more!) with tango stylings.
If you live in or near the north bay and want to learn tango in its authentic partnered form, I recommend studying with Alma del Tango in San Anselmo or at Hidden City Ballroom in Point Richmond.
