To keep my heart
Healthy and happy
To keep my mind relaxed and attentive.
To breathe easy and practice the let go as much as I can.
To nourish my body & mind with self-care and choose balance in thoughts words and deeds.
To nurture, heal and replenish the self
With positive intentions reflections and contemplation.
To keep a good company of friends.
To steer thoughts and cultivate humility, kindness, and mindfulness.
To choose to pause and speak with awareness in response than reaction
To respect and value life in this body.
To respect another’s right to be.
To sense the spirit of freedom.
To value the freedom of another being.
To create and acknowledge peace and positivity within and around me
To spread goodwill at every opportunity.
To learn and understand more and help by using my skills for the greater good.
To be conscious of the preciousness of life and living.
To sense the truths of creation, the infinite abundance.
To see the beauty in the ordinary.
To never forget to be humble, grateful, and thankful
For this life in this now!
To live and let live
To enjoy the living me and live than just exist.
And most of all to Live life lovingly!
These are a few of my promises to myself that I could think of that resonates deeply… hope to keep working towards them with all my heart and soul.
What are your promises to yourself?
Do share.
I am saddened when I come across the mention of race by color. I am saddened that still people are called black or white or brown or yellow.
We are called out for the shades of our skin, when the truth is, we are so much more. We cannot be confined or defined by narrow eyes.
The fact is, people, see colors differently, and they may not see all the same colors while seeing the same things. There is research on how our individual brains react differently to different wavelengths of light.
Technically speaking the colors we see is an illusion created by our brain. We are not yet certain exactly how animals see perceive us and in which colors.
Why then this prejudice in words to describe life. Humanity knows no color or creed.
Why are we still resorting to identify people into boxes, giving way to mental pictures, and conformity? We are capable of liberating ourselves to see the bigger picture.
A dance article recently published an article that sends out a message of how Misty Copeland is a black dancer who succeeds.
Yes, we have an unequal world filled with all the ‘isms’ and the issues they bring along. It is unfair and discriminatory and biased in so many ways. Not just in race, but in species, gender, age, weight, height, class, creed, caste, religion, status, authority, education, power, and wealth.
Yet the inner light of the being surmountable all odds. And life shines through the heart of the movements.
The world must come together, as it is time to release these frames of false convictions and find in itself the ability and strength to support one another in the power of life that’s beating within us all.
Let us see beauty and talent in all colors and not attribute efforts and success to any color by birth.
When we remove reference of being a particular color we bring to light the truth of the soul and the spirit of freedom to be.
In that light, everything is illustrated in the illumination from within.
My artwork . Art of the heart. Created from few drops of water.
When I chose to study arts many years ago I chose it because I loved arts I was drawn to it just as much as I was drawn the physics of artistry or the philosophy of science. I wanted to understand more, I always felt there is so much to contemplate and discover for oneself, to discuss and reflect with one another.
Today having joyful engaged with many professional paths in my career over the years in both mainstream and offbeat tracks, I am voicing what’s in my heart.
Speaking from the Indian perspective
in those days, arts was a stream not taken by the so-called achievers, it was not for those who wanted to study management and have mainstream careers. It was way to become a future teacher or an artist. Not too many career options were thought to be open for the arts graduate. It was often ignorantly assumed that those who did not do well in Math and Science subjects will end up with the arts.
I knew then how wrong it was to segregate people into water tight compartments and more so to differentiate between subjects as unimportant and unnecessary. Unlike the times today, where every field of study has great scope… arts was given a frivolous status.
Thankfully over the years from literature to performance art from entertainment to edutainment, the range and the scope of art and its application grew to encompass a lot more.
Education suddenly realized the holistic approach to education and started integrated methods of education. With awareness came the realization that nothing exists in a vacuum.
There is interdependence in between various subjects and there are areas that are common to two different pathways. And in the intermingling new thoughts emerge and evolve in time.
Truly so, arts is interwoven in the tapestry of life and living. The way we are, the way we move and chose to flow with life everything is part of an artful flow . For life is an art in itself.
Today more than ever this very art is making life bearable.
There is a sudden leaning towards the arts, to poetry, paintings and prose, to dance and music, there are takers for all things’ art.
Perhaps as a means of entertainment, to simply sense the finer things of life in the interim period with nothing else to do. But art and its application has so much more to offer, in every season, to lift us from our banal mundane existence and creatively enrich and empower our hearts and minds with engaging experiences.
Trust art, to always deliver beyond the apparent.
Every day make sure to laugh, sing and dance, and see the beauty in every beat of a living heart, and that’s a step to tuning yourself to healing yourself and the world a little more.
When dance lessons are adapted to suit the requirements of a specific group there is greater relevance in dance education and its application.
Here are 6 Valuable Tips while conducting Adapted Dancing workshops.
1. Empathetic Communication
Communication is a very important part of any dance education. Especially so in dance workshops in special groups. When addressing a session it is important to keep a clear and empathic tone to establish a sense of connection and care. Whatever the language of communication, maintaining appropriate eye contact provides the necessary connect of being spoken to in the session.
2. Simplicity of Steps
Breaking a pattern to teach by dividing it into simple steps or simplifying it all for every one by choosing easy to do steps makes it more relatable.
In case of dancers with balance issues it is necessary to initially modify / alter steps or reduce directional changes to suit these parameters and progress from there.
Ideally starting of with simply the foot work without working on the arm movements helps focusing on learning one thing at a time. The progression must be gradual in time.
Photo& Artwork credits Savvy Raj
3. Matter of Repetitions.
It is necessary to do a number of repetitive movements of the same steps in order for the muscle memory to form. Hence repetition helps more than switching to other movements.
Depending on the groups capacity to continue, taking a pause, interspersed with explanation or some motivation in between is also a good idea so that it does not get too challenging or monotonous.
4. Ease ofFormations
There are different dance formations like the square circle and line etc. However conducting the dance workshop in circular formation is known to bring about a sense of community.
Adapting other dances creatively to this formation initially helps when the participants can see the instructors movements in the center.
5. Slower Music
Besides choosing appropriate songs even decreasing the tempo of the music aids in keeping up with the music Especially for new group of dancers and dancers with special needs.
6. Value ofInclusiveness
Most importantly ensuring everyone in the group is feeling included & addressed to, is positively impactful.
Coaching another and transferring skillsets is an art.
Dance, it feels wonderful when you do.
Dance for your life to feel at ease.
Dance when you feel like and dance often!
Dance makes it all worthwhile.
Your body feels light and easy, as you dance.
The trick is to keep flowing
With the moves and continue dancing
As long as you enjoy the feeling…
Dance is not meant to harm the body.
But to heal your body and mind.
Integrating the spirit within you
So keep dancing …whenever you choose
For the body likes it best when you dance!
Life reflects itself through the things you do, the people you meet as well as in your passions and perseverances, in so many intriguing yet enthralling ways.
One such beautiful reflection I am experiencing is right here happening in France.
A sense of deja vu, a throwback to a decade ago, fond memories of teaching dances to people in the different places, all thanks to the magic of movements.
I am visiting Rennes France currently and last week I went to met my colleague from the world of dance, Celine Maheo who resides here.
Celine is a practicing clinical psychologist and an Argentine tango dancer.
What’s beautiful is that she is a dedicated professional who uses the dance therapy for helping Parkinson’s patients with their movements through Tango dance sessions.
My interest was piqued, as earlier I had been conducting similar dance sessions for Seniors, namely the Dance for Wellness workshops back in India.
So over a beautiful meet and greet sipping cups of hot herbal tea at the Les Grands Gamin at the heart of Rennes, ensued a free flowing conversation where we exchanged notes on each others life. Our passion for dancing was the visible to see as we hardly knew how moments passed by.
And when Celine invited me to her next Tango Therapy Workshop, it was an offer I could not refuse. I was actually keen to understand whether and how the cultural differences change the way of conducting and experiencing workshops here.
Dancing can improve the mobility and balance in senior adults.
Adapting the dance to suit the requirements of the group, like simplifying the steps, the placement of the feet, improves their coordination, mobility and balance.
The dance session was deeply engrossing & truly inspiring to witness and participate as well. The music played that day stayed with me well after the session.
So the next step turned out to be me conducting a Chacha session for them. The challenges of language barriers were surrmounted easily as Celine offered to translate my teaching from English to French.
Everything fell in place beautifully and voila time flew again.We danced a bit of Chacha that day and also some more in the next few sessions as well. I was told later by the learners how much they enjoyed it!
It was an amazing experience sharing the joys of movements and I thank Celine for her inclusivity in requesting me to conduct the dance sessions as well. And I deeply appreciate all her beautiful learners that I met,connected and danced with. It was a truly warm and wonderful time spent with them all.
As dancers, our every endeavour to bring smiles from the heart is a beautiful and creatively fulfilling experience.
Savvy
After the sessions we would gather together and discuss opening many facets of the learning and imbibing. It was a beautiful way of empathising and understanding each other.
Some of the beautiful souls I got to interact with in these few months…
Dance has a way of soothing your entire being and bringing forth and connecting you with the depth of who you are. That is when dance begins to feel meaningful and transforms life.
The dance connects established here in these sessions will be a beautiful memory etched in my heart, that I will take back home with me and cherish forever.
Today is 8th March 2020 and celebrated as Womens Day all over the world.
I dedicate this post to my friend and colleague Celine Maheo and all the women in the world who are making the world a better place, with every step in time.
Have you seen the whales breach
In such confidence they soar upward
They even maneuver a twirl
And fall back in complete trust
In the support of the water below.
How beautiful an example can mother nature give
Of unfolding grace in trust and confidence
Much of our lifes story can be just as beautiful.
When it is in a flow like that
When we rise in success with faith
Being completely confident of our purpose
When we surrender in complete unflinching trust
Knowing there is support and love flowing in the roots.
Why are humans rising and touching the stars?
Why are we progressing phenomenally
Yet why are we crash landing at times?
Why are we failing?
While it is the faith in ourselves that may take us upwards
Bu the lack of trust and support for one another brings us down.
Perhaps we need to learn from water
How to be flexible in its fluidity.
To be adaptable in its buoyancy
And then we too can rise again with every fall.
For inspite of every ability we have …
Support from our family and friends
Matter more than we know!
Wouldn’t you agree?
When you have faith in your roots then every leap of faith is of a trustful knowing
That no matter how far you reach you have a home to come back to!
Everything I want Comes with a cost So ring me up, Put it on my tab Whatever the cost I’m good for it!!!
A recent series on Netflix Spinning Out starts with these above lines from the song In the water by Jay Downer.
In reflection perhaps it is something every one of us can identify with at one point or the other.
In times of chaos and changes
Where lines get blurred
Between the future and past
In the now that yesterday brings us to
And the moments that can design itself to be
All our intentions are the reason
That things begin to happen
And then when it does
All our truths start to matter.
Life stares at you before you blink
And you got to learn to keep your eyes open.
No more is it make believe
For when reality dawns
It is reciprocal arrangement all the way!
You pay for what you want,
It comes to you with a price to pay!
Savvy Raj 
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