Mr. E and I were lucky enough to visit this magnificent ancient chestnut tree in Ryedale (in Cumbria/the UK’s Lake District) in early fall. It is estimated to be about 500-600 years old. Age is but a number. In the early 1800‘s, when the tree was about 300-400 years old, romantic poet William Wordsworth lived very… Read More The Sweet Chestnut of Ryedale
I have just now – in collaboration with Dance4Children, my favourite non-profit charity team, set up a special D4C Gumroad Channel. All sales of it’s dance instructional videos (very soon the ‘Shimmy Sessions’ series will be re-released there in full, and hopefully new videos will follow in the coming year!) will go directly and completely… Read More Dance and Do Good
In Haidong Gumdo (Korean Sword Art), most of the training is done with a Mok Gum, a double handed hard wood sword – like Spot and Freckles – our practise swords, the ones you can see in the picture below. Mok Gum are used for: practising basic cuts (Begi) and stances (Se) two-handed sword forms (Ssang-Soo Gumbub)… Read More Meet Spot and Freckles
Resilience. One of my favourite expressions of (inner as well as outer) strength. According to the Oxford dictionary it has the following meanings: resilience /rɪˈzɪlɪəns/ noun The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. We all have it. This tree has it.… Read More Resilience
Yes, more books! Today’s book recommendation is Move your DNA by Katy Bowman. I stumbled (ha!) upon Katy’s work in 2015. It was a true eye-opener for me to learn how much of our (mental as well as physical) health depends on the daily movements of our body. You can eat the perfect diet, sleep eight… Read More Move your DNA – Katy Bowman
A great resource on flexibility in general, including a wealth of dynamic and active stretching techniques, with clear pictures and descriptions illustrating each exercise. The book is geared mostly to martial artists, but the flexibility work included can be used for dance (and life!) as well. Ultimate Flexibility – Sang H. Kim Note: I already… Read More Ultimate Flexibility – Sang H. Kim
The mystical grey Heron, said to be messenger of the Gods. A symbol of grace, patience, dignity, precision, independence, self-knowlegdge, wisdom, discipline, light, and rebirth. This image (taken this weekend behind our home, during the 2-day fog) reminded me of the saying that our senses are only designed to perceive a fraction of reality. Good… Read More Perception
Spooky, yet unexpectedly colourful impressions from our latest forest walk.
A quote I heard on a great podcast interview today: The Music lies in between the notes. How apt this is in a world that seems to be moving ever faster.. Just as the silence between notes is where the music is truly found, it‘s in the pauses between movements that a dance comes to… Read More Stillness in Motion
Jong-I Begi, or paper cutting, is one of the main testing (and competition) disciplines of Haidong Gumdo (Korean Sword Art). It may seem simple, but it takes skill, mental discipline and practise to achieve a clean, even and precise cut across the full width of the paper at each attempt. Paper cutting is used to measure… Read More Meet Paper Cut
