My love for the teachings of Gisela is intense.
I knew when I moved to Zürich, that I wished to find a community to dance with. A space to allow my body to express its urges and passions in dynamic and rhythmic beats, to move-inspiring music of diverse backgrounds, timbres, and flavors. I wished for dance.
Finding Gisela's meetup event seemed opportune. The event was that very Wednesday, after leaving the office. Gisela Rocha... the effects of movement practice and the benefits on the art of healing... embody your expressions... helps us to feel connected... yes, that felt good. I wondered what it would be like.
I loved the rainbow colors painted on the columns outside the dance studio, and the people who attended wore shining smiles and open demeanors. The changing rooms were ample, they had showers in them, and the feeling of the studio was an impeccable Swiss order and cleanliness. It was a delight.
Gisela herself was present with a full smile on her face. As the class began, we gathered as a circle shape, and we began to warm up our bodies. Soft music at first, very soft. A few chanting mantras in the background, slightly cliché for my taste at the time. I wasn't looking to subscribe to any particular religion, and my religion flag triggered inside.
And then, we were being guided. Guided? I didn't seek guidance, I sought dance! Free, full, unimpeded waves and bursts of dance and colors within the body and bursts of emotions! And she gave us... stretches? Breathing exercises? Spine warm-up? My independence-seeking flag rose up.
"Such limited exercises", I felt. "How am I able to show to others, to express truly, what I really want to do and say?"
The class ended, and my body felt happy. It was happy with the endorphins and the expression allowed. And some part of me was conflicted. I felt in this class truth, and joy, and people open and smiling and seeking to dance, similarly to me. And yet... the truth I found was not the flavor I expected. It didn't taste of roars and catharsis and dramatic display of the deepest. It tasted of... patience. Of softness, of attention, of a closer connection to the physical than the ethereal ideal I had built in myself. And there was a soft dissonance inside me.
I felt truth, and I followed it.
As months went by and I softened my disbelief in my body, the weight of the exercises seeped into me. In subtle, recurring waves, I felt how the soft warm-up soothed my bouncing mind, and allowed it to focus on the sensations of my body. I noticed how concepts I thought were simple, like balance, and flow and staccato rhythms, triggered in my body the building of connections to my behavior, to my emotions, to my thoughts. Gisela's guidance, as she repeated it time after time after time in each class, began to trigger deeper knowledge. Like waves reaching my being, over and over, eroding layers, I began to feel the sensations inside me that theses waves spoke of. One class I would feel energetic and satisfied, in another I felt dissonance. And in some, a concept stood out, clear in my mind and my body, that I realized I could apply to my daily life.
The gentle words and flowing structures began carving out new patterns of sensations and behaviors in me. At first the dance floor was a space for me to display, to show, to prove my worth to myself. Then gradually, spaces within me softened. Realizing the changes the class nurtured in me felt magical.
I began to feel the interplay between the learned concepts and my own life. I felt amazement at realizing how the exercise of balance, of finding one's center, is intimately related to finding balance in any of Life's situations. I found beauty upon realizing that practicing continuity, moment to moment, awards grace and awareness to any of our experience, to a buzzing mind. Like following a long red silken thread we dance with.
One by one, the exercises she offered us began to grow roots in me. Like flowers she offered, each of them showed me new colors, new shapes, different smells. With these exercises, I brought awareness to each of these new factors, and was able to feel myself through my body... with fullness.
Gisela's guidance allows me a space to research into my own body, and to deconstruct its myriad network of sensations and actions into a set of core factors. I love how I can practice balance, continuity, and joy through awareness in my body. I love how the soft space we engage in helps me dissolve the obtuse barriers I had built between me and other people, and has allowed me to see another person, to listen to her whole self, while feeling myself fully as well. A miracle of connection.
And I love the community integrated with our dance. Our meeting together and growth feels organic, genuine, true. I love I can connect with others in the dance floor with no words nor names whatsoever, and realize our humanness, our shared connectedness. To feel the joy that arises from the simple nature of being. Being present.
Gisela recognizes a divine potential she loves to share and wake up in others. I've found my path intertwines with her teachings with passing time. A soft touch at first, a gentle dance follows, and a willing meshing of energies continues. I love the softness and the magic I'm gradually unearthing as I practice the lessons Gisela shares.
I knew when I moved to Zürich, that I wished to find a community to dance with. A space to allow my body to express its urges and passions in dynamic and rhythmic beats, to move-inspiring music of diverse backgrounds, timbres, and flavors. I wished for dance.
Finding Gisela's meetup event seemed opportune. The event was that very Wednesday, after leaving the office. Gisela Rocha... the effects of movement practice and the benefits on the art of healing... embody your expressions... helps us to feel connected... yes, that felt good. I wondered what it would be like.
I loved the rainbow colors painted on the columns outside the dance studio, and the people who attended wore shining smiles and open demeanors. The changing rooms were ample, they had showers in them, and the feeling of the studio was an impeccable Swiss order and cleanliness. It was a delight.
Gisela herself was present with a full smile on her face. As the class began, we gathered as a circle shape, and we began to warm up our bodies. Soft music at first, very soft. A few chanting mantras in the background, slightly cliché for my taste at the time. I wasn't looking to subscribe to any particular religion, and my religion flag triggered inside.
And then, we were being guided. Guided? I didn't seek guidance, I sought dance! Free, full, unimpeded waves and bursts of dance and colors within the body and bursts of emotions! And she gave us... stretches? Breathing exercises? Spine warm-up? My independence-seeking flag rose up.
"Such limited exercises", I felt. "How am I able to show to others, to express truly, what I really want to do and say?"
The class ended, and my body felt happy. It was happy with the endorphins and the expression allowed. And some part of me was conflicted. I felt in this class truth, and joy, and people open and smiling and seeking to dance, similarly to me. And yet... the truth I found was not the flavor I expected. It didn't taste of roars and catharsis and dramatic display of the deepest. It tasted of... patience. Of softness, of attention, of a closer connection to the physical than the ethereal ideal I had built in myself. And there was a soft dissonance inside me.
I felt truth, and I followed it.
As months went by and I softened my disbelief in my body, the weight of the exercises seeped into me. In subtle, recurring waves, I felt how the soft warm-up soothed my bouncing mind, and allowed it to focus on the sensations of my body. I noticed how concepts I thought were simple, like balance, and flow and staccato rhythms, triggered in my body the building of connections to my behavior, to my emotions, to my thoughts. Gisela's guidance, as she repeated it time after time after time in each class, began to trigger deeper knowledge. Like waves reaching my being, over and over, eroding layers, I began to feel the sensations inside me that theses waves spoke of. One class I would feel energetic and satisfied, in another I felt dissonance. And in some, a concept stood out, clear in my mind and my body, that I realized I could apply to my daily life.
The gentle words and flowing structures began carving out new patterns of sensations and behaviors in me. At first the dance floor was a space for me to display, to show, to prove my worth to myself. Then gradually, spaces within me softened. Realizing the changes the class nurtured in me felt magical.
I began to feel the interplay between the learned concepts and my own life. I felt amazement at realizing how the exercise of balance, of finding one's center, is intimately related to finding balance in any of Life's situations. I found beauty upon realizing that practicing continuity, moment to moment, awards grace and awareness to any of our experience, to a buzzing mind. Like following a long red silken thread we dance with.
One by one, the exercises she offered us began to grow roots in me. Like flowers she offered, each of them showed me new colors, new shapes, different smells. With these exercises, I brought awareness to each of these new factors, and was able to feel myself through my body... with fullness.
Gisela's guidance allows me a space to research into my own body, and to deconstruct its myriad network of sensations and actions into a set of core factors. I love how I can practice balance, continuity, and joy through awareness in my body. I love how the soft space we engage in helps me dissolve the obtuse barriers I had built between me and other people, and has allowed me to see another person, to listen to her whole self, while feeling myself fully as well. A miracle of connection.
And I love the community integrated with our dance. Our meeting together and growth feels organic, genuine, true. I love I can connect with others in the dance floor with no words nor names whatsoever, and realize our humanness, our shared connectedness. To feel the joy that arises from the simple nature of being. Being present.
Gisela recognizes a divine potential she loves to share and wake up in others. I've found my path intertwines with her teachings with passing time. A soft touch at first, a gentle dance follows, and a willing meshing of energies continues. I love the softness and the magic I'm gradually unearthing as I practice the lessons Gisela shares.
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