FEEL

Notice the sensation of the soles of your feet on the ground.

Keeping your knees straight, bounce your heels gently on the ground.

Just as your heels make a sound on the earth, so does the earth send vibrations of equal force up into and through the rest of your body.

Place the palms of your hands on the top of your head. Do you feel those vibrations coming up and out through the top of your head?

Stop bouncing a moment.

Place your hands on the sides of your rib cage. Can you feel the movement of your chest as you inhale and exhale?

Bounce your heels again and notice if you sense receiving vibrations through your chest.

Does this change your breathing or the experience of your breathing?

Listen to the singer’s voice….

Can you hear the sound of their voice resonating through their body?

Allow yourself to experience the sound of the song entering into your ears. Can you allow the words to enter into your lungs and heart as you breathe in?

Can you allow yourself to experience what the words tell you?

And to know what now arises from your innermost self in response, as you exhale? 

What is your song?

What is your dance?

What must you now do in relationship and interaction with this earth and your fellow human beings?

IRENE DOWD

Irene Dowd is on the dance faculty of the Juilliard School where she has taught anatomy/kinesiology for dancers since 1995. She is the recipient of the 2014 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Chair for Distinguished teaching at ADF, 2015 Juilliard School John Erskine Faculty Prize, 2016 Dance Science and Somatics Educators Lifetime Service Award from DSSE (Dance Science and Somatic Educators), and 2018 Honorary Fellowship from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.