Ecstatic Dance Wednesdays with Mia & Oscar

Join us for this practice of; dropping into bodytime, feeling the rhythms within, listening and responding to the body & its divine nature, witnessing thoughts, allowing feelings, and moving for the sake of movement itself. This dance is an exploration of... FRIENDSHIP with ourselves, with each other, with our bodies, with the dance. FRIENDSHIP is a mirror to presence and a testament to forgiveness. Friendship not only helps us see ourselves through another’s eyes, but can be sustained over the years only with someone who has repeatedly forgiven us for our trespasses, as we must find it in ourselves to forgive them in turn. A friend knows our difficulties and shadows, and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs, when we are under the strange illusion we do not need them. An undercurrent of real friendship is a blessing exactly because its elemental form is rediscovered again and again through understanding and mercy. All friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy all friendships die. In the course of the years, a close friendship will always reveal the shadow in the other as much as ourselves; to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties, and even their sins, and encourage the best in them, not through critique but through addressing the better part of them, the leading creative edge of their incarnation, thus subtly discouraging what makes them smaller, less generous, less of themselves. Through the eyes of a real friendship an individual is larger than their everyday actions, and through the eyes of another we receive a greater sense of our own personhood, one we can aspire to, the one in whom they have most faith. Friendship is a moving frontier of understanding, not only of the self and the other but also of a possible and as yet unlived future. Friendship is the great hidden transmuter of all relationships: it can transform a troubled marriage, make honourable a professional rivalry, make sense of heartbreak and unrequited love, and become the newly discovered ground for a mature parent–child relationship. The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life. A diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity, of forgetting who will be there when our armoured personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence. Through the eyes of a friend we especially learn to remain at least a little interesting to others. When we flatten our personalities and lose our curiosity in the life of the world or of another, friendship loses spirit and animation. Boredom is the second great killer of friendship. Through the natural surprises of a relationship held through the passage of years we recognise the greater surprising circles of which we are a part and the faithfulness that leads to a wider sense of revelation, independent of human relationship: to learn to be friends with the earth and the sky, with the horizon and with the seasons, even with the disappearances of winter, and in that faithfulness take the difficult path of becoming a good friend to our own going. Friendship transcends disappearance: an enduring friendship goes on after death, the exchange only transmuted by absence, the relationship advancing and maturing in a silent internal conversational way, even after one half of the bond has passed on. But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long, close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self: the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone. —David Whyte, “Friendship,” Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words (2020) 7:30-9:30pm $20 at the door $$$ exact cash if you're bringing dollars QR code available for Venmo or Paypal Or PRE-pay $20 https://venmo.com/Mia-Pem or PayPal: [email protected] Parking and Directions: Studio Address: 701 Tillery St. Austin, Texas 78702 Enter the driveway alongside the smoke shop. Drive all the way to the back and to the right. Free parking!! Double glass doors near the bike rack (to the right of CreateScape). Walk straight, turn right at the T, go all the way to the end, make a left. Studio door is on the left. Love, Mia COVID precautions: -Please, if you are feeling unwell or have been knowingly in contact with someone who has COVID... please stay home and take care of yourself. Get a test. Quarantine as is appropriate to the situation. -First Street Studio is an intimate, enclosed space with high ceilings and we will be moving freely and breathing deeply. -Please respect and be courteous of others. -Wearing a mask is optional.