Tag Archives: dance

Learning ground

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I am intrepid  –
I want to do all the things –
no matter that I have so little practice  –
I want to roll, I want to lift, I want to fly,
and I am willing to be taught,
willing to learn

So I proceed without judgment,
and with great forgiveness,
for myself as well as others,
and myself again, for having thoughts
that left me needing to forgive

We’ll learn this thing together
because we must,
for in the seams between,
the places where we join,
there is great power, and
a brilliant satisfaction

And what we bring into the practice
will become the gift we give,
to each other, to ourselves,
and to the whole.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 8, 2023

Contact improv jam

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This is my permission,
this is the open door,
this is the touch of welcome –
hand touch, eye touch

We step beyond the steps,
beyond technique, beyond the thinking  –
we toss our touch like pups,
we play like babies

Impulse shadows impulse,
roll follows roll,
one secret link allows us all to be connected,
hand to hand, foot to foot,
lean to lean –
we are each other’s rest, also incitement
lift to lift, spin to spin, flow to flow,
contact leads us
to our common Soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2023

Pre-dawn

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In the still, early morning,
when high fog masks
what the day might become,
in the span before colors
start to emerge from shadowed forms,
the internal song
and the heart of movement
rise up in the pre-dawn light

I must not direct this motion
lest I stifle it,
lest I frighten it away with expectations  –
I can only present myself, willing,
bare feet to the floor,
and feel what happens

And the song starts up,
or maybe the movement first –
they incite each other,
and that consciousness I know of as my body
rides in the perfect harmony,
expressing, not inventing,
exploring, not directing,
making the dance its own,
knowing as it is known.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 8, 2023

Invitation

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When I come to the beach
and I take off my shoes
and the wind and the water
ask me to dance,
I can never refuse,
for the sound and the smell and the feel
of that last salt-tinged rush across the sand,
and the sheen, and the pattern of ripples,
push the ocean message up through my feet  –
all that vast chorus of power –
and I can’t help but fly.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 14, 2022

The dance of land and sky

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The belly of cloud
against the contour of the land,
just enough space between to feel the closeness,
the constant slow adjusting of undulations,
a small view into blue distance

The dance of land and sky
goes on throughout the day,
continues through the night
and never pauses
except for the exquisite rests
where all is truly still,
which we, sometimes,
are also blessed to feel.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 8, 2022

One Dance

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And who were you, and who was I
but lights connecting,
pulling out the filament of hope,
on and on, a constant stream
even as the loops and partnerings
within the dance
wove and rewove,
some splendid knot forming
of which we were not aware
or hardly —
the streaming light remaining
the one strong constant
till the smile that dawned in you
lit up the circle,
and as we wove that, too,
it brought us all in.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2019

Dance, again

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After long neglect
the music, when invited,
still fills my form,
the dance still transports me

I feel it like spring sap rising,
like sun on bark, on skin.
It reminds me what it’s like
to know I am alive,
to be something more
than a thing described,
or a role, or one who waits —

It reminds me how life defines itself
fresh in each moment,
new in each breath.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2018

Lines of Light

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I start to define myself
by the lines of light streaming through,
I start to feel their lift, their strength,
and to be less impressed by clay

If Mind doesn’t hold me here,
what ever could? What, possibly,
except idea, could hold this form in place?
What but Mind could let me move
in grace, and with intention?

Look at me dancing —
look how the music lifts and moves me.
Surely it is clear
that I am made of lines of light
for clay could never move me,
clay could never move like that.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 11, 2017

What I Needed

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I let the music take me like a kite,
I spun and swooped, I dipped and soared –
twirled without dizziness and without getting tired
as if a power not my own had moved me

I came for this, and so I was rewarded,
so, for a brief time at least, I could fly,
yet, like a kite, I needed some connection,
something to hold me up against the wind

Without that, soon I wandered aimless —
my motivation faltered, I lay down —
without the invitation to dance with others
my movement faltered, started to go bland

And that’s why your appearance
was such a welcome sight —
your eyes met mine
and launched me into flight.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 8, 2017

Class

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In whose name
could I ask her
to sit still and listen
when the resplendence
of life, of joy, of music,
was dancing through her being?

Whose very presence
was effervescent Spirit, Soul,
whose love of life
was overflowing?

No, we would listen
together, with the inspiration
of that very bounce,
to show, not tell
what goodness is,
to live, not talk of, truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 18, 2017