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A comment taken to heart … “Dancing with you is like a meditation. It’s like dancing tai chi.” So said my partner at the end of the tanda. Maybe not everyone’s high water mark, but it is mine.  Who would have thought?  Though I started practicing Tai Chi in the late 90’s, a few years … Read more

Two things happen when we get older. One is slowing down. Slowing down is not necessarily a detriment. In fact, in this age of frenzied lifestyles, it could quite well be considered a desirable adaptation. Some of this slowing down is of necessity, with bodies stiffening or energy failing.But another part of it is choice. … Read more

Speak to me gently, softly. Caress me.  Move me. Sway with me. Coax me to relax into the shape of what you know and who you are. Invite me to breathe into the space between, inhale deeply the fragrance of connection, taste the deliciousness of moving together. This is the giving and receiving. This is … Read more

  Facebook friends never die – apparently. I received a birthday notification the other day of a friend who had died the year previous. Um. A little weird. A message from beyond? Actually, I appreciated the reminder of his exceptional life, his resilience and his courageous battle with cancer. Although I hadn’t known him long, … Read more

Can Argentine Tango help in gender transitioning? About a year and a half ago a friend of mine disclosed that they were transitioning gender from male to female and invited my support. I suggested learning the follow role in Argentine Tango as a way of exploring gender dynamics and feminine sensitivities. This is our conversation after … Read more

How to keep your thinking out of your dancing. “We practice technique to get to know our own bodies. And then we take what we know of ourselves, our movements and musicality onto the dance floor to join up with our partner.” Carolina Bonaventura, milonguera y profesora.  Me first? Who knew? Sure, there was always … Read more

Yikes! The first time I was encouraged to breathe in a tango embrace, I froze.  What is it about breathing that makes one feel so vulnerable? There is something intensely personal and vulnerable about the rise and fall of one’s breath. Ancient traditions define this primal motion as the drawing in and releasing of Spirit. … Read more

We ought to dance with rapture that we are alive, and in the flesh, and part of the living incarnate cosmos. D. H. Lawrence.* The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not extinguished it. Gospel of John* This little light of mine. I’m going to let it shine. Traditional* …..A friend recently … Read more

Is $20 good value for a street-legal hug? It’s hard to keep track of the street value of differing commodities these days, in large part because the neighbourhood has changed.  There was a time when you could buy almost anything on almost any street corner, from drugs to sex to pieces from your neighbour’s bike. … Read more