[Applause]
so I changed my way of thinking and I’m
gonna tell you why
on September 2nd 2016
my little girl decided to come three
months early into this world by the way
she’s a perfectly happy healthy little
toddler now but was not my agenda her
agenda and immediately she became my
teacher they put her in an incubator for
three months and I watched her grow
outside my body it was one of the most
traumatic and yet incredible experiences
I’ve I’ve ever witnessed my husband and
I would show up to the hospital every
day for hours because the one thing I
felt I was in control of when it came to
my daughter was I could put her on my
skin they call it skin to skin so I
would hold her like this for hours and
they say it’s the best thing that you
can do for a premature child so three
months holding this little girl and
wishing the best for her she learned how
to breathe she learned how to eat she
learned how to open her eyes for the
first time again outside of my body so
you should know that when traumatic
things happen to artists their art gets
really good so here I had superwoman at
my side and I decided to think about
what I dedicated over 30 years – and
that’s dance let’s go ahead and tell
everyone how many years we’ve each
so with that said I say 30 over 30 years
but it doesn’t matter I could have spent
two years as a dancer because I’ve made
the decision to just really dedicate
myself to my craft and I would hope that
for all of us who are in professions
careers jobs that there’s a creative
space that you can enter at some point
when your job just maybe plateaus and
and we reinvent ourselves yeah in my
case the birth of my daughter helped me
reinvent my way of thinking of what
dance is so let’s get rid of the word
dance for a moment and call it movement
move this is what you would do right if
I told you to move great thank you
I think if if we were to tell someone to
move out and then we’ll call it the
normal world see dance could we’ll call
this the abnormal world out in the
normal world if I were to say to someone
move it
it’d be almost a rude comment right
dance it’s the same thing in our world
see that’s because in our technical
foundations dance and movement are the
same thank you but let’s go even further
and let’s not define movement as and
move your arm move your body let’s say
it’s a group of people coming together
to get some important ideas across not
that that has anything to do with Ted
yeah a movement of people coming
together to get some important ideas
across in our world our technical
foundations are discovered through the
group you’ll see a fusion of dance up
here you might not be able to really
pinpoint what it is but know that we
pull from a lot of ballet ballet has a
structured technical foundation that’s
necessary
to set the mine free based on that
technical foundations you could compare
it to education right in any of the
fields science history literature
whatever you have this technical
foundation underneath you so that
hopefully you can set your mind free
into the creative spaces that are
necessary for discovery can you just
walk forward let these people know how
excited you are that they’re here and
great yeah see you can use dance if
you’re if you get into a little
altercation with somebody you could just
speak through movement and I bet they’ll
stop I bet they’ll walk right away from
you
another good reason to dance right but
through community a single person can
rise above I’ll go back to my daughter
through a community of doctors residents
nurses oh my gosh nurses my family my
husband friends my daughter was able to
rise above her situation I’d like to
think because a community surrounded her
science surrounded her love yeah so a
single person in a dance class let’s say
they start you know age 25 they’ve never
danced before in their life it’s
astonishing as time goes by how that
person can progress within the community
of the class whereas if I were to teach
that person a private lesson every day
for the rest of their life I don’t think
that they would gain the knowledge that
they would gain in the group moving on
dance and music music we could say is
the backdrop of our lives we listen to
music to reflect how we’re feeling we
listen to music to hope to feel that way
we play music in our vehicles and our
houses jogging exercising walking I mean
they play music in every store to the
point of like how do how do these
retailers know what I like to listen to
that inspires me to shop right music
could be a backdrop for our world and
for our life and it’s a reflection of
culture dance and music are the perfect
marriage and and I use the word marriage
because for us we have to have a
relationship with music
and that doesn’t mean just dancing on
the beat by the way in Webster’s
dictionary it defines dance as jumping
up and down in a lively manner to a beat
let’s show them what that is this is
what we do every day for hours is it and
if you go all the way down the list
around like definition number seven it
says dance is sometimes considered an
art form and I’ll quote my friend Chris
who’s a composer art by the way is a
wrinkle in nothing yeah
ruins a a tidy emptiness so that’s our
world back to sound take music call it
sound sound something to be heard
movement group of people coming together
something to be heard so when we dance
to music we are entering into a
relationship I mean yes we want to be
rhythmical the last thing you want to
see it’s going to a dance concert and
the dancer is just like completely off
the music
if it’s supposed to be that way fine but
no we want to dance on the music because
it’s pleasing to the soul when you are
at a dance club or a wedding or whatever
and you’re moving there’s something
wonderful about dancing to a rhythm
expressing yourself through that
so third element here acting but let’s
not call it acting let’s call it play
back to my little girl who’s one and a
half she creates these imaginary worlds
that are unbelievable she plays in his
isla phone takes the sticks up goes yeah
throws him across the room and then
starts going like this in silence you
know she has this incredible imaginary
world let’s create one in front of you
come on down let’s pair up so our
imaginary world is
I really really really want you to be in
my wedding so the person on this side is
going to say that to them without
did everyone agree to being each other’s
wedding let’s do it again and have the
other person not agree to be in the
great right so there is another tool for
you we’re playing around we’re creating
imaginary worlds and we’re pulling from
our realities inside ourselves that’s
really what movement is and it’s done
together with other people living
breathing fellow artists and
collaborators and I want to introduce
you to Bobbie Jo Valentine who you seen
earlier in the show show see I’m used to
shows Bobbie Jo Valentine this is called
a collaboration this is a song called
from trading deadlines for a softer
but one that leaves me home
trading my shadows for a life that won’t
hide me I’m trading money for the love
it can’t buy me and a little less
control
[Music]
and we pick up so much when we’re living
that we should never hold we carry so
much that we shouldn’t own but all that
I need is what I’ve been given right
inside this skin everything else
that doesn’t treat me well I’m trading
[Music]
I’m trading
[Music]
for what the ghost of my father told me
[Music]
and we pick up so much when we’re living
that we should never hold we carry so
but all that I need I’ve already been
given rot inside this skin everything if
I’m trading easy for a heart or healing but one that leaves me thank you so much