dance « 1500 Saturdays....

Saturday 1424 – 13th April 2013

This Saturday was a busy one and I had planned to go out in the evening with my daughter, but I was very tired and didn’t really feel like going. This is where this blog comes in and was one of the reasons I started it because when I have in my mind to do something new, to both experience and write about, I am way less inclined to rather lazily think I won’t bother. So on this occasion I DID bother and I’m very glad I did because I had a really great time.

Way back in October last year I wrote about The Buddhist Centre in Cambridge where I was learning to meditate.The post was called “An Oasis of Calm in all the Madness” and you might like to read it here. .

The centre has been hosting monthly events by Danceitation, a fusion of free-form dance and meditation.. Sounds odd? That’s what I thought but I love dancing and at my age ( big Ahhhh of sympathy please !) it gets harder to find places to dance that don’t involve pubs or conventional clubs. My daughter was up for it so off we went, though I would have gone alone it was good to have her company.

The night didn’t start too well because this dancing is done barefoot and I can’t do barefoot because of a problem I have with my right foot/ankle so I should have made it my business to find the organiser ( would you call her a DJ ?? ) and explain beforehand that I would need to keep shoes on. Foolishly I waited until we were in the room and then spoke to her which was all a bit awkward in front of everyone but it was resolved and off we went.

The room used was the beautiful old theatre and it was dressed with candles and fairy lights to give a lovely warm feel. The evening was led/DJ’d by the lovely Jayagita Kirkbride and started with standing meditation which helped us all relax and feel comfortable.

The music was a great mix of east and west, drums and bass and all sorts in-between. High energy club type dances and slow eastern melodies. You could dance alone or there was an option to wear a white wrist band to indicate that you were happy to dance with others. I didn’t wear one because I wanted this to be a very personal experience; my daughter didn’t wear one either ( we’re not really standoffish ya know!)

We were encouraged to really feel the music with our bodies and move them in whatever way we wanted. It was a wonderfully intense experience just going with the music and I loved it all. It was great fun jumping about to all the high energy stuff ( lots of water was needed !) and dancing more sensually to the slower music..

Jayagita didn’t talk too often just occasionally to remind of us of the breath and to be very much in the moment.. I needed no encouragement on either! You might imagine that it would feel a little awkward dancing around in a very free way with a room of strangers but everyone just seemed to throw themselves into it. About half the people had been before the rest of us were danceitation virgins!

There was a wonderful feeling of connectivity dancing with others as even though we were very much doing our own thing there was, as my daughter pointed out afterwards, also an element of mirroring what others were doing and she felt you could see little waves of similarity in movement.

Jayagita very cleverly bought the dancing to an end by slowing the pace right down to a more contemplative one , finishing with the sound of waves which I loved. Everyone was then just still for a while before they gradually started to leave the room.

Evening ended with a cup of Chai and chat out in the reception area of the centre which was again light with candles.. Very relaxing

As 1500 Saturdays go this stands out as one of the best things I’ve done purely for myself and I’ll be making this a monthly routine. I think my daughter will be joining me too. If you get a chance to attend one don’t be shy it’s a great feeling to throw off inhibitions and dance; utterly, utterly natural. You’ll find dates on the website which I’ve linked to below.

Danceitations Facebook Page is here http://www.facebook.com/Danceitation?ref=ts&fref=ts

and their website is here http://www.danceitation.com/

As ever I’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to comment below.

That’s all until next Saturday. Go on have a dance this week 😀

You can find my photography blog Photomania here I hope you’ll pop over and take a look if you haven’t already.

Saturday 1459 – 11th August 2012.

My apologies that this post is so late but I was away at the weekend having a thoroughly great time.

This is going to be a longish post but it’s mostly loads of photos and plenty of links; I hope you’ll stick with it to the end.. Thanks

First I want to remind you about last week’s post Guns, What are They Good For? If you haven’t read it and you’d like to please click on the title. I want to add something to it as I am opening my eyes and learning more.

Take some time out and watch this documentary Why We Fight .. It’s long so you might like to open it and save to your favourites to view later. If you’re not already awake it will help to wake you from your slumber.

On to Saturday 11th August and the fun I had. A dear friend of mine was going to the One Love Reggae/Dub music Festival at Hop Farm in Kent.. and had a spare backstage pass and asked if I’d like to go..Now I haven’t been to a Music Festival since I was 18 or so.. a VERY long time ago but I’ve always loved Reggae ( and Ska which was also featured) so I jumped at the chance and had a wonderful time sharing good company, great music, dancing and soul food. Surprise, Surprise the sun even shone for the whole time ! A minor miracle 😉

So now I will share some of the sights and experiences of the Saturday I spent in my own little piece of heaven, I’d never photographed live music before so this added to the excitement for me.

Read it, close your eyes and imagine the friendliness, peace, love, colour and character. I came away feeling oh soooo chilled and exhausted in the best possible way 😀 😀

I will also share lots more photos, of Sunday too, over on Photomania during the next week or so.

These were one of my favourite things about the Festival a drumming group called Bloco Fogo they play Brazilian, Cuban and African rhythms… you can read about them or listen to them here Their drumming was awesome and they walked slowly round the perimeter of the field followed by some of the crowd dancing.. including me of course

.. .

Really enjoyed this too – Kevin Isaacs and Tallawah Band Excellent singer and great band including a talented and beautiful bass player.. Kevin’s slogan is “Love can conquer war” who wants to argue with that…

Papa Michigan and his backing singers were really great too and you can read about him here

and here’s Papa Michigan signing his autograph for a fan !!!!!! 😉

In this tent I certainly did Lively Up Myself as I danced my little legs off to Drum and Bass ( good job I’d taken pain killers beforehand!)

Almost finally here’s a few memorable sights of the colour and character of the festival to give you a sense of it.

I want to end by thanking Nigel R Mitchell for sharing the One Love weekend with me and for helping to open my eyes even wider.. He’s a brilliant Production Designer (check out his website here ) currently working between London and America and an equally brilliant musician check out his music and other stuff about him here

Also a very big thank you to Brian Fast Leiser of Radio Riddler for his kindness ..

Actually saw Radio Riddler on Sunday so I know I’m cheating by showing you a few photos but they were awesome so take a listen to their music here or check them out on Facebook here or even watch a little clip that Nigel recorded of them performing at One Love here