The top 5 biggest connections between massage and dance for me: body awareness, expression, breath, letting go and trust.
One of my biggest transformations in massage school was the heightened awareness I got of my body. I didn’t realize how disconnected I was from myself. I lived so much in my head alone dealing with thoughts, would- ofs, could-ofs and should-ofs. Once I started getting bodywork, I realized my arms, legs, belly and feet were a part of me too! I began to feel and BE a whole person! Dancing has been all about body consciousness for me- moving to the varying beats and rhythms, moving just certain parts of my body…EXPRESSION of who I am in that very moment. I read a quote the other day from a beloved dancer Merce Cunningham,”You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.” One could claim a bodywork session is just this too. Through this expression and this greater presence to myself, I really got in tune with my breath- how shallow or deep it can be, how it can help me move through the session and power me through the dance! I have begun to allow my breath to move me…and in this movement comes a letting go. A letting go of of the tension I’m feeling in my body or the body,a letting go of the day I experienced that challenged me and/or inspired me. Learning how to let go in a massage session, giving or receiving, and in the dance, truly is teaching me to, well, at the risk of sounding corny, not to sweat the small stuff.
But then most of all, TRUST. Massage and Dance have taught me to trust and be trusted. How deep! Seriously though, it is an honor that individuals trust me to work with them in session; in the salsa dance, I have to trust my partner to not drop me and be with me. I can’t dance alone. It seems fitting then, that individuals have told me that the massage session they received from me, well, it was like I was dancing with their body. And to that I reply, I was. This dance, these dances have transformed my life and I expect will only continue to do so.