Tsunami Studio

Music Requests - What was THAT song?

 We play a variety of music in our classes.  From sultry, slow rhythms to fast and furious beats and every tempo in-between. From places around the world and to those found in our own backyards.  From well-known radio tunes to seldom-heard of songs.  While Elia and I have our personal favorites, we always do our best to create the kind of playlists that are exciting, evocative and entertaining to dance to. Because music is such a personal experience, it's likely you won't like every song we play, but we'll guarantee that most of the music will make your body move and you'll be introduced to plenty of new artists.

While we're pretty confident of our music-making skills, we appreciate your feedback. It's important to hear what you especially liked and what might have missed the mark.  When people want to know more about the music we play, we're happy to share that information. We won't post all of our playlists, but if a specific request is made (or if Elia or I are especially proud of a particular set) we'll make it available on our "Playlists" page. We purchase a majority of our music from i-Tunes and you can listen to a 30 second preview of each song by looking up either its name or artist.

I've just posted this past Sunday's Sanctuary class playlist.  Go check it out.

Thursday Explorations ~ Signature Moves

 

For as long as I can remember, I've been a twirler.  Not in a cheerleading-baton-wielding way, but in a Sufi-spinning, Whirling Dervish way. I've spun until I've laughed myself silly.  I've spun until the tears flowed. I've spun until I've lost my balance and fallen down.  Except for that one time when I thought I was going to throw up, there are many reasons why my "spin move" brings me extreme pleasure.  No matter what music plays or how I'm feeling, some form of a spin shows up in my dance everytime.

Tomorrow night's Explorations class will give participants an opportunity to discover what might be considered their "signature move". We all have our own unique ways in which we move our bodies and when it comes to dance, whether or not we're aware of it, we have specific steps and/or a distinctive move we return to again and again.  As creatures of habit, it makes sense that we would dance in ways that are familiar and make us feel good. What might be some other reasons why we come back to our well-known waltz or regular rhumba?  We'll take a short bit of time to look beyond the feel-good factor before we bust out our moves.

Come and join us. Come and share your dance.

Speaking without Words

"Dance can give the inarticulate a voice." ~Pamela Brown

After ten years of dancing and hundreds of dances, I'm still delightfully surprised when I'm moved to a point beyond words.   It doesn't take much for specific songs or a certain type of music to stir up memories and cause a swell of emotions to surface, but it's quite a feat when dance renders me speechless. When a dance actually becomes my voice, not only have I allowed my body to do the talking, I know I've listened to what she has to say.  

Our bodies have plenty to tell us, but because many of us (myself included) spend so much time in our heads (we think, we analyze, we worry, etc.) it's easy to forget to listen to the wisdom of our physical selves. When we physically move and if we pay close enough attention, other things (our thoughts, beliefs, feelings) can move too. Here's the surprising part though...you never quite know when or if a shift will take place during a dance.

As both a facilitator and a participant, there were several times during our classes last week when I felt more aware of my body, how it moved and how it made me feel. Perhaps it had something to do with the two new classes (Recess & Journeys) that made their debut at the studio. Perhaps it had something to do with who showed up and danced.  Perhaps it had something to do with what's going on in my life right now.  Perhaps I let go, opened up and trusted by body's movements more than my head's thoughts or my mouth's words. Perhaps it was all of that and more.  There were no grand epiphanies, just subtle and sweet reminders why I will continue to dance and encourage others to do the same. 

I'm still learning to listen.  

Stories . . . continued

Our bodies can be our wisest teachers, our most enlightened gurus . . . Your body ultimately knows itself far better than any other person can. In its cells have been stored every experience that has ever happened to you since before you were born. It knows more about you than your own mother, more about you even than your mind. Our bodies will teach us more than we can imagine, if only we will listen.
--Mark Gerzon (author, Listening to Midlife)

Last week in Explorations class we worked with the idea of story. How our minds create an entire story from any kind of raw material--like music. We are so ultimately creative, and our dance can combine with words, speech, pictures, to create a narrative of a given point in time. Ultimately any story we create can carry a truth for us, but in the end, the story is just that, a story, and changes from day to day, dance to dance.

This Thursday we'll be continuing in the idea of the stories held in our bodies, and how we might communicate with our bodies through the power of dance. Through the simple act of mindfulness and questioning, we can converse with the wisdom held deeply inside of us. The body is, of course, the vehicle of our dance; dance is a language through which the body communicates with us and the world around us. Let the conversation flow!

Thursday Explorations Class ~ Delicious Ambiguity

 

I wanted a perfect ending...Now, I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.  Delicious ambiguity.  ~ Gilda Radner

There's no doubt about it...dance provides us an opportunity to get in touch with our bodies and get out of our heads.  But the stories we tell ourselves never really go away, do they?  Even when we're physically moving, the mind still has a tendency to wander.  It might be a particular song that brings you back to a place in the past.  It might be some random thought about your day like "I forgot to pick up cat food at the grocery store" or "It was lovely to have lunch with Sue today". Or it might have everything to do with what's happening moment to moment in the dance, but still...you're creating and telling a story. 

This Thursday night, we'll be exploring and sharing the story of our dance in a fun and imaginative way.  We'll be playing with what Gilda Radner so aptly describes as "delicious ambiguity".  If you've been a regular Thursday night participant, you won't want to miss this one.  And if we haven't yet met you and you've been wanting to check us out, there's a very good chance that this class will make a Tsunami Studio fan out of you. 

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER:  We've recently made a change to our class starting times.  Classes begin at the posted time, not 15 minutes after. When we opened the studio three months ago, we thought we'd be clever and provide a "psychological-never-be-late 15 minute" warm-up time (which meant class actually began 15 minutes after the posted time).  We've done away with that and so when class starts at 6:30p.m...It's really at 6:30 p.m.  The studio's doors will open 15 minutes prior to class starting so if you want a bit o' time to warm-up before we begin, get there early!  

Changes for the New Year

Hello dancers!

Lisa and I are busy whipping up new classes and special event for the coming Winter schedule--check out the last post or Workshops & Events page for some up to date information. We have two new classes that will be happening in the daytime: Recess and Journeys, to reach those of you that can't get to the studio at night or on Sundays. Class descriptions are available on the Classes page; those classes are set to start the week of January 19. Regular dancers also need to be aware that we've changed our lineup of offerings on Sundays: we will now be offering the Sanctuary class at 10am (class STARTS at 10, so please come a bit earlier to check in and warm-up--doors open 15 minutes before class); the Fusion class is discontinued at this time. As we mentioned in an earlier post, the Friday night Dance Jam is also discontinued, replaced by a once a month "Spotlight" dance that will showcase music from a particular decade, artist, or genre. This month's Spotlight is on the 80s on January 30th, from 7-9pm.

We look forward to dancing with you in the New Year, with an attitude of optimism, exploration, and joy. If you haven't yet ventured to the studio, but have been meaning to, now is the time.

See you on the dance floor!