Resigning from Dance Performance; Developing Teaching Ability Good Dancers Are Not Always Good Teachers Part 2 . . Resigning from Dance Performance; Developing Teaching Ability I only had a little teaching experience while working with the dance company, such as giving a warm-up class for dancers. After resigning, I finally had an opportunity to formally teach at schools. I had to plan a syllabus for each semester, and break down my teaching plan in detail in each session, etc. Not until I started teaching did I realize that dancing and teaching are entirely different. However, this teaching experience did give me a great chance to utilize my ability on analysis form the left brain - classifying my dance experience in a step-by-step manner and then integrating the material into different lesson plans. In addition to demonstrating dance movements, I also needed to give a verbal description. I would observe students’ dance and then provide them with my guidance. Throughout years of teaching, I accumulated tons of lesson plans in various subjects, and gradually developed my teaching ability, which was later applied to my soul-dance teaching.

Someone who can dance well may not equally good at teaching As a trained dancer, I always hear people from the dance filed say: “someone who can dance well may not equally good at teaching”. Why do they have this comment? I will discuss this topic from a view of different functions of the left and the right brain. In my understanding, self-dancing is merely a personal experience, mainly performed by the right brain which is in charge of sensibility. When one in dance, he expresses the beauty of dance through the physical body by tuning into his intuition. He doesn’t need to verbally communicate with others while dancing. He may need to think of how to perform bodily movements in terms of the aesthetic sense, or highly aware of a subtle change from movement to movement; however, everything only happens inward. On the contrary, dance teaching has more layers of transmission processes requiring the function of analysis of the left brain, namely how you can pass on your understanding in dance to the other. This involves the usage of multiple teaching skills including movement demonstration, verbal explanation, analysis of the dance, imaginary guiding. In so doing, it gives a clear guideline of how to perform a specific dance movement in order for the participant to understand fully both bodily and theoretically.

Life is a book If we use a book to describe a person’s life, each of us all has a fascinating story. Some stories may have been forgotten or are unbearable to look back. But only if we truly go through it, can we become a more complete self. In those dark paths we have been through alone, allowing being heard, seen and supported by each other, we finally realize that we are not alone walking on the path. I am very grateful to my group for being open-minded and close-knit. It is because of your trust and support that everyone can be a real self without defense and cover-up. Each meeting is unique and only, and there is no coincident. We have made a commitment on the soul level to meet each other in this life. When the body is allowed to express freely in dance, one can feel self-acceptance and liberation. We then can love ourselves and everyone coming into our life more deeply. You are brave souls being through a process of self-disclosure, in which tears and laughter are woven together like a touched painting that has imprinted into the heart.

An Introduction to Chakra Dance An Introduction to Chakra Dance Chakra Dance is an active moving meditation that works with seven main chakras located on the spine. In Chakra Dance, there is no set form, you just dance spontaneously with the energy in your body. When you are chakra dancing, you will experience at least three levels. The first level is “The Body Level”. When you dance, you have a chance to loosen your body. When your body is loose, it can move freely and allow you to feel better. The second level is “The Emotional Level”. When your body is free to move, you feel more comfortable on a physical level, and you may experience some deeper emotions locked within you that you were not even aware of. When you have a chance to go deeper, you will often find that there are a lot of emotions stored in our body; most commonly are unexpressed anger, depression, fear or sadness. We could use the metaphor of a pond to describe what happens when we are chakra dancing. Imagine that the inside of your body is a pond and the water is stagnant. When you dance, it’s like throwing a stone into the pond and as the stone sinks to the bottom, it stirs up sand that has been sitting there for years. Our emotions are like ‘that’ sand. Normally, we don’t have a chance to release our emotions, just like that sand staying at the bottom of the pond. As you go deeper into the practice, you won’t even be a pond at all but slowly transition into a river. A river, for me, is ever-flowing, like the veins in our body. As mentioned above, chakras are the centers of our energy, located on the spine. So, when you dance freely, you allow the energy in these centers to flow into the rest of your body. Also, you can imagine the energy flow into your veins. So, if we use the metaphor of the pond to represent our chakras, when you dance, the water in the pond starts flowing to the river and the river flows into the ocean. And that brings us to the third level ‘The Spiritual Level’. The Spiritual level is the cosmic ocean where you will arrive at a state of peace and tranquility. Now, you have a chance to look inward and reflect on what has happened in your life. Written by Ya-Wen Lin, Chakra Dance Facilitator

I Love Dancing, Dance Is My Life. ‘Before the age of 30, dance is my whole world; After the age of 30, I share dance with the whole world.’ If I have to use one sentence to describe my life in my early 20s, I would say ‘contributing my sincere passion to dance without rare of distraction.’ I have started my lifelong passion for dance since I was three years old. At the age of 13, under the support of my parents, I was sent to a formal dance school to perceive professional dance training. During the time, I have never lost my interests in dance, on the contrary, I have taken the path of becoming a profession in dance more and more seriously. to be continued...

The Real Dance Real Dance A person who is passionate to dance is the one who would dance freely and fearlessly without worrying about other’s view, this is the real dance. In soul dance, you don’t dance for others, but only dance for yourself, furthermore, you dance without needs to say why. Honestly speaking, dance is merely a tool of assisting you to dance internally. When you reach the moment of staying in deep silence while dancing, the outside world would never exist and nothing is important anymore. >>> Thanks to my Super Tutor Antony B corrected my writing! ^^ >>> The Real Dance A person who is passionate for dance is one who dances freely and fearlessly without worrying about other’s opinions; this is the real dance. In soul dance, you don’t dance for others, but only for yourself, and you don’t have to have any reason for dancing in the first place. Honestly speaking, dance is merely a way to express yourself and be introspective. When you reach a state of pure tranquility, the outside world fades away, and nothing else matters.

Self-Healing In a View of Wild Feminine Self-Healing In a View of Wild Feminine Recently, I started to read a book called “Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body”, and it has inspired me with significant insight to some degrees. Before, I never really felt my body’s feeling, especially the womb/pelvic area. When I started to read this book, it gave me a chance to reconnect to my female body. The main focus of the book mainly is about how women can heal themselves by paying attention to the physical alignment of the pelvis and female organs. For example, there are two ovaries in a female body, if they are imbalanced, they will cause pain and affect health, mostly, it related to not only the physical aspect but also psychological one. Honestly, in the past few months, I have some pain on the right side of my pelvis, and I have no clue how it happened. So, I had my body examined, the physical therapist said that the pain is originated from the right side of my ovary. When I read the book I suddenly realize why. The author said that either side of the ovaries represents different aspects, the right side represents the male energy, and the left side represents the female energy. When I applied this theory on my body, I noticed that the imbalance of my ovary affects the physical structure of my pelvis - I have chronic pain on the right side of my lower back. Most of the time, I use the male energy more than the female energy, therefore, I see it as a sign of warning me, I need to take care of my female feeling, don’t push myself too hard on work, but spend more time on rest. In addition to reading this book, I am also participating in an online course called “Sexual Self-Healing for Women”. In the course there are a lot of guided meditations focus on healing the female organs, such as the womb, ovaries, sex organs. I just follow the instructor to guide me into an extraordinary consciousness by using some imaginary terms, so that I can be very concentrated on my own body, checking the structure of the physical organs, how they feel, what emotions they have, etc. In so doing, I really have the chance to feel a specific female organ. Although I am still on the process, I am happy that I found this book to heal myself.

Feminine identity is based on the self-awareness of a female body (part 2) As a little girl, I grew up under the care of my parents who gave me full of freedom, which has enabled me to explore life in my own way. My parents seldom restricted me to behave like a woman under social mobility. I deeply appreciated my parents for allowing my natural way of self-expression. I have doubted my feminine identity while in an intimate relationship, which was all because I was too concerned about how people valued me. When I was working as a professional dancer, I have often treated my physical body as merely a means of presenting dance. I had a high sensory awareness of my body that I could control it to perform delicate dance skills, however, I seldom viewed it in the form of a female body. After going through the process, I finally realized that how I value myself is much more important than how others and society value me. I would never ever abuse my body without listening to “her” feeling. I would like to propose my comprehension to the women like you, when you allow your body to express in ‘her’ own way, immediately, you will gain joyful feedback from ‘her’. The more you honor your feminine body, understand ‘her’ need, recognize ‘her’ natural move, the more will you become an authentic woman. There is no need to guise or cover up the essence of the wild feminine in you, as ‘she’ will make your life full of creation and aliveness.

Feminine identity is based on the self-awareness of a female body (part 1) There are lots of people debating about the topic of feminine identity, most of all is surrounding the rise of feminism or upgrading the social position of women in a male leading society. As a woman, I am more concerned about whether if I truly know my female body: what does she need? What feelings does she feel? Do I allow my body to present herself in a natural way? Am I willing to give her the right to express herself freely so that I can hear her true voice? To be continued… . . "Correction from my English tutor: Feminine identity has become the topic of many fierce and opinionated debates, particularly the notion of feminism of social mobility within a patriarchal society. As a woman, I am cautious about objecting my own body, I am careful to ask, concerning my body, “What does ‘she’ need? What are ‘her’ feelings? Do I allow ‘her’ to embrace the fullness of feminine sovereignty? Do I allow ‘her’ freedom of expression?” ps, thank you, my tutor, Anthony! ^_^