Opening

As she pulled away I saw tears in her eyes like oceans.
No words uttered
No need
One thousand unspoken truths opening.

This evening I had the privilege of performing my own dance at an intimate event in San Francisco. I was so grateful for the opportunity. Dance is the language of my soul. Dance has the power to transform. I have transformed with dance time and again, and tonight was no different. I felt every cell in my body shed and grow again like the skin of a snake does. I saw so many visions and felt myself creating a world within a world. Creating art has this effect; like falling into an entire ocean of possibility, discovery, and love.

My teacher Rosangela Silvestre from Brazil said to me that dance is about discovery and honesty, about possibilities arriving into the body, about communicating with the ancestors and bringing the messages of the cosmic. As her student I would attempt to comprehend the poetic weight of this. Practicing by her side in the studio...eyes closed... beads of sweat running down my face...dancing by feeling. It was all a process in becoming closer to the poetry, the dance, which she envisioned clearly for us to share. Rosangela taught me to come to life and dance with conviction, certainty, attack. Rosangela dances Water, and all the river opens in her very presense. Rosangela dances Ogum the warrior, and a battle is waged. Never underestimate conviction and love, she carried unto me, it builds dances and worlds. I never left her side as a dedicated pupil. All the days in Brazil were for the spirit, for learning, and for visualizing possibilities…

Tonight I felt my own poetry pour fourth a great ocean of dance. It is possible the great artist in me awakened a little more than before. I let the dance take me where I needed to go. I followed all the moments forward. Ego, pride, identity, race, gender, and form were insignificant compared to the meaning of it all. A meaning I have yet to define in words. For now it stands in movement. At the finish when the music ended I came back into myself. I bowed, and I wondered what had I created there?

One thousand truths. My truths? Ours?

One lady interviewed me after I performed. 'What would you say to anyone who is thinking of doing what you did, but may be too afraid to put themselves out there?' I would say, risk it all. You have nothing to loose, and everything to gain. When you express yourself, when you create art, you are revealing yourself, you are empowered, and that is when you feel most Alive. Let's do things that make us feel alive, above all.

It keeps coming back to conviction. Having conviction for what or who you love. Conviction in passion. Conviction in pleasure. Conviction in freedom. The greatest artists, thinkers, innovators, creators have conviction in their ideas and forms. Children have conviction in their pretend worlds, which are real as day to them. No child belittles his dreams, nor should we belittle our's because we are older.

What makes you feel alive? What asks you to love deeply? What dreams beg of you to dream them?

In your eyes like oceans I see, one thousand truths opening…