From Blog Director Jill Randall:

Hello and Happy Spring! As the calendar turns to the month of April, and with a bit of sun on my face, I thought it would be a great day to offer a few musings on the topic of wellness.

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In some recent posts on the blog, I asked fellow artists to share their viewpoints and experiences with wellness:

From Colleen Thomas:

What does wellness mean to you? How to support wellness, balance, exertion/recuperation in 2018….

I really began my focus on self-care about 4 years ago when I decided to make better choices (like the professional and personal choices I wrote about earlier). I started to become so busy and felt like I was drowning most days. I thought it was due to motherhood or having a full-time job and two dance companies and doing extra projects on the side. A friend suggested I try Vipassana meditation and a silent retreat in Massachusetts. It changed my life. What I can say briefly is that the time in the woods, meditating, and practicing compassion and loving kindness, made me feel connected and a sort of peace that I hadn’t had in a decade. So to support wellness (especially in the craziest, most appalling political environment of my time), meditation, compassion, sleep, food, water, kindness, laughter and friendship are the practices I try to experience at least once a day.

From Charles Slender-White:

What does wellness mean to you? How do you support wellness for you, your dancers, and your admin staff?

Wellness, for me, boils down to knowing when to continue and knowing when to stop. This applies to injuries and physical pain, relationships with others, new choreographic sections that aren’t yet working out, etc. Thinking about wellness in this way has been essential for my survival in the field, and it applies to the way I run both the artistic and administrative sides of FACT/SF.

With my entire team, artists and administrators, I strive to create an open environment where people feel comfortable asking questions and sharing concerns. We also do comprehensive 1 on 1 interviews at the end of every contract period to evaluate what worked and what didn’t – both from their perspectives and from mine.

As a team manager, and in addition to keeping lines of communication open, I think wellness is promoted by being consistent, calm, reliable, and honest.

From Kristin Damrow:

Recuperative and restorative practices to care for the teaching body:

SLEEP! Whenever I can get more of it, the better. And water, all the water. I have a morning routine with a theraband and nightly routine with a foam roller. If I miss a day, I can feel the difference.

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I also wanted to highlight some ideas from Elizebeth Randall Rains' "My Dance Week" post in February:

SOME BIGGER QUESTIONS THESE DAYS…

• How can my teaching and moving practices continue to evolve while so much of my energy is focused on motherhood?
• How can I get more dancing into my schedule? Am I still a dancer even though I rarely take class or perform?
• How can I carve out more time and space for self-care, new research and learning, connecting with family and friends, and being of service in my communities?
• It is a strange and sometimes scary time to be raising children in this country. What actions can my family be taking to help ensure a healthy, happy, and safe future for all children?

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Last, I have been thinking about the intersection of wellness and gratitude practices. If you have not already seen these posts, we are offering a weekly gratitude concept throughout 2018, specifically geared towards artists. 

Check out the posts here, or "like" the Page on Facebook!

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