Somatic Writing Series: Bhumi B. Patel, Andrea Olsen, and Elizebeth Randall Rains

Design by Claire Calalo Berry of Flourish and Frost

I am thrilled to run this new series over the next month. Nine dancers will share ideas around somatic themes and how these themes play out in our lives right now – such as softening, allowing, activating, and slowing down to feel.

Like "flash fiction writing," each writer took on the challenge of sharing their ideas in 100 words or less. I hope you might get inspired to write on these themes as well, succinctly and poetically within this word limit!

Today we hear from Bhumi B. Patel, Andrea Olsen, and Elizebeth Randall Rains. All three dancers have contributed numerous posts to Life as a Modern Dancer over the years. Find some of those additional links below.

Be well,

Jill Randall
Blog Director, Life as a Modern Dancer

—————
soften
by Bhumi B. Patel

one thing i know is that in dance spaces there is frequently a tightening, a hardness in my chest. a bracing. a response to years and decades of being dismissed, invalidated, microaggressed, harmed. so i go in, cordial, polite, friendly even, but at the ready.

lately, i’ve been spending time with people who fill my rest line-item and in that i’ve been finding the softening.

remembering that there are places where i can lay my soft heart bare.

remembering that it is not wrong to feel that constricting.

cultivating the spaces where softness can bloom.
where will you sow your softening today?

Bhumi B Patel is the queer, desi Artistic Director of pateldanceworks (she/they, please) creating work at the intersection of embodied research and activism.

—–

Activate
By Andrea Olsen, February 5, 2021

Walking, walking, walking. I have been finishing a book on embodied communication in isolation in Downeast Maine. One year in one place as of March 15—very likely the first ever in my life as my parents were travelers. Since November, my daily excursions have featured a thirty-minute walk with qigong by a stream. I stretched that today by dancing on the frozen surface of a 14,000-acre lake. My body was happy! And writing these words to you in the frosty air is part of activating dancing–connecting through movement wherever and whenever we can.

Andrea Olsen is a dance artist, author, and educator. See andrea-olsen.com/ and www.body-earth.org.

—–
Sensation
By Elizebeth Randall Rains

I am remembering performing. That sublime, electrifying experience. Feeling everything. Offering everything. Being seen.

I close my eyes. The stage light shines on my skin.

Now, I collect sensations like treasures. The anticipation and heat of the first sip of morning tea. My kids’ hands tenderly squeezing mine as we meander on our daily pathways. The coarse sand at Alameda Beach caressing my feet. Every cell yielding to gravity when I collapse right here on the wool rug.

No one is watching me but I am a wilderness of sensation.

The sunlight shines on my skin. I open my eyes.

Elizebeth Randall Rains is a mama, dancer, student and teacher living in the Bay Area. She enjoys sharing movement and community at Saint Mary's College and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center.

———-

Somatic Writing Series: With Sima Belmar, Leah Cox, and Molly Rose-Williams

Compassionate Labor Deserves Intentional Rest – By Bhumi B. Patel, David Herrera, Gerald Casel, Sammay Dizon, Raissa Simpson, and Yayoi Kambara

Let us eat cake, consensually, that is: A Reflection on TALK.DANCE.CAKE – By Bhumi B. Patel

Quote for Today: From Andrea Olsen

Writing Dancing: With Andrea Olsen

Two Views on Collaborating to Create a Dance & Digital Media Film Series (Andrea Olsen and Scotty Hardwig)

My Dance Week: Elizebeth Randall Rains

Artist Profile: Elizebeth Randall Rains