Earth, Body, Forty

Dear Body,

After these long 7 years away, thank you for allowing me to return to the joy of dance. When you move, my breath grows short and my emotional state of being transforms. I feel happiness and sadness more deeply. You have several amazing parts that work together that make dancing one of the most profound ways to celebrate life.

In sound, movement, expression, rhythm, flexibility, spirit, creativity and strength,
Thank you.

If you had to throw a dance party for friends what would be on the playlist and why? In celebrating the "Earth" portion of my 40th (Earth, Wind and Fire), I had to figure it out. I found myself reaching for diversity in musical genres. What can be danced to? In my book- almost anything!

The above music was stripped down from a 3.5 hour compilation. It was pruned both for songs that I truly love, but also so my girlfriends attending the party would agree, 'Yes! I can dance to this song.'

We had a delightful, if unexpected for me, time. An intermittent bellydance lesson, courtesy of leading lady Samar at Hipline plus a few kinks in my planning and execution...we hardly danced to any of these songs. But a very good, very expressive time was had by all.


Because it was a private party, we didn't take any video. However, I wanted to share this "ongrowing" collection of  lovingly curated collection of all sorts of dancing and dance-like celebrations put together by Luc de Boer on Storify. My favorite?  Hands down James Brown! Runner up- Obama!

Lead "feet" photo by Laura Turbow:  My cohort celebrants' (maenads? well, maybe not with the lean 2 bottles of Hey Mambo I provided) feet. We are all connected by the steps we make on the earth.