by Phil Porter

I was lucky to have found my way into modern dance classes at Macalester College (in St. Paul), Indiana University and the University of California at Berkeley. While concentrating primarily on studying other things, I also got some really good dance training, which ultimately had as much of an effect on my life as some of my “majors.”

As I look back on the classes I took, they were interestingly solitary experiences, despite being surrounded by so many other bodies. It isn't that I didn't interact with others, but only rarely was I dancing “with” them. Sometimes (often? most of the time?) I was comparing myself to them-who was most flexible, who was picking up the combinations most quickly, who could travel across the floor the most gracefully-but we weren't necessarily creating together. When we choreographed and performed, which I was also lucky to have had the opportunity to do as part of my training, the interrelationship of one body to another was more palpable.

Now much later in life (did I mention that most of that training happened thirty years ago?) my greatest dancing joy is to “move with,” and as an improviser, “create with.” How thrilling to feel that direct body-to-body communication in the moment it occurs, the knowing that we can move almost as one body. It could be a mystical experience if it weren't so clearly my physical birthright. It is just what my body was meant to do.

photo by Carly Rosin

At the moment “Sneaky Deep Body Wisdom” is written by Phil Porter and Susan Strasburger. Phil is co-founder of InterPlay, an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of your body, and director of WING IT! Performance Ensemble. Susan is a devoted auntie, Interplay and Nonviolent Communication practitioner, member of WING IT! Performance Ensemble and consultant to organizations, individuals and couples. www.susanstrasburger.com Both reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.