An excerpt from my Blog

While most people start blogs to focus on a specific topic for discussion, the purpose for this blog is to explore different ways of expressing the experience that consumes my whole being while dancing. I have been blessed and am honored to live in complete dedication to a field that fuels my passion and gives me an overwhelming sense of purpose and direction in an all too often misguided world. At 24 years of age, I feel I have already found myself, which for many may seem always just out of reach. The following is not meant to be a statement or a declaration of the success I am finding personally and professionally through dance. I am simply trying to share with those in similar or radically different circumstances words that may possibly explain something that in some way can only be felt.

I keep a journal with me at all times and pen whatever crosses my mind, even when time is scarce. It is healing and assists me in the constant rediscovery of myself. I am by no means a skilled writer, but expression is in my blood as an artist. This blog is meant to be a forum in which anyone can share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences that may help in explaining this powerful and energizing force latent in all artists and creators. I would like this blog to be a haven of love, openness, and friendship as viewed through the eyes of an artist, especially those who communicate with their bodies as dancers.

When I dance, I feel as if the hand of God is guiding my movements. It is visceral, and extends to the tips of my body and translated into graceful movement. The body is meant to communicate things that cannot be verbalized, only expressed through the language of truth gained from experience. Dance allows me to peek through the curtain of enlightenment and connect with the other side, a side only seen by those who have faith in themselves and faith in the source of all that exists. Through dancing I find myself learning a Holy Language, the Divine Word of Movement. When I learn new movement or choreography, I find  it similar to learning the rules of a new spoken language, stumbling over new words and idioms that make that language unique. However, as I establish the foundation for progress, fluency becomes attainable, and I achieve a clarity with what I am trying to translate. Even as I acquire new ways to communicate, the continuous education of the mind and body allows me to articulate and expound on ideas in ways never before imagined.

Those who believe that training is a means to an end have been misled by misguided teachers. The process of learning is eternal, and, no matter how much we think we know, are perpetual students. Repetition is not mundane - it begets rediscovery each time. The revelations we experience through repeated movement are profound. Not only do we reintroduce ourselves to who we are meant to be through this unique artistic process, but we suddenly find ourselves no longer accepting one expression because the one before was and the one after will be different. Our lives as artists are in constant flux, and we are compelled to register these changes through artistic choice, and express them in ways that extend beyond the confines of our bodies and into the realms where only our spirits know their rhythm. Beyond the classroom or stage, we transcend the dimensions of what we think is real and are catalyzed into something much greater. Through dance, ascension is accelerated through Divine communication.

When I dance or move, I am inadvertently awestruck and awe-inspiring: I am drawn out while I draw the audience in. This occurs because I am within a graceful state where presence becomes radiance. The audience is eavesdropping on my conversation with the source of all-encompassing love. I am having a dialogue that can only be experienced and must be experienced by all. I share my gift with all whom are willing to watch. I know that my purpose is to unite the world of here and there through my dance. I hope to share my calling and bring that connection to my audience. It is my humble duty as an artist, and is the least I could do.

 --Danielle Marie