, ,

Tree Climbing at JUMA Amazon Lodge (Brazil)

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This video makes my heart sing. Watching it takes me back to the Amazon, a place I never expected to visit, and to the top of the forest, a place I never expected to stand. But also, it reminds me how thankful I am to have adventure after adventure, and especially for who I get to share them with. Thank you for incessantly documenting our life, Pole Ninja Photography. 

If you want to learn more about our Amazonian adventure, here's an interview with our tour guide, Ralph.

Featured
#SessionsEverywhere
#SessionsEverywhere

I’ve learned a lot of things during my years on the road—and many of them stem from adaptability. Often, I need to have a little self-talk about accepting and embracing my circumstances. I know that if I’m caught up on my lack of "comforts," I’ll miss out on the details of the life around me.  This practice of acceptance also leads to creativity.

Romania
Romania

POLE NINJA PHOTOGRAPHY put together an incredible multimedia recap of our adventures in Romania.

Israel/Jordan
Israel/Jordan

My most recent tour included a few spots I’ve dreamed of for a long time. One of the most memorable was the Dead Sea. It truly exceeded my expectations.  I'd heard things like, “It doesn’t look like much," so I was expecting a big muddy lake/sea that you float really well in.

But WHOA. The colors of the place were divine. The air was perfect. Not only did I float, I felt like a baby seal --I ’ve never been so slimy, in a good way. For days after, my skin felt like I was 4 years old.

Plus, there was no one else there. We first went in Israel and said, “We have to go back.” So we did, in Jordan. And this time, I was prepared for a shoot.

The Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs in Paris

I’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris museum twice. When it comes to cities, my favorite type of tourism is dark tourism. I like to see where the dreadful went down. And visiting a place that housed 7 million diseased bodies is pretty surreal. On the tour you learn that in fact these tunnels run all throughout Paris. Where there are buildings, there are underground reinforcements to prevent collapses. They don’t tell you about the illegal underground parties, war bunkers, breweries, movie rooms and communities. But they exist…

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia

A few days ago we drove from Austria to Slovenia. We passed a beautiful lake and decided to take a photo. I didn't have the right outfit so I settled for a piece of red silk. I carefully walked into icy the water and waited to get the shot set-up. This is when I learned that silk floats and is water repellant (at least this silk is...). The result looks like I'm sitting on glass.

City Museum, St. Louis, MO
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado

For only a few days a year the trees in mountainous Colorado turn yellow. For a few minutes, I too turned yellow.

Milos and Santorini, Greece
Milos and Santorini, Greece

Thank you, Pole Ninja Photography and Cherry Li Photography for these photos.  :  )

If you're interested in booking a photo shoot with Pole Ninja Photography or for commercial shoot inquiries, you can contact him via MRBRPR.

Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!
Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!

It's Day 1 of the FIRST ever Floor Flow Teacher Training and I'm like....

AHHHH!!!!! weeeee!!!! wwoooohoooo!!!!

The Sit-to-Stand Challange

The sit-to-stand test received a lot of publicity in 2014. If you missed it, a Brazilian Study found that the ability to get off the floor without hands was a major predictor of longevity (as in, your life will probably be shorter if you struggle to get off the floor.)

Luckily, it's becoming common knowledge that if we sit (or remain in one position) for hours on end each day, our muscular system stops working for us the way it should. Here's the thing: difficulties in getting up from the floor or even a chair are not limited to older populations; it's a young people problem too, and that's scary. 

Do you ever catch yourself placing a hand on your thigh to get off the floor? Do you use the armrests of your chair to stand? Do you sit by falling, and rise with a heave-ho? If you answered yes (recent injuries aside), you are not using your musculoskeletal system optimally. 

Here is a video of a young woman performing the traditional test:

Now here is the fun part:

The Flow Movement® Sit-to-Stand Challenge!

First, find a song you love. Then lay down, flat on your back.  Slowly come to stand without using your hands or knees on the floor. After you stand, find your way back down with total control, still without your arms. You can move them in space, but you cannot use them to push off the floor or place them your own body to rise. Find as many ways as possible to do this challenge. Gradually, increase your speed to make things interesting…but NO HANDS. 

Post an an edited video on Instagram (you have 60 seconds now for videos, so no holding back!) or Facebook of your favorite ‘get up with no hands and no knees’  flow for a chance to win a free bundle of Flow Movement® videos.  Make sure to tag both #flowmovement and #fmsit2stand so we see your video.  We'll pick a winner for May on May 31, 2016.

Here are two of my favorite no hands ways to get up:

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)

Salt Flats, Boliva

When shopping for destinations for our South America tour, I learned there is a train graveyard near the Salt Flats in Bolivia. But then the reviews said that there were tons of tourists and garbage everywhere, and it sucked. Not true for us. We were practically the only ones there, and no garbage. Most importantly, no one told us we couldn't climb and explore.

It was actually really cool.

We had 30 minutes to set up, snap, and get out; this is what we managed.

Photos by Pole Ninja Photography.

Featured
#SessionsEverywhere
#SessionsEverywhere

I’ve learned a lot of things during my years on the road—and many of them stem from adaptability. Often, I need to have a little self-talk about accepting and embracing my circumstances. I know that if I’m caught up on my lack of "comforts," I’ll miss out on the details of the life around me.  This practice of acceptance also leads to creativity.

Romania
Romania

POLE NINJA PHOTOGRAPHY put together an incredible multimedia recap of our adventures in Romania.

Israel/Jordan
Israel/Jordan

My most recent tour included a few spots I’ve dreamed of for a long time. One of the most memorable was the Dead Sea. It truly exceeded my expectations.  I'd heard things like, “It doesn’t look like much," so I was expecting a big muddy lake/sea that you float really well in.

But WHOA. The colors of the place were divine. The air was perfect. Not only did I float, I felt like a baby seal --I ’ve never been so slimy, in a good way. For days after, my skin felt like I was 4 years old.

Plus, there was no one else there. We first went in Israel and said, “We have to go back.” So we did, in Jordan. And this time, I was prepared for a shoot.

The Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs in Paris

I’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris museum twice. When it comes to cities, my favorite type of tourism is dark tourism. I like to see where the dreadful went down. And visiting a place that housed 7 million diseased bodies is pretty surreal. On the tour you learn that in fact these tunnels run all throughout Paris. Where there are buildings, there are underground reinforcements to prevent collapses. They don’t tell you about the illegal underground parties, war bunkers, breweries, movie rooms and communities. But they exist…

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia

A few days ago we drove from Austria to Slovenia. We passed a beautiful lake and decided to take a photo. I didn't have the right outfit so I settled for a piece of red silk. I carefully walked into icy the water and waited to get the shot set-up. This is when I learned that silk floats and is water repellant (at least this silk is...). The result looks like I'm sitting on glass.

City Museum, St. Louis, MO
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado

For only a few days a year the trees in mountainous Colorado turn yellow. For a few minutes, I too turned yellow.

Milos and Santorini, Greece
Milos and Santorini, Greece

Thank you, Pole Ninja Photography and Cherry Li Photography for these photos.  :  )

If you're interested in booking a photo shoot with Pole Ninja Photography or for commercial shoot inquiries, you can contact him via MRBRPR.

Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!
Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!

It's Day 1 of the FIRST ever Floor Flow Teacher Training and I'm like....

AHHHH!!!!! weeeee!!!! wwoooohoooo!!!!

,

April Playlist

,

Cover photo by Pole Ninja Photography.

Featured
December Playlists
December Playlists
Flowvember Playlists
Flowvember Playlists
October Playlists
October Playlists
August Playlists
August Playlists
July Playlists
July Playlists
May Playlists (includes bonus Matcha May Playlist!)
May Playlists (includes bonus Matcha May Playlist!)
April Playlists
April Playlists
March Playlists
March Playlists
February Playlists
February Playlists
January Playlists
January Playlists

"MOVE YOUR DNA"

Have you ever read a book wide-eyed, nodding, pacing and grunting in agreement? "Move Your DNA" by Katy Bowman was one of the books for me—I felt its contents in my bones and immediately knew it would greatly influence my movement and training philosophy.

I read Move Your DNA for the first time in Sweden. It was winter, but there I was, in front of an old church, squatting, reading, standing on one leg, re-reading, inhaling the information contained within. When people ask me where they can learn more about biomechanics, or principles of human movement, I tell them to read this first. If you want to live well read it. If you have pain, recurrent injuries, read it. If you have sore feet at the end of the day, read it.

You can purchase your copy HERE.

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)

,

Monkey Rub at JUMA Amazon Lodge, Brazil

,

I woke up at 6am excited to go look for my new monkey friend and....HI WOOLY!

(I'm aware that this angle paired with days of travel did me no favors, but hey -- looking cute and the jungle don't go together. It's not about me, it's about sharing this beautiful encounter : ) Also, sorry for the 'baby talk' voice... I always do that when I talk to animals. Then I hear it on video and cringe)

Featured
#SessionsEverywhere
#SessionsEverywhere

I’ve learned a lot of things during my years on the road—and many of them stem from adaptability. Often, I need to have a little self-talk about accepting and embracing my circumstances. I know that if I’m caught up on my lack of "comforts," I’ll miss out on the details of the life around me.  This practice of acceptance also leads to creativity.

Romania
Romania

POLE NINJA PHOTOGRAPHY put together an incredible multimedia recap of our adventures in Romania.

Israel/Jordan
Israel/Jordan

My most recent tour included a few spots I’ve dreamed of for a long time. One of the most memorable was the Dead Sea. It truly exceeded my expectations.  I'd heard things like, “It doesn’t look like much," so I was expecting a big muddy lake/sea that you float really well in.

But WHOA. The colors of the place were divine. The air was perfect. Not only did I float, I felt like a baby seal --I ’ve never been so slimy, in a good way. For days after, my skin felt like I was 4 years old.

Plus, there was no one else there. We first went in Israel and said, “We have to go back.” So we did, in Jordan. And this time, I was prepared for a shoot.

The Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs in Paris

I’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris museum twice. When it comes to cities, my favorite type of tourism is dark tourism. I like to see where the dreadful went down. And visiting a place that housed 7 million diseased bodies is pretty surreal. On the tour you learn that in fact these tunnels run all throughout Paris. Where there are buildings, there are underground reinforcements to prevent collapses. They don’t tell you about the illegal underground parties, war bunkers, breweries, movie rooms and communities. But they exist…

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia

A few days ago we drove from Austria to Slovenia. We passed a beautiful lake and decided to take a photo. I didn't have the right outfit so I settled for a piece of red silk. I carefully walked into icy the water and waited to get the shot set-up. This is when I learned that silk floats and is water repellant (at least this silk is...). The result looks like I'm sitting on glass.

City Museum, St. Louis, MO
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado

For only a few days a year the trees in mountainous Colorado turn yellow. For a few minutes, I too turned yellow.

Milos and Santorini, Greece
Milos and Santorini, Greece

Thank you, Pole Ninja Photography and Cherry Li Photography for these photos.  :  )

If you're interested in booking a photo shoot with Pole Ninja Photography or for commercial shoot inquiries, you can contact him via MRBRPR.

Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!
Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!

It's Day 1 of the FIRST ever Floor Flow Teacher Training and I'm like....

AHHHH!!!!! weeeee!!!! wwoooohoooo!!!!

, ,

Training at Luna Salada Hotel de Sal

, ,

When you are in remote Bolivia, you either eat, spend time on the salt, or work it out in the hotel bar. I did lots of each....here are some moments form my training in the only room with a wood floor in an otherwise completely salt-made hotel.

Filmed at Luna Salada Hotel de Sal.

Featured
Catch This!
Catch This!

“I don’t do balls,” I used to say.

Like many other dancers I knew growing up, I formed an identity around being a dancer with no interest in activities involving balls, pucks, paddles, etc. (unless I was dancing with it).

In high school, I almost failed P.E. class because I flat-out refused to participate in any sports activity. As a result, in later years, whenever someone would throw me a ball I’d duck away rather than catch it, or if I did attempt a catch, it would be in a stiff and panicky state. It was embarrassing.

Ki’ilani (seen in the video) changed my relationship with catching. She loves balls more than anyone I’ve ever met. Every trip to a large store includes a visit to the sports aisle to feel balls. She even keeps a ball in her pocket for comfort tossing. One of our quarantine activities has been ‘dance catch.’

Learning Online
Learning Online

Have you ever bought any digital tutorials or courses? Or saved videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube?
Chances are you grabbed them because wanted to remember and LEARN the material.

But, did work through them?

How has it been integrating what you learned into your dancing/living/teaching?

Or, are the videos collecting digital dust...waiting for you to give them a chance?

If you have gathered materials, especially if you PAID for those materials, but haven’t given them the attention you intended, how about getting out your calendar RIGHT NOW and booking yourself some self-learning time?

Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
Cross Knee Swivel & Supine Sticky Foot Twists
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
The Return of the FM YouTube Channel!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Free Spinal Wave Upgrade!
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone
Why Attention to Contact is for Everyone

If you look at any beginner movement class, you'll see widely-varying degrees of bodily awareness. However, regardless of how someone moves, with a little bit of cueing, anyone can feel if they are in contact with the floor or not.

You don’t need skill or imagination to sense your contact with the floor. You may not be paying attention to it most of the time, but it doesn't require anatomical awareness to grasp what 'weight-bearing' is or to notice which of your parts have the most pressure.

Weight bearing is a constant thing (unless you are temporarily airborne, space traveling, or swimming, you are bearing weight, somehow).

Yet, the details of rolling contacts are rarely zeroed in on outside of higher-level movement environments. But...they could be.

Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching
Three Books That are Currently Inspiring My Teaching

The first is called ‘Bodyfulness’ by Boulder author Christine Caldwell. It’s swelling with information for or anyone who’s ready to look at the how and why of how they move. The author founded the Somatic Counseling program at Naropa University and has been in practice for more than thirty years.

She says:

“The body isn’t a thing we have but an experience we are. Bodyfulness is about working toward our potential as a whole human animal that breathes as well as thinks, moves as well as sits still, takes action as well as considers, and exists not because it thinks but because it dances, stretches, bounces, gazes, focuses, and attunes to others.“

Less Choreography, More Dance
Less Choreography, More Dance

Have you been to a dance class that was supposed to be beginner-appropriate or all-levels, but the class progressed in a way that made you want to disappear?

Maybe you had fun the first few minutes when the sequence was short, but then the instructor moved on, and on, and on. With rapidly dwindling confidence, you were left stumbling in the wake of an ever-growing sequence. Perhaps physically you could have done it all, but you needed more time to really 'get it'. It was just too much to remember.

I've been there. In classes and in auditions, I've been there.

You can only stumble around, a count behind everyone else, for so long before you want to shrivel into the corner and become unseen.

When you’re new to a style or form (or even just with a new teacher), learning a lengthy complex piece of choreography (maybe alongside people much younger or more skilled than you) is daunting and often
disheartening. Based on what I've observed, the amount of choreography delivered in many dance classes leaves a LOT of people behind.

In my opinion, if you are still trying to remember the choreo during the last minutes of class, you're missing out on the joy of dancing, the part where the movement starts to carry you and you can transcend who you were when you arrived.

My message is this:

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway
Pumpkin Flow Giveaway

Pumpkin Flow Giveaway:

If you flow with a gourd of your choice between now and Nov 5, I’ll send you a code for $5 off any event or video. 

How:

  1. Get busy with you pumpkin and catch it on video.

  2. Post at least 15 seconds on FB or IG and tag #pumpkinflow and @flowmovement 

  3. Send us a message on either platform with the link to your video and we will send you your discount code. 

The Group Fitness Class Experience
The Group Fitness Class Experience

Yesterday, I witnessed a group movement experience that I was SO glad I was not a part of.

After a month away and a week of living the truck driver life, I got a month-long pass to a nearby gym. It’s primarily a rock-climbing gym, but they have a weight room upstairs.

This particular gym runs some group conditioning classes inside of the weight room. While I was gleefully doing irreverent things on the back extension bench, a voice came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know that “Body Blast with Mr. Blasty Blast” [ok, not his real name] was starting soon. I thought, “Oh nice, I’ll get to see if I would ever want to join the class.” Consensus:

OH NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING EVER. (Unless you pay me. I’d consider it if money were involved.)

,

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

,

Three days ago, in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia we hiked out to the salt, and did this....

Rainbow face and couture mylar samurai moo-moo by Flow Movement ; )

Photo by Pole Ninja Photography.

Featured
#SessionsEverywhere
#SessionsEverywhere

I’ve learned a lot of things during my years on the road—and many of them stem from adaptability. Often, I need to have a little self-talk about accepting and embracing my circumstances. I know that if I’m caught up on my lack of "comforts," I’ll miss out on the details of the life around me.  This practice of acceptance also leads to creativity.

Romania
Romania

POLE NINJA PHOTOGRAPHY put together an incredible multimedia recap of our adventures in Romania.

Israel/Jordan
Israel/Jordan

My most recent tour included a few spots I’ve dreamed of for a long time. One of the most memorable was the Dead Sea. It truly exceeded my expectations.  I'd heard things like, “It doesn’t look like much," so I was expecting a big muddy lake/sea that you float really well in.

But WHOA. The colors of the place were divine. The air was perfect. Not only did I float, I felt like a baby seal --I ’ve never been so slimy, in a good way. For days after, my skin felt like I was 4 years old.

Plus, there was no one else there. We first went in Israel and said, “We have to go back.” So we did, in Jordan. And this time, I was prepared for a shoot.

The Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs in Paris

I’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris museum twice. When it comes to cities, my favorite type of tourism is dark tourism. I like to see where the dreadful went down. And visiting a place that housed 7 million diseased bodies is pretty surreal. On the tour you learn that in fact these tunnels run all throughout Paris. Where there are buildings, there are underground reinforcements to prevent collapses. They don’t tell you about the illegal underground parties, war bunkers, breweries, movie rooms and communities. But they exist…

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia

A few days ago we drove from Austria to Slovenia. We passed a beautiful lake and decided to take a photo. I didn't have the right outfit so I settled for a piece of red silk. I carefully walked into icy the water and waited to get the shot set-up. This is when I learned that silk floats and is water repellant (at least this silk is...). The result looks like I'm sitting on glass.

City Museum, St. Louis, MO
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado

For only a few days a year the trees in mountainous Colorado turn yellow. For a few minutes, I too turned yellow.

Milos and Santorini, Greece
Milos and Santorini, Greece

Thank you, Pole Ninja Photography and Cherry Li Photography for these photos.  :  )

If you're interested in booking a photo shoot with Pole Ninja Photography or for commercial shoot inquiries, you can contact him via MRBRPR.

Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!
Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!

It's Day 1 of the FIRST ever Floor Flow Teacher Training and I'm like....

AHHHH!!!!! weeeee!!!! wwoooohoooo!!!!

Atacama Desert, Chile - Part II

We were on our way back to the car because the sun was going down and the temperature was dropping --then we saw this incredible scene. We stopped in our tracks and I quickly dropped my pants (It's a talent -- I see something awesome and my clothes are changed in seconds.). The sun was still giving the rainbow mountain a slight glow, which meant we had about three minutes to make something happen.

Layers of minerals give the mountain its distinct colors. Shot in the Valle del Arco Iris.

Photos by Pole Ninja Photography.

Featured
#SessionsEverywhere
#SessionsEverywhere

I’ve learned a lot of things during my years on the road—and many of them stem from adaptability. Often, I need to have a little self-talk about accepting and embracing my circumstances. I know that if I’m caught up on my lack of "comforts," I’ll miss out on the details of the life around me.  This practice of acceptance also leads to creativity.

Romania
Romania

POLE NINJA PHOTOGRAPHY put together an incredible multimedia recap of our adventures in Romania.

Israel/Jordan
Israel/Jordan

My most recent tour included a few spots I’ve dreamed of for a long time. One of the most memorable was the Dead Sea. It truly exceeded my expectations.  I'd heard things like, “It doesn’t look like much," so I was expecting a big muddy lake/sea that you float really well in.

But WHOA. The colors of the place were divine. The air was perfect. Not only did I float, I felt like a baby seal --I ’ve never been so slimy, in a good way. For days after, my skin felt like I was 4 years old.

Plus, there was no one else there. We first went in Israel and said, “We have to go back.” So we did, in Jordan. And this time, I was prepared for a shoot.

The Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs in Paris

I’ve been to the Catacombs of Paris museum twice. When it comes to cities, my favorite type of tourism is dark tourism. I like to see where the dreadful went down. And visiting a place that housed 7 million diseased bodies is pretty surreal. On the tour you learn that in fact these tunnels run all throughout Paris. Where there are buildings, there are underground reinforcements to prevent collapses. They don’t tell you about the illegal underground parties, war bunkers, breweries, movie rooms and communities. But they exist…

INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
INSIDER Travel Feature on Visit to City Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

If I could gather everyone I know, and share one place with them, it would be the City Museum, St Louis, MO. I would take you there because it's a model for how art, play, learning, and challenge can convene in a single place. This place shows how the comforts and conveniences of our structures and systems have ruined our fitness and creativity. There are interactive exhibits of 50s nostalgia, a big ol' bug collection, a massive cave network, a tree climbing/crawling network, huge multi-story slides, urban archeology zones, epic contemporary sculptures, rooms that are self-playing instruments, human hamster tunnels and so much more. There is a circus school INSIDE where the kids get the chance to perform several times a day. At City Museum, the artists have run wild with what seems like little concern for 'safety' (I'm not talking about legitimate dangers, but the type of fear that conditions parents, leaders, and law enforcement to tell us not to climb, explore, and challenge convention). In no other museum have I laughed, sweated, cried, and used every possible primal pattern just to get around.

I want airports with open spaces and monkey bars, floor seating options in all restaurants and places like the city museum all over the world.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia

A few days ago we drove from Austria to Slovenia. We passed a beautiful lake and decided to take a photo. I didn't have the right outfit so I settled for a piece of red silk. I carefully walked into icy the water and waited to get the shot set-up. This is when I learned that silk floats and is water repellant (at least this silk is...). The result looks like I'm sitting on glass.

City Museum, St. Louis, MO
City Museum, St. Louis, MO

The best museum in the world hosts countless physical challenges. From climbing to crawling, and sliding to balance challenges, the City Museum, St Louis, MO is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Really. It is an interactive art exhibit/fantasy world with 50's memorabilia and insect collections. It's housed in a giant repurposed old building that forces you to explore numerous primal movement patterns just to get around. IT IS THE BEST.

Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado

For only a few days a year the trees in mountainous Colorado turn yellow. For a few minutes, I too turned yellow.

Milos and Santorini, Greece
Milos and Santorini, Greece

Thank you, Pole Ninja Photography and Cherry Li Photography for these photos.  :  )

If you're interested in booking a photo shoot with Pole Ninja Photography or for commercial shoot inquiries, you can contact him via MRBRPR.

Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!
Floor Flow Teacher Training - It's Go Time!

It's Day 1 of the FIRST ever Floor Flow Teacher Training and I'm like....

AHHHH!!!!! weeeee!!!! wwoooohoooo!!!!