Friday Cartoon

"Young women you are going to be older women one day. Don't worry about it....each decade adds character!"

clay bodies

Vessels like these have been found across the globe dating back millenia. Clay is easily shaped and decorated, allowing people to convey information about cultural identity, society and beliefs through design.

Fired clay pots sometimes absorb traces of their contents, which scientific analysis can sometimes identify helping to tell us more about life and death through history.

For me it is the trans-formative firing process that makes ceramics unique as an art form. You make work and then give it to the fire and hope that during its metamorphis something beyond your expectations emerges. It's a natural process and I like to think of it like the body aging. No two human bodies grow the same and no two pots emerge the same.

Placing something you have labored over into a kiln, relinquishing control over its final aesthetics, takes a certain mind set, patience and a certain amount of faith.

Kiki Smith

getting shorter with age

"So, “everyone” gets shorter with age and this phenomenon is usually chalked up to compression over time. It is said that your height decreases because either the discs between your vertebrae have flattened out or, your bone density decreases with age, creating weak bones that can no longer stay upright so they curl forward. This seems to be the general understanding of why we get shorter as we get older. However, things are not always as they appear.

What I’m about to explain here is how someone can measure as shorter without any change in their mass — only in how their mass is oriented. I’ve failed, many times, to get this point across to large crowds of clinicians and they always end up looking at me like I’m insane. How can someone possibly be shorter if some body part hasn’t changed in length?

Let me show you...."

Katy Bowman making sense of shrinking. Head over to her blog to read the rest.

live with your hands unfolded

Son: What are your dreams for me?
Dad: My dream is for you to beable to live out your dreams. I like this old proverb that talks about when children are born they come out with their fists closed because that's where they keep all their gifts. As you grow your hands learn to unfold because you are learning to release your gifts to the world. So, for the rest of your life I want to see you live with your hands unfolded.

Aging

Aging is happening and you can’t stop it. You can, however, change your perspective toward it and embrace it with  energy, grace and style.

Life is precious! Dance dance dance!

This is Alice Barker, aged 102.

In the 1930s and 1940s she was a chorus-line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, dancing alongside luminaries such as Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
But despite starring in films, commercials and TV shows, Alice had never seen herself dance on film, so Mark Cantor of Jazz Film and David Shuff helped to remedy that, and it's a beautiful thing...

“making me wish I could get out of this bed and do it all over again”. -- Alice Barker

The Marble Hand Illusion

Just came across this study via bettermovement.org that provides some interesting evidence that our self-image is easily modified, and that the modifications have physiological consequences.
Moshe Feldenkrais was fond of saying “we move in accordance with our self image.”
I think he was on to something...  

Here is the abstract...

 Our body is made of flesh and bones. We know it, and in our daily lives all the senses constantly provide converging information about this simple, factual truth. But is this always the case? Here we report a surprising bodily illusion demonstrating that humans rapidly update their assumptions about the material qualities of their body, based on their recent multisensory perceptual experience. To induce a misperception of the material properties of the hand, we repeatedly gently hit participants' hand with a small hammer, while progressively replacing the natural sound of the hammer against the skin with the sound of a hammer hitting a piece of marble. After five minutes, the hand started feeling stiffer, heavier, harder, less sensitive, unnatural, and showed enhanced Galvanic skin response (GSR) to threatening stimuli. Notably, such a change in skin conductivity positively correlated with changes in perceived hand stiffness. Conversely, when hammer hits and impact sounds were temporally uncorrelated, participants did not spontaneously report any changes in the perceived properties of the hand, nor did they show any modulation in GSR. In two further experiments, we ruled out that mere audio-tactile synchrony is the causal factor triggering the illusion, further demonstrating the key role of material information conveyed by impact sounds in modulating the perceived material properties of the hand. This novel bodily illusion, the ‘Marble-Hand Illusion', demonstrates that the perceived material of our body, surely the most stable attribute of our bodily self, can be quickly updated through multisensory integration.

and if that's caught your interest check out these articles...

The Thermal Grill Illusion
Review of Lorimer Moseley Conference Part Three
The Rubber Hand Illusion
More on Pain and Illusions
Watch Your Back: Mirrors Reduce Back Pain

a life time

Over 14, in the middle and over 65 all dancing Pina's Kontacthof
Watch, move with and play with people of all ages. You'll learn alot!
 

Age

"What I really mean to say is that I hope you aren’t held back because of a number. And that you don’t rush into things because it feels like time is slipping by. I hope you do what’s right for you. Hold on. Slow down. And breathe in. Your age is your age. But more importantly, your life is your life. Don’t change your journey so that it matches someone else’s. We need to walk different paths so the whole world can be explored. Revel in the differences. And enjoy where you are."

-- Found here

Young and Old.

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

This is beautiful. Maia Helles, a Russian ballet dancer, turns 95 but still remains resolutely independent, healthy and as fit as a fiddle.


solo from julia warr on Vimeo.

Age 10 and fearless.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.

 

--Aldous Huxley

Karsten Thormaehlen

Beautiful hands by Karsten Thormaehlen

Friday!!

Have a wonderful weekend and make sure to Listen to some Beyonce.

Graciela

I reckon smokin' Graciela from Havana only ever turns up exactly as she is. BADASS!

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

-- Mark Twain

A Guide to Napping

Naps are important to me, especially on days when I teach early morning through to late evening, so I loved the 'Guide to Napping like a senior' in Kinfolk Magazine this issue by Georgia Frances King.
My favourite tip includes another of my most treasured pastimes...

'The Nappaccino Drinking coffee before attempting to nod off may seem counterintuitive but recent studies have suggested it could be the perfect power nap utility. If you drink a strong cup of Joe and then take a nap immediately afterward, the caffeine will kick in after your ideal 20-minute sleepytime. This will wake you up naturally and jolt you out of a post-snooze-daze.'

From experience (I've invested alot of time getting this just right ; ) I would also recommend having a little snack before hand. After lunch is prime nap time!

I'm off to have one now....

 (image found here)

In The Company of Elders

Sadler's Wells' Company of Elders is the jewel in the crown of the theatre's Connect programme. Drawn from the local community, this group of 25 performers discovered dance late in life and now enjoy the immense social and physical benefits of dance.

Click here to find out more.

Found here

Yona Zeldis McDonough

"I realized, if not now, when? Or more aptly, if not now, never.”

An elegant and beautifully told comparison of youth with maturity, and the pain and acceptance that is part of the journey. I hope she's dancing forever!
Yona Zeldis McDonough on her return to ballet at fifty.