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i art rachel

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changes

this blog page is going through changes (sing it David!)
it will remain space for gathering movement/art ideas and inspiration, but my posts might just be a little more sporadic and chaotic as I will be dedicating my blogging powers to my Move Me project. if you've yet to check it out, come on over!

heart break

I am an immigrant, indefinitely so, with no future plans to one day return 'home' and yesterdays decision has left me feeling cut a drift, ashamed and heartbroken.

I love England, I do. I carry it with me, my heart is forever claimed by that mystical, damp, witty, cramped, eccentric, eruptive Isle and I don't find it hard to muster energy and emotion for my British heritage. But I don't give a flying fuck for the kind of isolationist, selfish, racist borders we will now frantically try and erect. Its painful to watch.

I know our history and our mythologies. I've read the books and listened to past witnesses. History can repeat itself and when we break with relations to Europe, we also break with our own mythology, our own history and understandings of the past. This is incredibly dangerous territory.
I can't speak to the immediate ephemeral stuff, thats what tv 'experts' and the internet is for, but i do know two things:

1. There’s no point blaming those who wished to leave; they are us too and they had their own intelligence and convictions. I understand the corruptive elements at play in both positions and can't help but wonder about the conversations long denied between us that have caused todays raw, calamitous bellow to fill the air. If you feel profoundly unwitnessed then the move to voice will almost always become desperate.

2. Now we are where we are know this; it is the fault of the likes of Farage, Boris and Cameron. Their lies are seductive. But In the name of all those you love, all those that have come before us and anyone who gives to the society and communities we all share please don’t be taken for a fool. Try and get past the statistics of this situation into the soul of what is happening. Your books matter. Your activism matters. The things that claim purchase on your heart matter. They absolutely do. They are not a whimsy. If we have been wandering in an enchantment then here is an awakening. You are absolutely needed and we need to come together to face those that would have us make decisions out of fear. Now is the time to start bearing witness to each other and stand up and fight for a fairer society.

Be the love that you want to see in this world.

i'm back...and married!

New Mexico. image by me.

Recommended Reads

happy holidays

I'm heading west on my continuing exploration of Turtle Island and will be on the road without connection the the world wide web for a while so posts will be few and far between for a few weeks. Regular service will resume upon my arrival in Europe in January. 

In the mean time HAPPY HOLIDAYS and I'll leave you with my U.S.A reading list and Joni Mitchell. I recommend them all and would be delighted to receive some recommendations from you! 

 L.O.V.E xx

Some News...

Ladies and Gentlemen // Boys and Girls // Feminists, Macho Men and Mum:

********
**** AU REVOIR ****
********

Yep, the rumors are true. I am devastated to inform you that my much beloved teaching practice, this tiny epic of mixed up movement, will soon be no more...for the time being anyway...as I am of to new worlds to seek some slowness, some new ways of moving, some adventures, to gather some stories and to get married.
First stop The United States of ALL-You-Can-Eat. Oh yes. Tips about your State-side trips most welcome!

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to YOU dearest reader, for showing up in your hordes for the last 7 years of toe-tapping yoga musings. Together we’ve crammed the archaic doorways of church halls, stinky basements, grand houses, swanky custom built centers, parks, beaches, living rooms and tea-stained cafeterias in celebration of this ancient art and in search of what it is to simply be. Thank you for listening, thank you for questioning, thank you for putting up with my inability to tell left from right, but most of all THANK YOU for allowing me to guide you.

Without you, nothing. With you, EVERYTHING.

********
**** Details ****
********

My final class will be Thursday 9th July so, from now until then and in celebration of this momentous scarpering, I shall host a glorious last few sessions, far removed from the ridiculous rain and unseasonal no sun show of daily downtown London. I invite you to step inside my soon to be no-longer homes at Triyoga and SFC where i shall serenade you with my West Midland flat vowels, various movement puzzles, giggles, and some farewell chocolate brownies. It will be somewhat reminiscent of a pub evening during Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977. I imagine that was a BLAST.

Information about the glorious souls that will be taking my place to follow, I promise, I am just finalising the details for a perfectly smooth transition. You’ll not even notice I’ve gone…

********
**** PEN-PALS ****
********

However, this is not the end; I will be teaching again, you still MOVE ME and my online presence will be alive and kicking. I shall continue to post scribblings and asides on my blogs here and here, upload movement musings on my facehooked page and twitter feed here and here and the curation of wwww.what-moves-me.com is a forever thing. I’ve been completely overwhelmed with responses to this project so far, MERCI MERCI, but if you haven’t yet had a nosy then please take a look.

Do keep in-touch, I’d love to hear about all your adventures, and if I do return y’all will be the first to know about my new happenings.

Finally, before I schlep these legs across the pond, my eyes wet with salty tears and my ears ringing with the sound of Jacques Brel, I want to say the most heartfelt thank you to all the many staff members, volunteers, part-timers, full-timers, co-workers and by-standers who have dripped sweat into the shores of this infamous lagoon. You’ve been dreamy to work with.

And with that, farewell.
(until the next time I fill your inbox with nonsense)

Rachel x

  

Once

On a family trip to Ireland I fell in love with Irish Dance.
On my return home my mum found a local class for me to attend.
I was besotted for years.
It's still my favorite kind of folk dance, especially the tap.
Dancing those rhythms is like laying your heart beat on the floor.

p.s. THIS is brilliant.

MOVE ME

Dear Good Looker,

Gosh. So much to tell, so little time. Let's cut to the chase....

I need your help, dearest reader, with a project I have been busy putting together. I cordially invite you, and your loved ones, to celebrate the space of otherness, difference and delight that your body occupies through THIS SURVEY all about movement.

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**** ABOUT MOVE ME ****
********

Move Me is an ever evolving survey designed to prompt people to think more deeply about their bodies in terms of movement choices, habits and patterns. The project is about commonality: The one thing we all have in common is that we have to move to live.

Researching the whys and ways of movement is a part of my job as a yoga teacher. I know there is a vast amount of information and advice about the way we 'should' move out there,  but often lacking from this are the personal stories, from a variety of different backgrounds and experiences,  that shape each of us in discrete and individual ways. Through eight years of teaching it is these stories that have come to help finesse what I do beyond the more 'evidence based' scientific discourse. This thread is a vital part of the map to understanding what it is we need to feel well.

Human beings are not built to float you see. They need an earthly anchor of meaning and care so they don't get left in confusion. This survey, with your help, is my contribution that anchor of meaning. The information gathered is being used on an ongoing blog and as research for an art project, both aim to express a riot of opinion and give a snapshot of the complexity of modern movement decisions with cultural influences; a portrait of the human body today revealing impulses that influence our daily ritual of being.

 
Anyone who has a body is invited to take part! I am also open to submissions about movement, like this wonderful story, from everyone and anyone.

Join me for this major shift in cultural thinking and be the laxative which lubricates the constipation of the way we contemplate movement (I'm so sorry about that sentence).

 CONVINCED? THEN MOVE TO THE SURVEY
(please note, you can answer anonymously and you DO NOT have to answer everything, just whatever takes your fancy.)

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**** FORWARD THIS POST ****
********

The revolution is now. Yay! However, I know finding people willing to give up precious time to fill out a long winded survey is hard (I have no idea why). So, I urge you to forward this blog post to ALL PEOPLE WITH BODIES that might be interested in taking part. Come to me with evidence of your benevolence, and I will send you something magic in the post.

You can be social and share in numerous ways, for example via twitter HERE, through facehooked HERE and via telepathy HERE.

And now I shall set you free.

Be there or, as they say, be somewhere else.

Yours in everything fidgety,

Rachel x
www.what-moves-me.com

New Websites!

Click HERE if you want to know all about happy movement shindigs...

Click HERE for if you would like to see my art offerings...

Click HERE if you would like to take part in an epic movement survey. It is still in it's infancy, but with your help I think it could be something very special. Take a look around and watch this space for more information.

Now, I was feeling very pleased with my website building self, until I read this: Web sites are obsolete. Hmmmm, so if you click through I guess your mere presence on may page will render you a technological dinosaur. It’s okay. I’m one, too. This man is not.

 

My Teachers

I trained with an incredible lady called Ruth White. She was a senior Iyengar teacher who left the school to start her own teacher training course, and although she remains very loyal to the Iyengar method, she will often bring in teachers and trainers from different yoga background's. It's through that training I discovered the work of Vanda Scaraveli (as taught by Gary Carter) and a love of feet as Ruth's husband John (who teaches the philosophy classes) makes shoes. I still use his morning foot massage to this day.

On moving to London I discovered Anna Ashby and have been attending her weekly classes ever since...that was 7 years ago...If you are ever in London stop by Triyoga and try a class with Anna. She doesn't teach a fixed method (her influences are varied) and it's this approach that has given me the tools to learn to respond intelligently to my current needs rather then developing any fixed 'style'. Anna has taught me to question. Invaluable.

My Dad

My Dad is a head-teacher and he LOVES his job. The joy, ambition and patience he has for what he does is a constant inspiration. He has taught me to persevere, to believe in my abilities, to be calm in the face of upset and the beauty of finding a space to ones own.

This just about sums up his favorite past time... 

“In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro.

(Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.)”
― Thomas à Kempis

My Mum

I've been teaching for 6 years now and I still get anxious.

"If you are nervous, it means you care" -- is the best advice my mum had for me this year. It's a mantra before I step into the teaching space.

Long may it continue!

Thanks Mum, for this and for all the other brilliant stuff you do : )

Lessons

What I learned from the sea.
I love to be near it. To hear it, see the way light plays of it. I like standing, swimming, running, floating in it.
It teaches you respect, that you're supposed to be on dry land. being in it is a crazy dare. The sea is in charge.

“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein

All images by me.

Last week I traveled back to winter...

...and I fell in love with a dog named Balto. 

It was MAGIC!!

Click here to see a little more about what we got up to...


(All images by Me)