Each and every day, I lose myself in the immediacy of the moment, find myself in the joy of the movement. Each and every day, I learn more and more...and, within that new knowledge, realize that I have so much farther to travel.

Shallom Johnson is a contemporary dance artist, visual artist and freelance writer based in Vancouver BC. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Dance from Simon Fraser University, and has been active in the Vancouver dance community as a choreographer, performer, and instructor since her graduation in 2004.

Shallom is interested in art in public spaces, site-specific performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community involvement. Her street-based artwork, performance and photography examines and documents who gets to make art, where it gets made, and where/how the creative process and product is viewed. In the future, she hopes to explore this theme further via new media and technologies, new methods of creation, collaboration and community engagement.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Sore In All The Right Places

Sorry I've been radio-silent for so long! I've been busy wearing many hats and the writer hat hasn't managed to stay on my head long enough to get productive in any way shape or form.

I have finally managed to get myself into dance class on a semi-regular basis and, as a result, I am finally getting back in shape...little by little, it's finally coming back.

If you live in Vancouver and want a really good conditioning class for dancers, I heartily recommend Marlise McCormick's barre a terre (floor barre) class, at Harbour Dance Centre every Wednesday from 5-6pm. This is my go-to class for getting my dance muscles (rotators, abs, pelvic stabilizers, deep tissue muscles) in shape. Nothing works better - it's an intense hour of really specific work that lets you target all of the muscles you'll need to perform at your technical best when you're up on your feet. Check the link for a full class description from their website.

Every week I kind of forget how hard it is - and every Wednesday halfway through class I'm thinking "what the hell have I gotten myself into" and every Thursday I'm super sore, but in all the right places. After a few months of this I figure I'll finally start to feel strong and stable in class again. Because right now I'm wobbling all over the place, like a rookie.

No comments: