Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Focus and intent

    For heck’s sake. What a mess. My play table. I mean, I could call it a work table but everything on it is about play: making art from dried flowers, midway through an embroidery project, editing a manuscript, sending cards to distant friends.

    It’s like leaving the kitchen a mess after baking bread and then making dinner, then getting up in the morning to make breakfast. Sheesh.

    Nia leaders take a moment at the beginning of dance to set a focus and intent, and I’ve started using this in daily life. Today my focus and intent will be to respect the space. Part of the play can be finding a home for projects that are midway along.

    When friends come to visit, this table is tidy. I clean it up for them since this room doubles as a guest room. I can also respect that I like coming into a tidy room too.

  • Down with it!

    Day 12 of 52 Nia dance challenge

    Cue the music! I’m working to memorize the hour-long Bloom routine, written by Nia choreographers Christina Mae Wolf, Kellie Chambers, and Rossella Vanti. Today I spent 50 minutes just repeating the first four songs of this routine, using the Nia on Demand video to guide me.

    My energy level was low, but my interest in dancing the steps, remembering what came next and listening for the musical cues was high.

    The third song is a waltz, “Roots of Levant” by Jimmy Wahlsteen, and it’s interesting how the choreographer’s guidance on hand and arm movements suggesting a figure-eight or infinity shape feels like it fits perfectly into the 3/4 time.

    When I had the opportunity to interview Nia founder Debbie Rosas last month for a story in our local paper, she talked about the importance of the movements being integrated with the music, and this just seemed to exemplify that to me to today.

    Even though I won’t start working on memorizing the steps to the fifth song until next week, I couldn’t help dancing at least once to  Katharine Appleton’s “Rebel Soul “. Woo hoo!

  • Hubris and yesterday’s body

    Day 11 of 52 Nia challenge

    I stepped into class today feeling a little cocky, living in the past 10 days of dancing, not RAW, another Nia thing. RAW stands for relaxed, alert, waiting. That’s how to be present for today’s dance. Instead, I was all about racking up another day on the dance floor, looking back over my shoulder and on ahead to the next thing.

    Not being in the now felt a little messy, a little off the beat. So. I brought my breathing back to the rhythms and let myself be a little messy and off the beat.

    Dancing Express with Dael Parsons. I love the combination of dainty steps with throwing kicks and punches, one minute a fairy princess, the next a fighter. That routine has such great energy, even messy and off the beat.