Note to a good dancer.

At the beginning of my career as a dance maker, I only did solos. But now gradually transiting into making group works on other dancers, so it’s still fresh for me allowing others to carry my works on their bodies, and it is very tasking for my dancers I must say. Because I’ve long gone past dancing in fact, I now cared too much about truth, whereas most dancers hide and lie with too much pretty movements. So the cutting away of excessive unnecessary movements is a difficult process for many - especially the so called good - dancers. Strength cannot always roar, valor does not always shine. To be a great dancer you must learn to Dance with care, with acute alertness to everything micro and cosmic, including the space you are carrying, both within and without. That’s one way to stop time. You must feel both pride, honor and pain in your chest. That’s the sign of your soul rising to move with you. It is utterly difficult I must tell you. You almost can’t get there alone, but you can. Here are few words to remember; first, learn to go to the studio alone, and be alone without distractions, if possible without music. With or without audible music, your heartbeat is the metronome, that’s where real rhythm comes from, stay close to it. Cover all mirrors, do not film, especially, do not post on social media. Choose a spot and wait. Now don’t just begin to move because you want to. Wait... and listen and wait, then when your body begins to move, wait again, until something other than you comes to move your body. Listening is key. Listen deeply, its like a moving meditation, feel all your joints and pores deeply, don’t forget your stops and pauses, listen, think about rhythm, know that nothingness is different from silence. There must be inner tension, there must be urgency even when you move slowly, there must be something disquieting about dancing, there must be fear, both for you and for the audience, that will help you to build faster, without rushing your heartbeat. The moment you get into the flow, stay here and stay there, you must have the extraordinary capacity to see yourself moving, like you are both the observer and the observed at the same time. The story the body tells in dance resides in the nature of the telling, don’t get lost in sensational tales, you are not an actor. Be mysterious, dancing isn’t a thing, it is a potentiality, an endlessly coiled energy in the moment. Poetry is restored only through suggestiveness, embodied writing stimulates imagination and multiplies reality. A fragment is more fascinating than the whole. Remember to constantly cut out the excesses, the unnecessary pretty or practical movements, which usually happens each time you step out of you, yes stay with your audience, but stay within, stay inside of you and trust that all is well outside, you have no need in pulling the audience in, the deeper you go, the tighter they zoom you. The magic of dance art dwells in the ambiguous place between the dancer and the audience, partly giving, partly receiving. That’s one way to dance truthfully. Dancing is of the purest form of self revealing, if you aren’t naked in your dance, if your heart isn’t aching while you dance, if your scars aren’t healing through your dance, you haven’t began dancing my friend. Dance truthfully. #qudusonikeku #qudusthoughts #NoteToAGoodDancer.