I have been thinking about the emphasis on connection through social media.  And about the disembodied nature of those connections.  As a dancer, I can feel the remove, the disconnect of all of this faux intimacy.

It is why I think it is so essential to get out of the chair and into the studio:  back in the saddle, into messy, sensuous, fleshly meetings. Body to body.

I found this sweet old clip of Steve Paxton introducing contact improvisation at Jacob’s Pillow, and loved the juiciness, the workmanlike, diligent quality of the two bodies moving together. He talks about CI as a way of staying in touch, about the skin as an organ of transformation and transmission.

That is why between noon and 1pm every day, I pack it in and drive to the barn.  That is one of my “studios,” a place of practice and observation.  It is where I get in touch.  Skin to skin, hips to spine.  It is why I swim every morning.  Rediscover the long body, feel the body’s surfaces and deeps meeting in the soft water.

Where do you connect?  What is your studio?