Read the latest analysis of DWTS new season that begins in March there.

Today, there is a tendency to be all about relentless attack, and sometimes to have technique, sex appeal, or music drive the choreography. In contemporary dance that is trying to break from tradition, there can be a pattern of linking together big body moves (like going from lift to lift or from shape to shape) while eliminating steps and phrases made up of steps.

What speaks to the soul? What inspires and moves us? What exactly is choreography and how do we know when its working?

One philosophy says, great choreography works on three levels: story, shape and time period.

Even an abstract work can tell us a story and we can ask ourselves questions about the piece to show us there is meaning suggested behind the movement as it is arranged in the space. Then there is shape or form as a whole (is the piece organic, does it flow from one seeming core), as well as shapes within the whole.

Time period can be suggestive of a particular era and also might ask the question, can we see the choreographer speaking with movement within the time s/he lives or lived? In the age of technology does something in the piece suggest mechanization, machinery, lack of humanness?

Choreography is basically the language of dance. It is how a movement craftsman has dancers speak without using words.

Here is a checklist to consider when you create or watch dance.

• Subject matter. What is the dance about? What underlies the entire idea? Is there a theme? What motivated the choreographer to create the work?
  What drives it–music, tempo, the dancer(s) used, the kind of dance it is, dancers’ personalities or skills?
• Design – shape – form – sculptural effects – pattern. Are these interesting, engaging, varied?
• CONTRAST:

Timing – rhythm – tempo – syncopation: slow, fast and all manner in-between.

Color. Are there nuances that convey light and dark or show differences or comparisons so we recognize that there is something going on that carries emotion, so we feel something as we watch the movement?

Levels. This can also be contrast. Are the dancers always performing on the same level? Can leaps, or something that creates height add to the intensity or design or create more interest? What about moving from high to low, to very low? What happens when a dance is all in a middle range?

Effort, dynamics, or qualities used. This can also be contrast or color. How do the movements feel to the dancers and the audience kinesthetically? Are the movements hard-edged and driving, or are they light, easy and never ending, or weak and undefined?

Laban Effort-Shape is a wonderful tool to use to look at choreography. Creative dance for children that uses Laban effort-shape has children generate action words or action sentences that put together qualities of movement and can show choreographic craft.

Consider some of these action sentences and the different qualities they might evoke when performed:

TANGO. kick slap stomp whirl thrust scintillate. OR: swivel greet focus grow run nail nail nail drive shatter.
WALTZ (or ballet). glide flicker meander sustain pop glitter crest teeter.
QUICKSTEP. open skip follow snap slink patter leap walk slash quit.
CONTEMPORARY. Gyrate sizzle swish taptaptap freeze flick toss collapse.

Make a list of action words, put them in your own sentences. Move with them. Explore and see what you discover. We’d love to hear about some of your experiences with these in the comments area of the blog. Enjoy!

What is Performance Analysis? It is taking a look at how you move and receiving feedback on ways you can improve, and be more dynamic, authentic or present. You are connected with resources and tools to assist you in this evolution.

Performance Analysis or Performance Assessment may include energy work like Reiki, Rosen Method, Laban or acupressure. You dance or perform while a performance analyst watches.

A performance analyst is trained as a dancer, has had experience teaching, and also has developed special skills in looking at the body and knowing where movement comes from as well as how it is conveyed.

At Embrace Your Magic, Melanie A. Stinson, LMT, RMT, ACCTP is a performance analyst. She and Michael Ellison offer sessions to help dancers embrace their magic, embody light, perform life and celebrate who they are. Michael is a kind of performance analyst and that forms part of what he does.

How is Performance Analysis different from dance criticism? Performance Analysis is a term coined by a dancer, Melanie, as a way to support dancers and performers at any level of experience. Most often, it is a bio-energetic assessment… how energy is used, how it flows through the body and from the inside out, and whether a performer is conveying what s/he intends.

“I have had dancers come to me and say, “I can’t get through a performance. Can you take a look and see what I’m doing that’s hanging me up?” Melanie says. “A good coach can help a dancer in this way, too. We’re both guides and personal teachers.”

Sometimes dancers hold their breath. Sometimes a dancer is doing steps with no awareness of how to convey a sense of presence or character. At other times, a dancer is gesturing (perhaps flinging the arms or legs). That dancer may have no concept of how to change the experience the audience receives.

A performance analyst in these kinds of situations is like a teaching associate who says, “You’re doing gestures as you’ve been directed. However, what are those gestures intended to convey and where are they coming from inside you?” A performance analyst may help the teacher/choreographer or artistic director clarify what they wish to convey and explore different methods of achieving this.

Performance Analysis can be conducted in the studio (with the cooperation of teachers and directors), and in private sessions, before a dance competition or series of performances, or added to a workshop.

10% of all donations we receive go to support arts, nature and mentoring activities and the organizations that sponsor them. At the Old West End Festival, Embrace Your Magic contributed to Mountain Mentoring. At the Art Walks, we will contribute 10% of all donations to The Dizzy Feet Foundation in part created by Toledoan Katie Holmes and Dancing with the Stars’  judge Carrie Ann Inaba to benefit those dancers, choreographers and dance entitites unable to support their ongoing dance training.

Can’t wait till our next public experience? Contact Melanie or Michael for a reading or private session any time, or consider us for your next gathering, fundraiser, or party. Need ideas? How about a reading and fundraiser online through Twitter or Facebook?

Readings can be done over the phone or via e-mail and the cost ($1 minute) is a fraction of what you’d pay from most celebrity psychic readers. We’re here to support your feeling nurtured and appreciated as we all grow and evolve. And we love the arts and young people who perform.

See Melanie’s good vibe art now:  Visit the Toledo Botanical Gardens’  free Toledo Artists Club & Gallery Tues. thru Fri. 1-5 p.m.or Sat. 1-4 p.m. Sometimes open on Sunday afternoons. Visit both the public gallery and the classroom which has a sales display case and other work.

Also: join in the festive opening of The Harmony in Life Center in Sylvania near Angela’s Angels but on the other side of the street. Melanie’s good vibe art and a special fairy area will be alive inside!

You can also check out Space 237 on N. Michigan Street in downtown Toledo. There are several galleries and an arts shop there with Melanie’s work as well.

At this time, Embrace Your Magic is celebrating Melanie’s good vibe digital art and photography. It can be seen online at her web sites, picassa galleries, and purchased via aplace4us at Cafe Press online.

American Frame in Maumee also features Melanie’s good vibe digital art on their website portal. They print and frame it so it looks professional and can be given as a gift to those you care about.

Hope to see you August 20 and anytime you want to de-stress, feel empowered or discover a little bit of enchantment in your life.

Press the Play Button above to see it live!

• Discover new ideas and new ways to co-create with family members, fellow employees, a business team, a dance partner
• Find a new balance and harmony in your life so you can offer your gifts – the truth of you and why you’re here – with awareness and confidence.

Those are a few of the things possible when you receive Reiki, CCT, have an EIP session, embody light or schedule  some nurturing care with us.

You’ll see how to reach for the higher octave: sing, dance, move, swim, vibrate it: We’re here in Oz, we’re on our journey, and we don’t even have to leave home at all, except for the fun of it, except to accept the challenge of it, except to try on a pair of ruby slippers and enjoy our life more – instead of the old perspective that we must “suffer” through hardships.

If any thing on this blog or in your session sounds like munchkin lingo, tell us and we’ll give you a different story line to help you understand. We often use the arts or nature to illustrate what we mean in a way you can understand wherever you are in your process.

• We do fairy, angel, magic art card, wellness/wellbeing, and past life readings, all forms of practical intuitive guidance and fun.
• We also offer alivement/joy/stress relief sessions, chakra balancing, energy clearing, and other forms of discovering and celebrating the magic of you.
• Best of all, we do these by phone or e-mail (called distance sessions or readings) and we’re a travelling group in northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan, though several of us visit New York, L.A. & other locations on occasion. You can connect to one, two, three or all of us.

We love doing fund raisers and events to contribute a percentage of the donations we receive to your favorite charity.

Read more about us and when you’re ready, contact us below:

For Michael Ellison CLICK HERE

For Melanie Stinson CLICK HERE

For Cheryl Harmsen CLICK HERE

To set up a fund raiser or other event, contact one of us above or Julie Auger

Every great journey begins with a step, so dance it, skip skip skip to a new song or new tune to it, embrace it, say sweet poetry all the way, retrace it, make a lifestyle change, transform with some magic words, or pack up the kids, your dog or your best friend and have a spa vacation day of it!

The Natural Family Fest will be held at Integration Yoga Studio where you will find is LOTS of parking and a nice open greenspace in back which will house most of the festival.

Several informational talks inside the studio starting at 12:00.

Topics presented may include; Holistic Nutrition, Babywearing, Cloth Diapering, Options for Childbirth, Meditation for Adults and Children, Baby Signing, Discussion on Gentle Discipline, Breastfeeding, etc. The line-up is still being formed.

*This event will offer many items available for sale or swap from local families and businesses. Garage sale style (and pricing)! As well as LOCAL professional businesses with brand new products for sell. Look for local practitioners and businesses advertising services and providing informational talks throughout the day. This is a family friendly event with kid oriented events and craft tables all day long. (kids yoga, music, fairy play, crafts, etc…) Bring a blanket for hanging out on the lawn, playing or picnicking with your family.

Children’s Crafts and Activities all day!

• Risa Cohen” Music Circle
• Jenn McCullough Leading Kids Yoga
• Henna Art
• twig Weaving
• A Crayon/Coloring Table
• Cards for The Military

Also in conjunction with the 6th Annual Lemonade Days! We will have mulitple families hosting lemonade stands

visit www.alexslemonade.com

We are also hoping to supply most of the day with donations.
So if you have any of the following that you would be willing to donate that would be awesome:

• Shade tents (or some other kind of shade solutions)
• Face paint (non-toxic-obviously:wink)
• We also need volunteers to man these kids activity tables

Thank you GREATLY to everyone who has already offered to sell and/or help out in some way.

As always, suggestions are welcome and anyone wanting to help out please let us know!!!! We look forward to hearing from you.

Peace and love,
Your hosts ~ Tiffani Swartzfager and Shelly DeMeo

Updates will be posted and will include signed vendors and line-up of events, talks and demos. For updates visit www.ktholistictherapy.com and events posted on Facebook.

Contact info for the day:

• Embodying Light Attunements
• Mini-sessions that relax you into new awareness
• Stress relief sessions
• Information about how we might support you or your business in the ways in which you’d like to grow.
• Fairy, Angel & Past Life readings & other magical tales of enchantment & opportunity
• Refreshment & good vibes
• Inspiration, an attitude of play, which is magical in & of itself & lubing, grooving & moving in great new ways!

Stress is known to cause up to 80% of illness.  Embrace Your Magic offers various uninvasive techniques to enhance stress relief for the physical, mental and emotional self.  When stress levels are minimized natural healing begins.  This process can be enhanced by eating nourishing whole foods and including daily self-nurturing practices, performance analysis, and breathing techniques, which we will gladly discuss with you.

Please stop by. We’re fairy-friendly and wonderfully magical oursElves. Come Embrace Your Magic and celebrate who you are–with us. If you’d like to experience a mini-session, we offer them first come first served. Free Will Donations Graciously Accepted.

Come and make magic with us. We’ll be somewhere near the main Information area for the ArtFair.

Site is under construction. Stop by again. We hope to delight you.