This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight is from Lucia Horan, 5Rhythms leading light and First Family member!

Dear Dancers,

My name is Lucia Horan. I am a movement artist. My medium is emptiness. I work with dancers and movers to teach insight meditation and Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms® dance.

Dancing with adversity, challenge, and change has pushed many of us to our edge. This is a precarious position to be in – but it also provides us with an opportunity we are rarely blessed with. This last year has brought us all to our knees and forced us to move within a new paradigm. As teachers and students, we have had to learn how to adapt to a changing world.

We dance now with Covid-19, political dramas, environmental crises, social inequality, injustice, and much, much more. It is overwhelming. It is emotionally taxing. But – we must ask the question: what does this adversity teach us?

What I have learned more than anything else during this time is how to pivot, change and adapt. I move with what moves me; I dance my fear and my joy, my worry and my calm. Dancing allows me to shift perspective. Meditation allows me to let go of the argument with reality and accept with grace what is, even when it is not easy. I cannot change what is, but I can change how I relate to it. If we do not learn how to be flexible in the face of this change, we will not survive.

I have another question to ask you. When things are the most difficult, can you choose to show up and lean into the practices that are in your toolkit? If you don’t have a skillset to pull from, can you reach out and ask for help?

Help is here. It is not a weakness to ask for help during hard times. It is a strength. We lean on each other, or we fall alone.

Due to the traumas of fear, anger, and grief the world is facing, many teachers are choosing to offer our work for free or by donation. With full and partial scholarships, we can embody diversity, inclusion, and equality. I have been proud to be a part of this movement. Now more than ever, we need to rely on the tools in our toolkit and the kindness of our peers.

My personal mission here is to ensure that my work reaches everyone who needs it now. Because of online teaching, anyone who needs support may now receive it without leaving their homes. By removing financial barriers, more of us can choose to dance with intention. More of us can access the support that we need. I believe it is our responsibility as teachers to step up, walk our talk and ensure that in this current crisis, EVERYONE has access to support. This means teachings are given freely in the spirit of healing for all beings. Support must come now in many facets, financially, physically, and emotionally.

As a global community, we are sharing in a universal crisis. It is a time to band together, to hold what should not be held alone.

Many of our cultures have conditioned us to live in a nuclear way. This has lead people to believe that we should get through the difficulties alone, isolated. This is not how we survive. We survive by banding together – something that we have done for thousands of years.

Together, we can hold and heal what should not be carried alone. When our teachings and Dharma are given freely to all, we can heal and bring the medicine to all those who need it.

Together we can unite in compassion and kindness and live through this, evolving and becoming more resilient than we ever thought was possible. The beauty of this moment may be the silver lining to so much loss. May we be at peace. May we be in grace. May we be free.

Lucia Horan
2-1-2021

Learn more about Lucia and her offerings at:
www.LuciaHoran.com

(Would you like to write an Insight Column for Monday Love and be featured on the Conscious Dancer website? Send us an email today!)