Come to think about it, Dora has the same smooth, grounded feel. Actually, I always feel a little smoother after dancing WCS.

I appreciate your keen sense of observation.

Fortitude is my favorite ‘f’ word. And I love it when new leads and follows display it, taking charge of their fears, letting go and expressing their feelings and music through movement.

This takes a lot. We have trained in a multitude of different dance forms, which not only gives us tons of movements to draw from, but more importantly a sense of what it feels like to suck at something.

In fact, at any given time there is usually one form of dance we are training in that we totally suck at.

Call it reconecting with reality. Everyone should do it.

You know me Tonia, I tend to seriouly dislike anything overly commecialized. Especially the holidays. Although Halloween is another one of my unfortunate guilty pleasures

I am certainly becoming more passionate and encouraging everyone to dance. I’ll have to work on the better part.

I think Paso does a great job of facilitating holistic dance because you have written about it from many different perspectives and you encourage people to step outside of their dancing box and try something different. You do well by leading by example and you lead well. The follows who dance with you know this about you, but I think the leads know too. I see that they admire you but it is reciprocal, I see that you also admire them doing what they can the best they can when they can. It’s a beautiful thing.

Okay, I hate the commercialized Vday, but are you feeling the love today?

I think you hit on a key note. “If there is more to it for you.” Which goes back to the question of how much and how deep are you really trying to go.

Some people are satisfied with a light sauce made from a superficial base. On the other hand, some require more nourishment.

Holistic dancing.

Rich touched on this one plenty of times in the past, but needless to say, dancing was created in a holistic context, not in an airtight container.

We work to try and maintain some of the holistic properties for the art of dance.

You keep dancing Tonia!

You are getting better and better, or rather more and more passionate about what you do -and it shows.

For many people dancing is something to do for exercise or fun, but for others it’s done with feeling and as an expression of feeling. In either case it’s all good, but if there is more to it for you then the advice of Alicia Pons may be helpful. I do not expect to become an expert or professional dancer, but I love the dances I choose to dance. I’m not particularly interested in the steps and patterns of dance. I think the word passion describes it best for me.

A couple of weeks ago I couldn’t dance at two of my regular dance events (Loafers and Elk’s Lodge) because of snow and ice and the next week I was so depressed. The entire experience I have when I dance is important to me. I search for connection to my dance partner, the music, the people around me and the space in which I occupy as well as connecting to myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s holistic dancing.

There are people in my life who don’t understand my preoccupation with dance. It’s all I want to do and talk about sometimes. It’s my medicine and for now I am going to keep taking it.