Human beings are born to move. With movement, we thrive - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Open Floor is a lively meditation practice that builds muscular and emotional intelligence. It is a dance floor discovery zone where we move and include: good days and tough ones, passion, hesitance, joy, sorrow, births, deaths and everything in between. There are no steps to learn and no way to do it wrong.
When we use the dance to be fully embodied – physically, emotionally, mindfully – it simply means being home for the beautiful ride of being alive. It means we're present for anything and everything: loving, losing, colliding, learning, creating, connecting, feeling.
To be embodied is to come to our senses. To show up and learn to stay with our experience whether it's good or bad. To feel our power and to make things happen in our world.
When we live an embodied life we are fluid, flexible, and free to experience all of the wild and subtle moments that go by, the ones that are heavenly and the ones that drop us to our knees.
To be embodied is to arrive at death in peace, free of regret for having missed our life because we weren't home.
To be embodied is to come to our senses. To show up and learn to stay with our experience whether it's good or bad. To feel our power and to make things happen in our world.
When we live an embodied life we are fluid, flexible, and free to experience all of the wild and subtle moments that go by, the ones that are heavenly and the ones that drop us to our knees.
To be embodied is to arrive at death in peace, free of regret for having missed our life because we weren't home.
Common Ground
We start small, end quiet. We respond to obstacles and mind the gaps. Ask, how am I now? What’s possible? Find direction. Add fire. Push the limit. Embrace paradox.
There's an essential movement language we all speak when we take these questions to the dance floor. We call on universal elements that are inherent in any moving body, such as breath, gravity, centering, expansion and contraction. This is the common ground that all embodiment practices share.
Open Floor is where the rubber meets the road – a place for creative focus and loving attention.
Common Sense
Since the beginning of time human beings have gathered to dance. Mindful movement is surging all over the planet because it's good for us. People who dance regularly have keener minds, greater emotional intelligence, and a calmer presence. Connection, compassion, and communities grow. In this challenging world, common sense tells us to spend time dancing.
Common Good
The ripple effect is inescapable. One dance can change someone’s day, one act of kindness can inspire a whole community. Students often leave a session able to bring a more generous presence out into the world. We dedicate our work to the common good, to the benefit of all beings.
Common ground. Common sense. Common good.
This is what we cultivate on the Open Floor.
For more information about Open Floor International, click here.
- How can we move and include it all – feelings, other people, thoughts, wild passions, limitations?
- Can we use movement to soften the tight spots in our tender hearts and stretch our capacity for relationship?
- What happens if we turn old repetitive thoughts into choreography for creative dances?
We start small, end quiet. We respond to obstacles and mind the gaps. Ask, how am I now? What’s possible? Find direction. Add fire. Push the limit. Embrace paradox.
There's an essential movement language we all speak when we take these questions to the dance floor. We call on universal elements that are inherent in any moving body, such as breath, gravity, centering, expansion and contraction. This is the common ground that all embodiment practices share.
Open Floor is where the rubber meets the road – a place for creative focus and loving attention.
Common Sense
Since the beginning of time human beings have gathered to dance. Mindful movement is surging all over the planet because it's good for us. People who dance regularly have keener minds, greater emotional intelligence, and a calmer presence. Connection, compassion, and communities grow. In this challenging world, common sense tells us to spend time dancing.
Common Good
The ripple effect is inescapable. One dance can change someone’s day, one act of kindness can inspire a whole community. Students often leave a session able to bring a more generous presence out into the world. We dedicate our work to the common good, to the benefit of all beings.
Common ground. Common sense. Common good.
This is what we cultivate on the Open Floor.
For more information about Open Floor International, click here.
Open Floor from Open Floor International on Vimeo.
MOVE AND INCLUDE
In Open Floor we "move and include" everything in our dance.
Here's a short video I made of myself dancing to the news during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Give it a try!
In Open Floor we "move and include" everything in our dance.
Here's a short video I made of myself dancing to the news during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Give it a try!
Open Floor International Statement of Solidarity
We at Open Floor International grieve and condemn the murder and state sanctioned, institutionalized violence and injustice against all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to support and amplify the voices of BIack, Indigenous, and People of Color.
We are committing to not just standing up but to stepping up. We recognize that we have deeper personal and professional work to do in order to recognize our own unconscious, ancestral, embodied racism. To stand as teachers of any kind requires that we are profoundly aware of the gross and subtle influences of racism and white privilege.
We’ve been asking ourselves:
Here are our first steps, but by no means our last:
We know many folks are asking the question: what can I do? Linked here is a comprehensive Racial Justice Resource List from Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. There is something we can do every day, starting today. Find a place to start, then follow the breadcrumbs of your own heart.
We encourage our Open Floor community of teachers, dancers and colleagues to advocate through action, both inner and outer. We stand with you on this journey of turning toward our necessary learning and unlearning. We stand with you in support of the lives and humanity of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
With care,
Open Floor International
(Gratitude to Shelley Kilcoyne, Kaia Hawkins, Erin Adams)
We are committing to not just standing up but to stepping up. We recognize that we have deeper personal and professional work to do in order to recognize our own unconscious, ancestral, embodied racism. To stand as teachers of any kind requires that we are profoundly aware of the gross and subtle influences of racism and white privilege.
We’ve been asking ourselves:
- How can we best use our platform to amplify the voices of wisdom teachers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color?
- What's in our Shadow, as individuals and as an organization? What unconscious conditioning must now be brought into awareness?
- How do we actively address social justice as an organization and be a force of genuine service in the world?
Here are our first steps, but by no means our last:
- We are asking every white Open Floor teacher, Board Member and employee to embark on a sustained journey through the myriad unlearning racism programs being offered live and online.
- We are adding anti-racism work as core material in all our Teacher Training curriculum.
- Erin Adams, an Open Floor teacher who has long been involved in social justice work, has invited anyone who teaches in the field of movement to join the Facebook group she initiated, Anti-Oppression Leadership in Conscious Dance.
- Open Floor International is run by 49 volunteers who work in circles of equivalence to manage each area of our organization. We will initiate a Social Justice circle to create and support our path forward in a sustained way.
- As an international non-profit, we’ll increase our efforts to raise scholarship funding for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color students to study and/or be trained in embodiment education, so they can offer it to diverse and local communities worldwide.
We know many folks are asking the question: what can I do? Linked here is a comprehensive Racial Justice Resource List from Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. There is something we can do every day, starting today. Find a place to start, then follow the breadcrumbs of your own heart.
We encourage our Open Floor community of teachers, dancers and colleagues to advocate through action, both inner and outer. We stand with you on this journey of turning toward our necessary learning and unlearning. We stand with you in support of the lives and humanity of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
With care,
Open Floor International
(Gratitude to Shelley Kilcoyne, Kaia Hawkins, Erin Adams)
CLICK HERE
For a schedule of upcoming classes with Stacey
Open Floor comes in as a favorite dance modality
in Conscious Dancer Magazine!
Contact info ~ Phone 415.755.7905 ~ or ~ Send an email
