DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE: Rooting and blooming moving authentically in our life's gardens!

ROOTING AND BLOOMING. Creatively moving with The Dancing Flowers for Peace on Saturday, August 2, 2014, was rich with discovery, connection, and fulfillment that comes through being our authentic selves. (photo by Elizabeth Schowalter)

Hallellujah for DANCE! Hallelujah for PEACE! Hallelujah for the Dancing Flowers for Peace and their workshops at the Schwartz Performing Arts Center at Emory University! 

Today the Metro-Atlanta community of women 40-and-over were invited to move authentically as they experienced their "roots" and "blooms" and all that occurs inbetween! 

ROOTING AND BLOOMING. Here Lori Teague, a co-director of Dancing Flowers for Peace, asks us to dance in pairs. How would we express being "roots" and "blooms" with a partner as we moved across the dance studio from one side to the other? One dancer could be the roots and the other the blooms, or we could take turns. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

I was delighted to be joined by my sister, Elizabeth Schowalter, who is visiting after two years of teaching English, math, and science to fifth grade boys in the United Arab Emirates. And, to make it extra special? My dear art friend Callahan Pope McDonough, came to a Dancing Flowers For Peace workshop for the first time.

With summer in full heat, and all our gardens burgeoning with abundant blooms, Lori Teague, one of the co-directors of Dancing Flowers for Peace, invited participants, to start on the floor and to find where our "roots" were. I found my roots expanding from the back of my knees. Then one of my elbows decided it wanted to "root." I found that as I listened to the music and to my body, my connections to the Earth kept changing, evolving, releasing, and rooting. Oh what a glorious movement exercise!

DIVA WALKS. After close to 2 hours of rooting and blooming, we were invited to do our own individual "diva" walks. How did we want to express being fulling embodied--rooted to the ground...and to the heavens through our blooms? (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

As the morning progressed, we danced solo, in pairs, trios, and a flock. We stretched from the foundations of our imagined roots, opened into blossoms, then closing and blossoming again and again. We played with our roots connecting with one another, seeing ways to grow intermingled. Oh what fun!

Words on a white board invited our roots and full blooms to think about ways of being:

Curiosity
Hope
Resiliency
Strength
Willingness
Strength

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me about the ways your roots and full blooms express themselves. How will you experience these qualities in your body listed above? Have you done your very own "diva" walk?

ROOTING. I asked the bouquet to express the concept of connectivity with one another through their "roots." This wonderful photo captured the feeling of the rich and rewarding dance workshop. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thank you to Lesly Fredman, one of the co-directors for The Dancing Flowers for Peace, who invited me to their Saturday warmups starting in 2013. I have not stopped moving since! And thank you to my Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin, who makes all things possible. Special thanks to my dear sister Liz, who came to the Dancing Flowers workshop with an open mind and heart!