I am a dancer.

Dear you, I don’t think I’ve ever properly introduced myself in all the time I've been blogging and writing newsletters. I’m Dodie Sobretodo. I’m 54 years old, from Canada, and today I’m remembering that I’m a dancer. It is a pleasure to meet you here.

I came back to writing about a month ago when I started writing this blog. I publish twice a week, and this will be my 11th blog. I smile. This makes me very happy, to know that I’ve come back to writing, a pursuit so close to my heart. I’ve been waking up at 5 am every weekday morning to write. And it’s been so lovely to be immersed back into the creative flow of this work. That said, all this sitting has not been great for my body! I might be developing a bit of dad bod (as I like to call it) here, and I decided that I need to take action to prevent the full dad bod onset.

What came to mind was how I used to dance all the time in the house. And the idea that I can start my day off with some dancing. I am a trained dancer, after all. Dance and movement is fundamental to my construction. How I think, how I move, how I see.

My house is very narrow you see, and there are no big open spaces to dance here. I would create dance space by pushing the kitchen table over and rolling a carpet that sits under the armchair in the corner (which is now my writing corner). And boom, THE STUDIO was open. That’s what I called it.

This morning, I returned to the studio. I returned to my dancer. Let me share with you some things I noticed:

I noticed how I rise and fall. And how, in the fall, I can chart a new direction. And how the momentum of the fall carries me there.

I noticed my hips and how they can lead. How, if I give myself over to my hips, that they know what to do. How to carve out space. How to find spirals, big and small, that the rest of my body can follow.

I noticed how my feet land softly on the wood floors. How comfortable they feel in the space. How they move as if to map out the territory of this studio. How far can I move this way, that way, the other way? I can trust my feet, I thought to myself.

I noticed how my upper body felt a bit awkward, actually. A bit stiff. A bit shy, maybe. Having a different experience than my lower body. But at one point, I said to myself, what if I allow my upper body to trust and simply follow the flow of my lower body? Of my hips and my feet. And that made all the difference.

I noticed myself asking myself (as I often do, as dancer), am I performing? Am I not? Am I doing this for me or to generate material for this blog? And feeling the edges of that.

This morning. In the studio.

This was the dance of this dancer, this morning. I’ll keep at it cause dancer is who I am. And ‘cause I really don’t want dad bod!

Dear you, is there something fundamental about yourself that you may have forgotten about? Is there a space in you that you’d like to return to? Push some furniture (or whatever you need) aside to make space for it?

Dear you, is there a way that you wish to reintroduce yourself to the world?

Thank you once again for tuning into my blog. This dancer and writer holds love and support for you to do YOUR thing. Always and in all directions.