Enjoy sipping water with mint, dance in the rain, line dance to Ya Ayn Mawlayiten, and cut out unfulfilling calories and expenses by carrying a small water bottle in your bag. The theme of this show is water. The water in our veins, the water we seek, the water we drink while dancing around fire, the water that falls on us from above… Danceable ritual: Sipping water What is your go-to drink right now? What do you reach for without thinking? What drink do you crave? What do you love about it? What does it do for you? What do you drink when you dance? Coffee and tea seem to be the most ritualistic drinks these days, especially in sleep-deprived America. When then we add cream and sugar to our overly-sweetened and heavy lives, water really stands out as the perfect drink to crave. In the beginning of the free dance lessons I post on YouTube, I always take a sip of water. This is very intentional. I want the people watching to reach for water as well. I want you, my friends and fellow dancers, to keep reaching for water whatever you are doing. Before we get into this Danceable Ritual, here’s a little back story. When I was studying Communication at Cornell, a woman from the American Psychological Association presented how her team attempted to change television audience behaviors in the 1980s. Apparently, baby’s eyes develop at the distance between a mother’s breast and her face. Their research showed that young mothers were watching daytime soap operas. So this team wanted mothers watching television to look at the children in their arms more often. This would help the baby’s eyes develop more than having the mother looking at the TV. When the actor in the soap opera looked at the baby in their arms on TV, so did the mothers watching the TV show. So this team negotiated with the soap opera writers to put baby gazing in the script. The show had a behavior change-purpose that positively impacted the viewers health and long-term happiness rather than just selling them something or entertaining them. This was the first time I realized that was happening in mainstream entertainment and not just Public Service Announcements. So, when we take a sip of water together on this show and on youtube, know that I care about you and want you to drink water habitually, without even having to decide that’s what you want. Then your decision-making power is available for other things. Thanks for sticking with me. Let’s get back to the danceable part. Reaching for water can be so enjoyable and graceful and even artistic. Try this. Slowly reach for your glass or water bottle. If you don’t have any water with you, just imagine you do. As you reach for the water, make your hand position beautiful. Maybe your hand is in a soft C position like a ballet dancer’s hands. Maybe you are doing wrist circles like a flamenco dancer, or finger ripples like an Egyptian cabaret dancer. Your hand is beautifully traveling to the water and caressing it. Get ready to take a sip. Inhale as you lift the glass or bottle, take a sip, exhale as you slowly and beautifully set it back down with a snake arm. Try it again. Reach beautifully, lift, and drink, and this time thank the water. Set it down gracefully. Right now somewhere in the dessert there’s a dancer walking miles with a jug on her head to get water. After carrying it home, she will have to make a fire to boil the water before she can drink it. Thank that water for being right here. This is a life of ease. This is another danceable ritual you can incorporate into your day. It can help you clear your mind, enjoy your movement,
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