Monday Love to the Beginnings of Burning Man

“Your desire to do what you want to do has to be greater than the world’s desire to stop you.“

~ Mark Pauline

How attached are you to your things? What makes something essential? Why is “three moves as good as a fire”?

This being the week when a lot of creative folks like you would normally be heading out to the Black Rock Desert to make stuff and watch it go up in flames at The Burning Man Project, it seems like a good time to muse on the ideas of art, impermanence, and the ethos of non-attachment.

What with Covid-19 changing the ground rules of society underneath our feet many of our most cherished assumptions are wildly in flux. Just the idea that we could have some sense of what the future might hold is no longer a baseline that we can depend on.

So what’s a habitual optimist like me to do in a time like this? Especially when week after week my practice is to write words of support, inspiration, and encouragement to you and thousands of other readers out there on the High Frontier? Double down on presence, that’s what.

Few things in the world give rise to anxiety more predictably than plain old uncertainty. When you don’t know which way to turn or what’s going to happen next it’s all-too-easy to start running around like a chicken with its head cut off, (as we used to say back on the ranch).

The topic of presence is easy-pickings for gurus and self-help writers, most likely going back to the invention of the clock. “Now” is a big deal — Ram Dass said we just have to ‘Be Here…’ only to be one-upped decades later by Eckhart Tolle preaching about ‘The Power…’.

But for all that living in the moment, we humans tend to pack around a lot of stuff. Nifty items we acquired once-upon-a-time that we will either let go of on our own one fine day in the future or leave behind for our heirs to determine their eventual fate.

Artists exist in the crux of this conundrum. On one hand, it’s all about the moment of creation, on the other, stuff just keeps piling up. One person’s priceless artifact is another’s worthless tchotchke. Without collectors, galleries, and museums to guide us, we’d be lost.

I’ve long pondered the idea of art and impermanence. Of course, modern dance is an art form that exists only in the moment, hours of practice and rehearsal notwithstanding. Performative arts make for great documentation, which become artifacts after the fact.

In The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe’s tour de force exposé of art and theory, the story is told of how with each successive movement after the Realists in the Renaissance theory moved further into the foreground while the art itself assumed a less important role.

From the Impressionists to the Cubists to the Abstract Expressionists and beyond, it got to the point that without an understanding of the theory behind a piece, one would not be able to see it at all. Consequently, the art itself became a vanishing point culminating with The Minimalists.

Once the frame of the painting and then even the walls of the gallery were cast aside, one was left with nothing but theory. Pop Art spun that around into a realistic celebration of products and culture. Plus an embrace of celebrity that endures in the art world to this day.

The point being, as long as Art is all about the Artifact, the mythos of the lonely long-suffering artist toiling away in the dusty attic endures. The egos, the emotions, the individual id that pins its entire value and self-worth on the approval of the masses. Bah Humbug!

Well, back in the 80s I had the privilege of working with a crew of “Performance Artists” who said, “Let’s just put a match to all of that.” Survival Research Laboratories, led by Mark Pauline, subverted the social commentary of the art world by literally burning it all down.

SRL shows were large scale public spectacles staged outdoors in vast empty parking lots or abandoned industrial sites. Huge remote-controlled robotic mechanical characters engaged in pitched battles with each other and elaborately constructed props and special effects devices.

Months of buildup went into shows that lasted no more than 30-45 minutes. What wasn’t burned to the ground was blown up by explosives or ripped apart by the machines. I helped build and operate a giant flamethrower powered by a V8 from a Corvette capable of 300-foot flames.

The first show I worked on was in Seattle, 1986. “Failure to Discriminate – Determining the Degree to which Attractive Delusions can Operate as a Substitute for Confirmation by Evidence” Tongue-in-cheek titles were eerily prescient when viewed through today’s prism.

What rose like a phoenix from the ashes of these early extravaganzas was a simple equation: Fire + Art = Community. When people get together to create an artifact destined to go up in smoke, all that’s left is the relationships that endure. In other words, Community.

Larry Harvey, the late co-founder of The Burning Man Project, probably attended SRL shows at some point before he torched his first figure on Ocean Beach in 1986. Whether he did or not matters little, the ethos of Community before Art was born out of the Zeitgeist of the era.

Our current era asks us to re-evaluate. Deprived of most of our community interactions we’re left with our possessions to keep us company. It’s a good time to ask what’s worth keeping and what you can shed. The future and past have never felt so far from the present.

You’re like a particle of presence dancing on the head of a pin. Every step forward in time is another moment to make the most of. Let yourself be light and loosen up your expectations about the future and your attachments to the past. It’s your eternal now where life happens.

Much love till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz

Director of the Dance First Association

Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

Dance First Member Insight: 5Rhythms’ Lucia Horan!

This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight is brought to you by Lucia Horan, a member of the 5Rhythms family and a teacher of Dharma, Dance, and Meditation.

Dear Dancers, 

My name is Lucia Horan. I was born and raised at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. A year ago, I returned to my homeland with my husband and daughter. It was a full circle to where I began.

My way has always been to dance. I was born into the path of the dance. I was raised dancing 5Rhythms. At the age of nineteen, Gabrielle Roth asked me to begin teaching her work. I have danced through all of the most joyful and tragic moments of my life. Above all, dance has been my refuge. Through this uncertainty, it is the only thing I know how to do.

March brought to the world Covid-19. Its wave broke across every continent on Earth, impacting our globalized way of life. As it became unsafe to gather in groups to dance, my life’s work was brought to an abrupt halt. In those first two months, I turned inward to focus on my family and two-year-old, unsure how to proceed.

After re-centering, I was encouraged by my beloved partner to use this time of radical limitation as an opportunity to cultivate radical creativity. Though I resisted teaching online, I let go in the empty space and offered online classes and workshops. I began with a five-week series focusing on the emotional intelligence of Gabrielle Roth’s Heartbeat map. In those many weeks, we danced through fear and courage, anger, acceptance and forgiveness, grief and surrender, joy and generosity, compassion and connection. During this time, nothing seemed more appropriate than to dance the map of the heart.

It has been a great challenge to move from in-person work to a Zoom platform. I had to trust that the experience would be transferable. Without receiving the biofeedback that I am used to, I had to believe that this was enough. After hearing from students how powerful it was to dance in this way, I was encouraged to keep going.

In addition to teaching classes and workshops online, I have continued to offer private sessions. My one on one work consolidates many of the methods I teach, into a powerful space where individuals can dive deep into self-awareness and growth.

As we held tight in our bubble, another wave hit our country. Instead of physical sickness, this wave exposed the systemic prejudice of racial conflict poisoning our communities. The tragic and traumatic loss of lives in the United States, brought a wave of grief through many of us as our hearts were shattered open by outrage. The night of George Floyd’s memorial, we danced in remembrance for all those who have lost their lives to racial injustice, donating the funds in their honor.

The next blow came as recently as last week. As wildfires raged through Big Sur, we were evacuated from our home. Losing our last place of refuge and safety further ungrounded and uprooted us. With our lives upside down and inside out, we face yet another dance of uncertainty. I held trust in my heart and prayed for support.

Through the challenges of Covid-19, social uprising and injustice, and now wildfires, we dance on. I have decided to continue to teach my upcoming five-part 5Rhythms & mindfulness workshop. There is nothing I know more than how to practice when life is complicated. Often the biggest challenge in life is to show up when we least feel like it. Now, I practice what I preach and dance on for myself and all those in need.

I believe that if we can bring our feet into freedom, then our hearts and minds will follow. As a teacher, my intention is to offer what is most authentic and real in transparency and love. The Dharma of these times provides us with the opportunity to awaken.

Dance catalyzes the nervous system and allows us to externalize and release what is in the heart. At other times, our nervous system needs to quiet and still. Through seated meditation’s silent introspection, we cultivate the space of balance, integration, and peace.

I invite you to join me as we practice mindfulness in both stillness and movement. We cannot change what is, but we can change how we respond. This is a time where we must move into the right action for the benefit of all beings. It requires us to consider with compassion, how we may be of service to all those in need. May we break through the illusion of our separateness and begin to act as a global community to heal the climate crisis, the social injustice, and the virus as they rage on through our neighborhoods. May we be at peace and find the freedom and motivation to do this sacred work. May we do this not for ourselves, but for all the generations that will follow us.

With love,

Lucia

Learn more: www.LuciaHoran.com

Online 5Rhythms?: Waves Series (all 9am-12:30pm PST)

Sept 12th – Staccato

Sept 26th – Chaos

Oct 10th – Lyrical & Stillness

Oct 24th – Homeland

(Would you like to write an Insight Column for Monday Love and be featured on the Conscious Dancer website? Send us an email today!)