EDH Sunday Dance: For Fathers, by Andy K.
Schedule
Sun Jun 16 2024 at 09:30 am
Location
The Interchange | Houston, TX
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6-16-24 Ecstatic Dance Houston presents: For Fathers, by Andy KaravitisHello once again, brave adventurers! Ecstatic Dance Houston loves to take dancers on a musical journey through our collective imagination. This is a group of folks who have been exploring ecstatic dance together for many years. And at the same time, this dance strives to be friendly and accessible for beginners of any ability level whatsoever. In this context, ecstatic dance refers to a freestyle dance where each participant improvises whatever expressive movement feels like their own reaction to the music and the other dancers. Guidelines are provided both in written form and as a diagram. We also explain the guidelines at the beginning of each dance during the opening circle (around 11 a.m.). That's also the time when we introduce the facilitator and the theme of the dance this week. This coming Sunday, the facilitator is me, Andy Karavitis, and the theme is For Fathers.
I picked the title partly because it is a homonym for forefathers. But also because I was reflecting on how much some fathers do for their kids. Like it changes some men completely, and they apparently are happy to sacrifice decades, working at some job. And yet other fathers seem to do everything they can do for their kid before the moment of conception, and then fade out of the frame quickly thereafter. I guess fatherhood in our society is a highly variable matter, and it strikes me that fathers are as a whole extremely adaptable. At times they seem able to come up with an inventive solution solution to any crisis. I'm remembering a scene where the little girl is crying because one of the petals fell off a little flower. "Daddy can you paste it?" And the father, says, "Ah yeah. Yeah honey... see, good as new." She doesn't realize he just tucked that broken flower petal into his jacket pocket. Thus it is the burden of fathers everywhere to carry our metaphorical broken flower petals in their pocket.
It is fashionable today in some circles to make light of fatherhood. Maybe we've all seen that clip of a father who pushes the kids in a wagon, then he comes barrelling down the hill out of nowhere, runs ahead of the wagon and saves them from hitting some obstacle. In many hilariously undignified ways, our fathers are doing a lot of important things for us. So on this holiday, I was thinking about what can we do in return, For Fathers? And what I choose to do is to dance my joyful dance. I think this is a fine way to salute fatherhood by just being myself and doing what I enjoy doing. Or maybe you don't care about the theme, and you are just coming to Ecstatic Dance Houston for the physical benefits, for the emotional release, for the social connections, or for the opportunity to do creative expression in a non-judgemental atmosphere. That's great too (although I don't know why you bothered to read all this if you don't care about the theme)!
So come on and dance with us if you want to. If you have questions about what was written here or other questions about Ecstatic Dance Houston, feel free to ask in the comments below.
Joyfully and playfully,
- Andy Karavitis
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Where is it happening?
The Interchange, 1815 Cleburne St. Suite T,Houston,TX,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays: