How wonderful it is to dance, create and play together

It is Tuesday morning; our last Dancing Heart at the Como Park Apartments. We have been here for 12 weeks. It has been an engaging, heartfelt 12 weeks. I feel as though I am now sitting among friends. We have shared personal stories about our lives. We have danced and grooved to jazz with “Mr. Smooth”, Irv Williams, learned Irish jigs, created name poems, moved lyrically with colorful scarves, played improv games and so much more.

Today, Cris our fiddle player and teaching artist is with me. He kneels down and plays personal Swedish songs to the women in the circle. We find ourselves in the heart of spring, telling stories of first loves, best ways to flirt and the miracles of Eros. We giggle and giggle!

How wonderful it is to dance, create and play together. . . we wrote our last poem together:

It is spring!
It is spring the birds are in the trees.
The flowers are blooming.
Sitting on the porch in the spring the trees are blossoming, watching boys go by hoping they’ll stop.
Mary winks at me across the circle my heart jumps into the light.
Your wink is a wish of understanding.
I loved Kay but she was interested in Tom.
I’m crying for him because he got jilted at six.
Snap out of it, it’s over.
My husband when he first saw me, I was dancing. I want to meet her, he said!  Our histories are now continuing.
We met on the airplane. We didn’t flirt.
We were flying high!
When I met my husband, I was dancing with another guy.
Just to look at him, I fell in love with him.
I have been married for 62 years.
We loved him up to the last minute.
It’s spring, It’s spring, It’s spring!

Thank you Como Block Nurses!

Carla

Thank You!!

A BIG thank you for attending our Friday performance and taping at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant for the national PBS documentary, Arts & the Mind. We hope you had as good a time as we did. We will keep you informed on when the documentary will air. We are expecting it will come out early to mid 2012.

We’re sharing a photo we received from an audience member. If you have any thoughts or photos you’d like to share about the performance or any program at Kairos, please contact our Associate Director, Lynnea Forness at lynnea@kairosdance.org, 612-926-5454

Be sure to catch our next performance at the Lake Harriet Bandshell, Thursday, June 16 at 7:30pm!

Warmly,

Kairos Dance Theatre

Gratitude

I’ve been away for several months and just started back with my Kairos volunteering. It’s wonderful to be home again with my wonderful Kairos family-the staff, the volunteers, and all our new participants.

Kairos’ Dancing Heart program began working with new groups of clients just after I left so I’m now meeting all new people in our new locations. We have several adult day program participants, independent living participants and a group of Parkinson’s folks at Struthers in Golden Valley.

Kairos Dance Theatre © 2010 /In photo: Mary & Participant

It has been a total joy to see how the Dancing Heart continues to expand its reach into the community and serve so many different groups of people. And each time we introduce the program we see transformation, we see culture change, we see community building and, most importantly, we feel the warmth and beauty of love.

Who would have thought six years ago when I first saw Kairos Dance Theatre (our intergenerational dance company) perform and met Maria Genné, the director, that my life would be changed forever? I have found an amazing group of artists with compassion for helping others beyond my expectations. I have the joy of working with wonderful people of all ages, diverse cultures and languages, and physical disabilities who are able to express their joy of life through the dancing and storytelling that Kairos gives them the opportunity to do.

I am grateful every day that I was lucky to find Kairos Dance Theatre and have the opportunity to give back to the community in a way that I get back MORE than I give. If you have a few hours a week to experience more love and joy than you could ever imagine, please contact Kairos Dance and find out how easy it is to become a volunteer. You’ll be amazed at how rewarding it is for your heart and soul!!

Faith

A tribute to Ida

The Harlem Twist at Intermedia Arts, December 2010

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Ida Arbeit passed away Tuesday morning, March 15, 2011 in St.Paul Minnesota. Exactly a week ago Ida was dancing, sharing stories and performing as usual with consummate skill and fabulous timing with, as she called us “her dance company,” Kairos Dance Theatre. Ida, Irv Williams and Kairos performers were being filmed for the Twin Cities Public Television show, “Minnesota Original.” Ida wowed us all once again- even if she was in a wheel chair. She thanked us that day, many times. She told us how much it meant to her that we danced with her. And we tried to tell her, many times, how much she had gifted us- and how much we loved her.

Ida, I am so grateful that I have had the honor to collaborate with you as a fellow dancer and choreographer these past few years. You have brought your expertise, your perceptive eye and your insatiable hunger for making good, strong dances, and you have sheared them generously with me and “your company.” You have blessed us with your great laugh and your stories that make it clear to us that you have lived your life and the people in it with much passion. Your strong desire to be deeply engaged in every moment of your life inspires me to reach for the seemingly impossible- as both an artist and a mortal.

We already miss you Ida. Thank you for sharing your legacy as a dancer/choreographer and deep lover of life. You have made a big difference in my life and I know in the lives of many, many people.

With love and gratitude,

Maria and your dance company,

Kairos Dance Theatre

We encourage you to share your favorite Ida moment here, on our blog and Facebook page.