Jan

Two year anniversary

I posted this simple status update to my facebook wall on the date of the two year anniversary of the day I moved to NYC, following it touching many people there I thought I would share it here too!

Two years ago today, I got on an airplane in Oakland, CA with two suitcases, and a one-way ticket to NYC. With no solid plans and little money, I somehow survived and found so much happiness, LOVE, joy, inspiration, and self discovery in the past two years making ALL of my dreams come true! Huge thank you to all that were a part of it. My parents, brother, Eric Wallace, Laura Hames Franklin, Emily Sullivan, Beth Ann, Amanda and Tyler, Josh, Rachel, the Franklin Method, Eric Franklin and so many more…

109 days ago Short URL Comments

Ballet/Franklin Method/My apt/New York City

Apr

Skeleton in my closet… :/

My disarticulated full skeleton finally came in the mail! ’twas some exciting moments for me when that package came!

Since I became a Franklin Method educator, the human body and especially bone models have taken on a completely different meaning to me.

I’ve always been the extremely girly girl who was completely disgusted by gross anatomy – the study of the macroscopic anatomy of the human body (though that is a cool play-on words!)

In school I was always good at science, to the point that my science teachers told me I should become a doctor. I was the kid everyone hates because of their ability to ruin the curve for everyone else. I could deal with the microscopic biology, but once things got actual size I’d lose it and everything else in my stomach!

In the 9th grade when we dissected a fetal pig I couldn’t even look (I literally stared at the wall during those class periods!). And I haven’t eaten pork since that day.

In college kinesiology I shut my eyes during the explorative human body videos.

I couldn’t even stand feeling the bones in my OWN feet! It grossed me out too, too much! I got to the third week of the Franklin Method teacher training unable to touch and feel out the bones in my own feet because it disgusted me so much!

Then one day that week of the teacher training I no longer was revolted and instead was completely ENTHRALLED! Suddenly I couldn’t get enough of “playing” and discovering bone models and the human body.

I’ve now gone back to college to finish my degree, but mainly to learn more deeply about the human body. I’m taking Anatomy and Physiology right now and enjoying every moment not being grossed out or disguised. It is immensely INTERESTING and new to learn from this place.

Every time I pick up a bone and start “playing” with it I am AMAZED by the human body. Truly a wondrous, wondrous creation. Every bone is unique and magical and tells its own story…. twists, spirals, groves… THEN you start look at where and how bones articulate with each other… Wow, that is really MARVELOUS and needless to say time stops when I start exploring THAT!

Besides the hours among hours of amusement and fun this skeleton will create for me, I’m really looking forward to the benefits it with facilitate for my clients as I show them how their body was designed to MOVE, completely EMPOWERING them.

What are your thoughts on bones, models, skeletons in your closets, the human body?

What STORY is your body telling?

Much love and joy, xoxo, ’til next time!

401 days ago Short URL Comments

Franklin Method/New York City

Anatomy/Education/Health/Human anatomy/Human body/medicine/Skeleton

Mar

My new PELVIS!!!

There have been so many times this past year that I have felt like I’ve had a brand new pelvis.

As funny and as sexual it sounds it is so true. haha I am learning that when you talk about the pelvis you just HAVE to roll with the humor involved!

Learning, experiencing and embodying all the movements that happen in my pelvis on a daily basis has been a powerful, enlightening, life-changing and SCARY process over this past year!

This evolution was really started almost exactly one year ago in the first week of year one Franklin Method teacher training.

The pelvis is soo extremely cool and has so many movements that completely change every single one of your daily movements – walking, sitting, standing, dancing, running, doing yoga…

I cannot really tell you the amount of pure JOY I get from imagining the movement of my pelvis, no what I am doing. It can seriously turn a horrible day to JOYFUL, BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL day!

Why then if I get so much JOY from understanding my pelvis everyday did I wait until NOW to write a blog post about it?!?!!!!

….

……..

…………

<————- THAT'S WHY!!!!! My new pelvis model that just came in the mail.

I recently made a huge LEAP and brought myself a complete dis-articulated skeleton and pelvis model to facilitate the growth of my healing practice offering highly individualized sessions. Every one of my sessions is different and incredible!

Having a model of the pelvis helps give my clients a better understanding of their pelvis, how it moves, its shape and construction. (plus it is so cool and makes for a LOT of great, great jokes )

Well… haha that is all for THIS blog post, but don't worry I'll be back soon with MORE brilliant insights I've discovered!

Stayed tuned… Comment… Engage with me! I'd LOVE it and I promise I won't bite!

Wishing you freedom and creativity this day and always in your pelvis!

Much, much LOVE!

xo Emily

432 days ago Short URL Comments

Ballet/Dance/Franklin Method

Jan

Finding my NEW voice!

I haven’t been posting very often lately. I could say I’ve been really busy, or haven’t known what to write, or, or, or… Really I could easily come up with a HUGE list of all the reasons I haven’t posted a new blog post.

These past few months (really starting 11.11.11)

I have been finding my NEW VOICE!

Lots of BodyTalk sessions, physical, mental and emotional changes! Franklin Method (R) work to find my diaphragm and embody its movement and my lungs’ role in my breath. Lots of learning and building. Trust, trust, trust.

So many new, new, new things have been happening in my life.

Started a new job (which I LOVE more and more every day) that allowed me to quit the job I hated. Stopped dancing for the ballet company that wasn’t helping my health and wellness.

Had my birthday! Yay!

Flew across the country to go home for Christmas (a place I hadn’t been back to in a year). And had a BEAUTIFUL Christmas with my family.

And now it’s the new year! 2012! Happy new year! I actually started this year out by physically losing my voice, my throat hurt so much.

But now things are getting clearer and clearer one day at a time.

I have so many goals, dreams and visions for the coming year and my year on this beautiful planet earth.

Recently started to freak out about the fact that I currently have 6 jobs (My video!) and (Laura’s response!) …. And enter the fact I lost my voice at the beginning of 2012!

Trinity Church (interior), New York City

Inside Trinity Church

Then TODAY I went to church at Trinity Wall Street (shout out! ).

While singing “I, the Lord of sea and sky” and “Mine eyes have seen the glory” I founded my strong and powerful voice in a way I have NEVER in my life experienced before. (I’ve always been extremely shy, super quiet and soft-spoken and never could decide about anything!) I’ve also always been timid about my singing voice, yet felt a strong desire to SING!

This morning was a moment, an experience that I’ll always remember and will allow me a powerful memory to tap into to find my strong and powerful voice that knows.

~~~~~~~~~~

I feel so blessed to be living my life, surround by the people I am, in the place where I am!

Thank you all! All YOU people of the internet!

Sending out waves of light ~ PEACE, HOPE, JOY and LOVE!

Looking forward to the coming year of dancing, inspiring and healing!

Please leave a comment below with your thoughts, inspirations, dreams, goals….

I’d LOVE to hear it all, everything and anything.

489 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Church/Dance/Franklin Method/New York City

beautiful christmas/beautiful planet/Dance/dreams and visions/Franklin Method (R)/God/sea and sky/Singing/trinity church/Trinity Church (New York City)/Voice

Nov

I am a dancer…

I am a dancer, but that is not all that I am.

I have been a dancer my whole life, from the age of three when I first put on a pair of tap shoes and my mom took me crying to my first dance class.

I discovered ballet officially at nine years old when my combo tap/ballet teacher saw my flexible feet and hyper extended knees. She convinced my mom to put me in ballet lessons.

I loved ballet from the moment I started. I had found the dance form for me! Years have gone by since then and I’ve learned other styles but ballet and especially pointe work has stayed my favorite.

This past year I moved to New York City via a one way plane ticket and two suitcases from the west coast.

Also in the past year I got certified as an educator of the Franklin Method. Basically a year-long process that involved three weeks throughout the year of intensive training in Boulder, Colorado. In-between weeks I had homework to complete, practice workshops to teach , studying and practicing to do with the Franklin Method. [The Franklin Method was formed by Eric Franklin partly from his own experience as a dancer. It uses science, bone models and current mind body research to teach in a student centered way how the bones, muscles and organs move in all bodily motions. Then dynamic imagery is incorporated to encourage movement and translate the motion between the mind and body.] Learning the Franklin Method has changed the way I approach dance. I continue daily to teach my body it’s true movement potential in every moment, enhancing my movement with anatomically correct imagery.

One of my most recent discoveries in ballet class…

It truly is a really powerful thing when you realize that in any moment you can DECIDE how you want to do a step. That kind of control I always interpreted to be the skill only of a professional dancer. But, I was never sure how they got it. I assumed years if practice and HARD work. But then even when i became a professional dancer i still wondered and was actually rather disappointed I did not suddenly have this skill…

But then, ding! Last week in class I discovered it and I had my answer! The Franklin Method! Embodying the Franklin Method in ballet classes allows one to DECIDE how you want to do a step.

I plan to be a strong, brilliant, inspiring Franklin Method educator, enabling me to help tons of people - dancers and lay people alike to move and dance in the healthiest, most beautiful way reaching their highest potential.

557 days ago Short URL Comments

Ballet/Dance/Franklin Method/New York City

ballet/Dance/Eric Franklin/Franklin Method/New York City

Nov

Story…

Laura Hames Franklin I can easily say has changed my life many times over already.

Change

From the moment I met her, change, change, change… Change leading to direction, focus, growth and finding my true self and finding myself in others…

Me in Grand Central Station June 2010

I met Laura last summer while I was in New York City attending the American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive. A friend told me I should contact Laura Hames Franklin to get a BodyTalk session. I tried and after several missed attempts found out my only chance was an Introduction to BodyTalk and Franklin Method class she was teaching that night in Brooklyn. So after class that day I hopped on a subway to go somewhere I’d never been, to experience something I’d never experienced, all by myself. This was a wild leap of faith that was quite unlike me. [BodyTalk is a healthcare system that helps put a person's body back in balance to heal, grow and become even more healthful.] I had a brief BodyTalk session that night and a brief introduction to the Franklin Method as well. After the workshop finished Laura asked me if I could stay a bit longer and she show me some more Franklin Method work. She told me two things that night – to get one of Eric Franklin’s books and that I should become a Franklin Method teacher because my body took to the method well.

I left her apartment that night completely changed.

After going back to the west coast (where I lived) I soon felt a strong desire to move to New York City and have more BodyTalk sessions.

A Barnes & Noble in Manhattan

Following (almost blindly) Laura’s advice I went to Barnes and Noble and purchased one of Eric Franklin’s books, Conditioning for Dancers. I also kept Laura Hames Franklin in the back of my mind. One night in a definite low point I emailed Laura to schedule a distance BodyTalk session with her. That session lead to several more phone conversations. One of which (actually occurred on my birthday) announced the fact that I had bought my plane ticket to New York City (an act I did against my parents’ wishes) and I would be in the city at the end of January. She then told me again to register for the level 1 Franklin Method teacher training in Boulder, Colorado. This registration happened a month later because despite my complete lack of funds (I was moving to New York City with not a whole lot of money in my bank account) Laura found a way for me to do workstudy to pay for my training.

NYC after I moved - January 2011

Two days after I got into New York Laura invited me over to her house, a place I have since then spent many, many, many hours. She graciously welcomed me into her life.

I have gotten many BodyTalk sessions from her in the past year. Each session and each time I spend time with her seems to change my life and perspective a little, little bit more.

Laura Hames Franklin is a large part of the reason I am the person I am today.

560 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Franklin Method/New York City

American Ballet Theatre/BodyTalk/Brooklyn/Eric Franklin/Franklin Method/Laura Hames Franklin/New York/New York City

Oct

Tears

Tears of Norway.... (title in image selector)

Okay, wow! Titled this blog post as my next post. I figured once I had a title I could make something from it. Came from the fact that for the past two weeks my right eye has watered uncontrollably producing lots of involuntary tears. And these tears had increased steadily (until Tuesday when I had a BodyTalk session with Laura Hames Franklin and my eyes were literally cleared up).

So that was was that, whatever. Not a blog post but a good story. Then I was going through my journal (for another reason) I’ve kept since I moved to New York and found this… perhaps just another story but the first bit I have to share because I literally started to cry with emotions I felt running all through my body.

It is about this time exactly a year ago that I first heard of the Franklin Method. The studio in Berkeley that I mainly danced at was having a Franklin Method workshop on the feet. (The ballet school director’s mother was a Franklin Method teacher) Needless to say, I didn’t go. As a struggling dancer/student I didn’t have the 60 dollars or whatever it cost to shell out to attend some who-do-vodoo workshop. My experience with similar techniques at Cornish had made me more than a little skeptical of these alternative movement systems. I just didn’t think they were for me. I am a ballet dancer, straight and pure, the classics! A week or so later I was taking class with a ballet teacher I absolutely love as a part of my week-long preparation for my biggest audition of the season, the Los Angeles Ballet, the one I was flying to LA that Saturday to attend. Interestingly enough, this ballet teacher had taken the workshop, after the ballet class she really want to share what she had learned and I was one of the ones she singled out because she thought this could really help me. She then showed us some exercises rolling our feet on small balls. I have been around the block with these sorts of things but these exercises were different…and it made my feet for the first time in a long time feel BETTER…
I called my parents that night and told them about it, and they were over joyed that I found something that finally made my feet and ankles feel normal…
Two days later, I came down from a changement to heart-break, I had sprained my ankle —- badly. I can push through a lot, like completing an audition on a sprained ankle before, but this time was different, it was excruciating and I couldn’t put weight on it.
Needless to say the rest of that year, basically was dedicated to this injury and the pain in my right foot that resulted from it.
- Emily’s musing (March 4th, 2011)

Yep, that’s all I have for this post…. Comment PLEASE if you like. Tweet me up on twitter, find me on facebook. Much love!

More tears in nature...

569 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

Ballet/Franklin Method/New York City

Ankle/ballet/Franklin Method/Sprained ankle

Oct

Breathe

Ahhhh…

Theme of this Sunday for me. Came from a guy after church this morning. He asked me about my plans for the day and I said, “nothing!” which is a shocker for me.

For the past forever my Sundays have been busy, culminating last Sunday when I went to church, a discovery class, an audition then had the big performance of Pinkpig Ballet that night.

Taken me awhile to recover from that day, since not really “recovered” a week later….

But… back to the guy at church this morning. After relating my feeling of recovery to him, he suggested going to a park and just breathing. What an excellent idea! Had been battling with what to do today, always have so much work to do. But… it’s Sunday which I quite sincerely believe should be a day of rest.

but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work… ~ Exodus 20:10

That is good enough for me!

Rest, sitting and just being is not something that comes easily for me. I’m a rather high-strung person, think it runs in my family…

Have learned to trust myself and actually listen to my body and what it needs since moving here, learning BodyTalk Access and the Franklin Method.

Focusing especially today on what I learned from the Franklin breathing class, in and out of nose – in and up my back then out and down my front.

I feel so much joy and contentment living in the city and just surrendering to that feeling.

So, here I am in Prospect Park, surrendering to the feelings, the emotions and breathing.

Final note..

Have no desire to be fake in this blog, have enough of that in my “pink life” Reached a point that I am really tired of that, it’s exhausting!

578 days ago Short URL Comments

Ballet/Church/Franklin Method/New York City

ballet/Breathing/Church/Dance/Franklin Method/Pinkpig Ballet/Prospect Park/Sunday

Oct

Dance… and other things.

Went to a dance performance last Friday. All the pieces seemed so morbid!

I remember when I saw Vienna Teng live in concert, one thing she said was how it is much easier to write sad songs than happy songs. The words and music for sad songs came easier to her.

I wonder if it is the same with choreographing dances….

This train of thought turns me to the Franklin Method (as everything in my life does anymore) Something I’ve learned, that is so incredibly true (think about it for yourself!) is: Negative imagery is way easier and much more prevalent in our culture. It also elicits a stronger somatic response than positive imagery usually! Positive, good, dynamic imagery you have to practice.

“Learning imaging is akin to learning a language?” ~ Eric Franklin (via @FranklinMethod)

But! …. Back to choreographing dances…

The dance I choreographed for my composition class in college was rather bleak.. But, the dances I choreographed for church services always had their abundantly joyful moments as the songs were praise songs or had moments of BREAKING through the DARKNESS.

Pieces choreographed on me have been a mixture. I have a rather spunky cute demeanor so perhaps that is why I am able to dance cute, quick, fun pieces…

Also, I wonder if ballet is an easier genre to make happy pieces for. I’ve always felt like ballet was a joyful dance form. Most of the classics are generally joyful and happy with some melodrama underneath and sad moments. Many of the plots are bleak, with happy moments…
Sleeping Beauty (my favorite classic): Aurora has a spell casted on her that when she pricks her finger she goes to sleep. BUT is awakened my her true love’s kiss! And there is a happy wedding ceremony!
The Nutcracker (the ballet I’ve done the most): Clara has her favorite toy nutcracker broke this Nutcracker comes to life and battles a huge rat king. But she kills the rat king with her shoe and her nutcracker turns into a prince and they go on a magical journey and see lots of beautiful dances.

Interesting, but really I guess full-length ballets need happy as well as sad moments or else the evening would be one-dimensional and the audience would get bored…

Do you have any thoughts on this?! I’d LOVE to hear them! Post your comment below!

583 days ago Short URL Comments

Ballet/Church/Dance/Franklin Method/New York City

Aurora/ballet/Dance/Performing Arts/Sleeping Beauty/Vienna Teng

Sep

“Try to see this tension, this knot, this pain as a friend and not as an enemy – a friend who has come to draw your attention to something; a friend who will not go away just because you are in a bad mood, one that takes the time to help you uncover the root of the problem.” ~ Eric Franklin

596 days ago Short URL 1 Comment