Flow
Space
Time
Weight
I have had a lot of wonderful elders in my life. One of them is Fanchon Shur. She is a Jewish, dancer, activist, shaman, healer. I was blessed enough to be one of 14 people that she took through a year long apprenticeship program called Embodying Creative Leadership: Enabling the Bigger Dance.
In this Training Fanchon hosted weekend intensives two weekends each month. Friday evening, Saturday all day and evening, and Sunday morning and afternoon. It was a lot. Fanchon was in her 70’s and said she wanted to teach a group of people everything she knew before she died. This was in 2014, she is still raising hell in the world today.
I told her that she showed up in my life to teach me audacity. Fanchon is a diva and she moves through the world as such. I was just starting to step into my own giantess and she was there to usher me in.
We were in one of our one-on-one meeting going through weight, time, space, & flow. Weight went from light to strong. Time went from sustained to quick. Space went from flexible to direct. And Flow went from free to bound. We had been working on this and she was have me move my body across the room changing these things. She would she say, “okay, now change your flow” and couple minutes later, “now change your time”. Then she let me choose which one I wanted to shift. After awhile we stopped.
She looked at me and said. “You are like a flower that won’t bloom. Show up! I can take all of you.” I looked at this 70+ year old woman standing in front of me and I started to cry. I cried because I knew she could but I wasn’t sure I could. She then told me about the time she roomed with Maya Angelou. She said I had her spirit with me. I could feel that but I was still afraid of what “showing up” would mean.
Today, as I practice my flow, space, time, and weight I feel more able to move in my skin. I feel more able to show up. I think Fanchon would be proud of me.
Quanita