In this Issue

--->Message from the Editor
--->Quote of the Season
--->Book Announcement: Skin of Glass
--->Brain Science News: Urvashi Dunyati-Long
--->Spring Events Calendar
--->Music and Music Site Recommendation

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Message from the Editor
by Dunya Dianne McPherson

Spring is always the new beginning, but also the end. A cusp. This is said of any season delineation but there is something so boisterous and energized about spring. This year I am feeling particularly joyous: I’ve published Skin of Glass––my new memoir/guidebook. It marks the end of a long period of deep work for me, and the beginning of a new phase. Again, a cusp.

I thank all of you who have been part of writing this book––those who’ve danced beside me, shared dancemeditation retreats, and workshops and conversations. Stories inspire us. They provide companionship. They validate whispers and yearnings. Writing down my experience of this time together, as well as time in my own practice, puts the sort of story a body can tell into the stream of stories that occupy our literary landscape.

It is so important that we have stories about what really matters, not more hype and manipulation. It is important that we fill our consciousness with what we love, where we want to be at, and where we want to go. The practice of Dancemeditation is mostly without words, but folding words into the practice of conscious motion is a beautiful process. To let words float out of the cells onto the page, out of muscles, out of organs, out of fluids…This is delicious language. This is embodying language. It is, like spring, a juicy blossoming.

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When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
––Audre Lorde

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NEW BOOK

Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh is here!
Order your copy now from:
Dancemeditation Books

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Brain Science News
by Urvashi Dunyati-Long

As promised last time, I will tell you about ion channels. Ion
channels exchange minute bits of energy that are carried by the ion. All living cells depend on ion channels for every kind of
communication between the cell and its environment. Cell communication is energy-exchange based. Ion channel activity is THE basis for communication between neurons, neurons and muscles, and neurons and organs. Many diseases including epilepsy, migraines, and various neurological disorders (i.e. myasthenia gravis) are the result of defects in the functioning of ion channels. Spider venom acts on ion channels that conduct the sodium ion, preventing them from operating properly, and thereby inducing paralysis in their victims. Defects in calcium ion channels underlie some muscle malfunctions – this includes heart muscle function. There are hundreds of thousands of ion channels in every synapse of every neuron. There are hundreds of thousands of synapses in every neuron. There are many billion neurons in our nervous systems. The number of ion channels per person is staggering.

So, that is the physiological importance of ion channels. But, as Dancemeditation practitioners, as lovers of the human experience in all its infinite variability, lovers of the vehicle, our body, that permits the glory of life to be experienced in this vast and brilliant Universe, what message can we take from the existence and function of
ion channels?

Imagine within you the constant streams of energy that are the result of the functioning of ion channels – their infinite, delicate patterns affected by everything – your thoughts, your emotions, what you perceive of the Universe, other people, yourself. Imagine yourself as a kaleidoscope of constantly shifting sparks of power that become the nexus of the energy vortex, the energy pattern that is you! Then know, as a sentient being practicing dance meditation, you have the power to shape that energy pattern any way you wish.

Is that enough power for you? Is that enough responsibility?

Scientific drawing of ion channels:


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Spring Practice Project:

Check in on my blog for spring practice process. I will be doing a regular practice and posting the notes there. I will start up right after Kripalu. (Or maybe during if I can get myself to post during that time.) Please join me at home doing a regular practice and contribute your ideas!

Blog

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Spring Events Calendar

Sensual Alchemy at Kripalu
April 20-25 * 866 200 5203

Summer Movement Monastery
at the Mill in Philmont
June 8-21 * 212 226 2114

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Music Recommendation

Taksim Trio
You can order this from:
www.tulumba.com, a fantastic Turkish music site.