Dancing brought me back to a place in my body where I felt at home again.
Dancing brought me back to a place in my body where I felt at home again.
In 2013, I received the devastating news that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My world turned upside down in a few seconds. Immediately, I was overcome with a surge of intense emotions - fear, anger, panic, and a profound sense of loneliness. My mind raced with countless questions: Will I survive this? How will this impact my beloved son, family, and close friends? Will I ever be able to return to my profession as a dancer and teacher in the same way I once knew if I survive this?
For 40 years, I had been blessed with a healthy, strong body that allowed me to thrive in my career. This diagnosis shook me to my core, as I grappled with the reality that my physical and emotional well-being had been temporarily compromised.
Fortunately, my broad experiences, knowledge, and skills as a dancer and teacher had prepared me to discover and embrace the incredible healing power of movement. While the medical treatments worked to fight the cancer, dance became an equally essential part of my recovery process. It was my natural medicine.
Through dance, I could regain trust in my body, reconnect with it, and fall in love with it once again - even though I felt it had betrayed me. Throughout my treatments, not a single day went by without me dancing, whether confined to my bed, sofa, or standing in my living room. Restricted by pain, I learned to explore the subtleties of my "inner dances." As my strength returned, my movements became bigger and more expansive. Step by step, day by day.
Dance provided me with a crucial outlet to express and release the pain, fears,
loneliness, and frustrations I experienced during this challenging journey. It gave me hope and helped me reconnect with the dance world and to the world in general.
Out of the darkness, I found a new light and discovered innovative approaches to
movement, enabling me to continue my passion and share this life-changing
knowledge with others.
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3 reacties
Best Maxihill, I recognize your way of surviving bij movement. For me , I was also working with my body in movement with for me the helping of using a camera and making pictures at the same time. It resulted in making fragmented photographs that were in first diagnosed as wrong pictures because they came out without the rules of photographing. I recognized in these wrond ones , the feelings I went through and signed the photographs afterwards as: 'wrong pictures changed into googd ones' that were fitting to the process J went through. the serie was called 'fragmented world'.
Good luck with your health-process and working together with your body by movement. Greetings Anne van de Pals.
Beste Anne,
Bedankt voor je reactie op mijn blog in het Engels. Hoewel ik Nederlands kan lezen en schrijven, vond ik het makkelijker om mijn verhaal en emoties in het Engels over te brengen.
Heel erg bedankt voor het delen van je ervaring en je prachtige benadering van beweging en fotografie. Ik vind het inspirerend hoe je de zogenaamde "verkeerde foto's" hebt omarmd en ze hebt omgezet in betekenisvolle uitingen van je innerlijke gevoelens. De titel "gefragmenteerde wereld" van de serie vat dat gevoel van proces en transformatie perfect samen.
Het is ook inspirerend om te horen over je creatieve reis en hoe het werken met je lichaam en camera je heeft geholpen om je emoties te navigeren.
Ik wens je blijvende inspiratie en kracht toe op je artistieke en persoonlijke reis.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Maxi Hill
Maxi Hill; it gives a booster to go on!! I was glad to recognize in your words the try of going throug a hole to be able to go on, richer in a way ! Anne van de Pals.