Dancing on my own

Well it is hard to believe I have been here a month and a half. It seems short to me but a few of the church members have said really only a month and a half it feels longer. I would say that I have getting very used to them being around as well. I really love the church people every one from the friendly lunch club that meets every fourth night for the older member, to the childsplay play group for mothers and toddlers.

This church seems to have such a sense of hummer about every thing they do and I feel that I will learn so much from them as well as be teased endlessly. I came here honestly because I not sure what I am meant to be. Or what God wants from me so in a lot of ways this is a year of discernment. I have not figured that out yet at all. I have discovered that I am happy both working in the church and dancing but I am not happy at all only with one in fact I begin to resent the other. If I am only in the church not dancing hurts mentally and physical and I just mop around and am very unhappy. That is how I spent the first few weeks here. Dance is where I feel a seans of self. It’s who I am and how I learn about the world. But only dancing and not reaching out to the community and all Gods people also makes me feel just as worthless.

So this is what I am doing to help calm some of these feeling. Out side of my work as a volunteer I have joined the Dance Resource Base this is a kind of dance union. This group help me to find class in the area I take a contemporary class (modern, if I said I wanted to take a modern class here I would end up in a hip hop class which Kristina would find funny) I take a profchions class on Wednesday nights they only people in the class are the Maiden Voyage company members (this is a locale contemporary company the name comes after a ships fist voyage the Titanic set sail on if Maiden voyage and sank it was left about 5 min walk for the studio). The class is a good class and for 2 hours I feel like my self. The DRB will keep me up to date on shows in town I have a ticket to see DV8 this Thursday.

I also could rent space cheep. I don’t need space because the church hall is huge and it free for me to rehearse in. It has a wooden flour because it an old bad mitten court. I improv in church last Sunday and working in the old bad mitten curt was a good place to rehearse. I have started a new project it still in the research stage and I will ask my friend Maddi to come in and rehearse with me soon she went to ADF a few summer ago.

We are starting a dance group at the church I have employed one of the youth who also loves dance to help we hope to get started next week. I also have found was to bring dance to the community’s I am working in a primary school. Later this year we will be putting on a show down town with the local Catholic primary school as a way to try and integrate the two community’s Just having family’s sit together from a Loyalist and Unionist back ground in the same theatre watching they kids in perform is a huge brake throw and goes to show that art can and will make a difference in this messed up world.

At the same school I teach and dance class every Friday and it is probably my favourite out of all of the dance things I am doing. The kids are actually enjoying it and improving. I teach a regular class with a worm up, than we go across the flour, we work on a combination, and we end with working on imrprov skills throw games. These kids out side of school have a ruff home life and some people really turn there noise at them but I Love teaching to kids like this there is such a seen of award when the improve and enjoy dancing the clap and carry on. I hope to have some of my friends come a play live music so the can experience that was well. This is different than kids who have every thing they don’t value it as much.

It also Hollins Fall dance concert this week!! So Merde to all involved. And I hope that if you can that you get out to see the work

Love and peace

deaming together

Well I have been getting in to the swing of things. Gernville is literally a church on the Hill. You can look out over the lock and she the mountains on the other side. Also it is right next to a cow pasture. I have falling in love with this Church Family. The members a busy with the goings on of the church from Sunday services to fellowship groups and doing things for the community. I feel very lucky to be places there.

I get along with Peter fantastically he is working to help church’s in east Belfast write a mission stamen on how each church is mission oriented. The presbytery is asking all the church to write one. He took me to a workshop that he was running that help people from different church come up with ideas for there stamen or more importantly look at the missions they are already involved in or areas that could use there help.

My job was to hand out nametags a table number that split up church member and had them sit with other churches. The workshop was set up coffee style . It was really interesting to me because I got to here about what other churches in the area where doing about here about some of the mission work in the area. It was interesting to see big and small church dreaming together.