I remember loving art all my life. To this day I still have
stacks of drawings I did as a child. When I found performance art I realized I was
really in love. My confirmation was my childhood rendition of Golde, in Fiddler on the Roof with my Teen Group at
age 15; We went all out.
Then the biggest gig I ever had was being mommy. Not only
does that one still happen each and every day, I hear it never actually quite
goes away. A never-ending role. I love
it. Continuing through my mommy-hood role, maybe underlying, but always there
remained the desire to perform. I
suppose I shoved it under the rug with the dog hair, crumbs and long forgotten
Legos, while my children were so busy growing. I knew my time would come. I
would return to a stage.
As my family grew, it became time to choose organized
sports. That is the natural progression after all. We did eight years of soccer,
two years of footsol, four years of softball, and five years and counting of dance.
And those were just the ones that stuck.
Lasting the longest and by far my personal favorite, was nine years of taekwondo.
This was me and my older daughter. Competition I found was a way to return to a
stage: I found love! Well actually I found a love-hate stage relationship.
“Being on stage” was actually a euphemism for “competing in a ring”. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly understand the
value and necessity of competition, but humph! Where was my safe place? Where
were my warm, loving compliments? Oh no. You either won the medal or you were
the first loser. Sometimes I had wished
I was a kid under 10 so I could at least get a participation medal. I can’t
tell you how many tears I had shed. But I was getting closer.
I knew there was something out there, but it wasn’t until I
had participated a few times that I realized how special and specialized
Blacktop’s stage was. Apparently, I only needed the physical act of “jumping
up” on the stage. I definitely felt like I was closer. With my children still
growing, this is such a perfect step. The workshops allow me to be on a stage
and the rest of the students make up one fine audience. We can do some really
outrageous, fun stuff and I’ve found my safe place! After all, a room full of
people who show up for a variation of the same reasons as me? Matches made in heaven.
More importantly, is that while we are all having fun, we
are all exercising our brains. One of the things they say about being a mother
is that you give your children your brain cells in the womb. Ugh, true. Never
mind that college education, sometimes my brain seems to have taken a trip to Candy
Land and forgotten the way home. That is why I love the simplicity of some of
the games we play. Learn in a minute, life time to master. That is if there
truly is mastery. One fun such game is the Alphabet Game; two people converse,
each next statement starts with the next letter of the alphabet, back and forth.
Sound easy? Try it. Which letter did you drop?
All of improvisation requires you to think and be on your
feet. The brain, while not a muscle, still requires constant stimulation to
stay active. If we don’t use it, it will
atrophy. With so many people’s family
history involving Alzheimer’s and dementia these days, keeping your mind active
is more important than ever. I exercise
my brain daily. You should see the time I took up knitting; requires the left and
right brain to work together! It cost me over $200 and three different sessions
to make an evening handbag. Ouch. I still haven’t used the damn thing. I like my new plan better. I like being on
stage and I love improvisation: not only is my brain getting a work-out, no one
has made me cry in the corner.
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