Van is an educator and practitioner in dance, healing and spirituality with over 20 years of experience. He integrates Eastern and Western modalities to create a holistic dance education, centering on how dance can enlighten our perspectives on life and how we interact with society. Van reaches beyond dance and choreography by focusing his work on human development through fusing dance, spirituality and healing practices. Van and I recorded this conversation in Athens, Greece where I spent two weeks participating in his Contact Beyond Contact facilitators training course. We speak about Van’s unconventional journey in discovering dance, his desire to unify his multidisciplinary interests, and his work using movement and dance not just as performance, but also as a healing modality for our body, mind, heart, and spirit.
And in the same vein, it makes sense that our ancestors built healing temples next to dancing temples. Language and words have so many limitations and can cause so many misunderstandings. When our bodies take over, the energy just flows between them.
No adapter needed !
Sitting and staring very regularly at luminous rectangular-shaped screens, while having an awful posture is considered “normal” by our current culture, so …
Time for new dreams, new stories, new futures and new ways to move our bodies.
Oct 14, 2022·edited Oct 14, 2022Liked by Anya Kaats
Hi Anya, while listening to your intro last week I really related to what you were saying about being sensitive to absorbing lots of different ideas, having multiple interests, writing notes in loads of different notebooks and this inner desire (or guilt?) to want to pick one thing, stick to it and somehow "master" it (...feeling bad about starting things and not pursuing them further).
This was on my mind for a few days, and I was speaking about it a couple of days ago in a group context where someone said "sounds like you're a scanner personality". Obviously this led to some googling. Whether or not I believe in the existence of the personality type doesn't really seem to matter to me, but what has been helpful for me is somehow turning all of the "scanner-isms" on their head and taking the pressure off myself to master something. Instead, embracing myself as a generalist, celebrating the allrounder. And also taking pleasure in the learning for the simple joy of learning (rather than it necessarily having to _lead_ to "the next step" or "using" all the newly acquired knowledge for something).
Hi Anya ! It’s so cool to know more about the founder of one of your latest activities.
I’m very impressed by Van’s long and multifaceted journey.
I know it might sound cheesy but, after listening to this episode, I also remembered one of my father’s favorite movies : Zorba the Greek.
After a huge setback, if you can change your emotional state and just… dance about it, that’s pure magic !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzpHvLWFUM&ab_channel=relytnedrud
And in the same vein, it makes sense that our ancestors built healing temples next to dancing temples. Language and words have so many limitations and can cause so many misunderstandings. When our bodies take over, the energy just flows between them.
No adapter needed !
Sitting and staring very regularly at luminous rectangular-shaped screens, while having an awful posture is considered “normal” by our current culture, so …
Time for new dreams, new stories, new futures and new ways to move our bodies.
Hi Anya, while listening to your intro last week I really related to what you were saying about being sensitive to absorbing lots of different ideas, having multiple interests, writing notes in loads of different notebooks and this inner desire (or guilt?) to want to pick one thing, stick to it and somehow "master" it (...feeling bad about starting things and not pursuing them further).
This was on my mind for a few days, and I was speaking about it a couple of days ago in a group context where someone said "sounds like you're a scanner personality". Obviously this led to some googling. Whether or not I believe in the existence of the personality type doesn't really seem to matter to me, but what has been helpful for me is somehow turning all of the "scanner-isms" on their head and taking the pressure off myself to master something. Instead, embracing myself as a generalist, celebrating the allrounder. And also taking pleasure in the learning for the simple joy of learning (rather than it necessarily having to _lead_ to "the next step" or "using" all the newly acquired knowledge for something).
I found some parts of these articles useful:
https://sebastianmartin2044.medium.com/on-being-a-scanner-personality-9cfb4129c5d
https://twominutebreak.com/blog/on-being-a-scanner
I don't know if any of this is helpful to you, but I just wanted to share what your thoughts in my ears led to!