Bodywork in New York City: Exploring the Intersection of Massage, Dance & Flow State

In New York City, where career dancer and performers are often asked to push their bodies to the limits, massage therapy has become an essential part of their well-being and recovery. Dancers rely on the healing power of massage to address the unique challenges they face, from muscle strain to joint mobility issues. Skilled massage therapists in the City understand the intricate movements and physical demands of various dance styles, tailoring their techniques to suit the specific needs of dancers.

Massage aids in relieving tension, improving flexibility and flow state, and reducing down time after injuries. Dancers in New York City can no doubt find solace and restoration through therapeutic touch, enabling them to continue their artistry with renewed vigor and resilience.

Massage is for dancers.
And
Dancing is also for massage and bodywork practitioners. 

Transmuting Dance into Bodywork

Laughing at myself: why does it take me traveling to New York City to get myself into a dance class? I am well aware communities around ecstatic, contact improv, pole, and aerial dance exist in Asheville. Perhaps my drive to experiment with dance in the City has to do with the lineage of art and elevation of practice in New York that inspires me.

Choreography

I felt a bit intimidated stumbling through a dance sequence at Gibney among other participants who are regular dancers; who already know how to flow through a sequence; and who can execute a box step or a chassé, on demand, with grace and talent. 

I made a concerted effort watching the instructor demonstrate a box step, doing my best to listen to the directives while simultaneously attempting to shape my body into their execution–the moves looked different than they felt than their descriptions sounded. I lost track of left, right, forward, back as the instructor asked us to twirl, snake, jostle and transform the body. I can imagine the pure, shape-shifting joy that comes from finally figuring this out, and being able to replicate the forms on demand.

However, my body wants to move exactly how it intuitively moves, finding comfort in improvisational, invited spaces. For the most part, I have this freedom while practicing bodywork–the paramount form of movement I engage with. So, I sensed a real growth edge within the structure of choreography. It’s a structure that creates a cohesive, replicable experience that, when executed in congruence with other bodies, becomes a beautiful work of art that could not be accomplished alone, and thus could not be accomplished without discipline. I wasn't quite there yet. This brings me to an understanding of relational embodiment.

Relational Embodiment

Embodiment takes on a quality of bridging when considered in a group setting: you have to both totally know and feel into the embodiment of yourself, while bridging this with cognition of sequence and the embodied relation among everyone else. There are added requirements of cognition and community involved, while at the same time a requirement to retain flow state; to be loose, supple, and responsive. Figuring out how to not overthink it, while being mentally attentive feels key. 

If you and I have practiced bodywork together, you may have heard me mention something to the effect of take this knowledge from the massage studio into your waking life. Meaning–whatever you discover about yourself during a massage and bodywork session with me, it becomes your responsive honor to integrate such new wisdom or intuition into your day-to-day, to feel the expansion and growth possible.  

As a practitioner, I’m working on this experience for myself, as well. I’m taking the philosophical lessons from the dance studio, and finding out how to integrate them into my relationships, and how to become more cohesive with others, including my relationship with clients and the bodywork practice.

Gaga/people

Gaga is an improv dance group where the class “is given as a procession of instructions that give access to bodily sensations,” according to Wikipedia. Gaga/dancers is for dancers; Gaga/people is for non-dancers. Simply looking for a Wednesday night class that required no experience, I didn't know much about Gaga/people before I showed up.  

Gaga is freeform, but they ask you to at least keep your eyes open. In response to the instructor’s prompts, I could interpret whatever I wanted; listening to the whims of my musculoskeletal system, embracing the unspoken influences of the unconscious, as my body moved, absolutely inspired. I felt the joy of being held in the purity of this practice by a dance group, a group of strangers, which was again distinct from my background as a bodyworker. 

Going into Gaga felt like a way to shatter some mental patterning I had formed around the bodywork practice, to then return to the practice with something new–in a different way than something like integrating new skills learned a continuing education course, for instance. Alchemizing the intuitive flow state that comes from bodywork into an explorative act within a group setting; this fires up new insight for the relational experience between myself and each unique client/receiver in the massage and bodywork practice

Charlie Boss ©2021

A Massage & Bodywork Practice is a Dance Practice

It seems important to note how dancing relies heavily on movement of the legs and feet, whearas bodywork primarily utilizes leverage in the hands and arms. Integrating forms of modern dance feels like a way for me to become more embodied, to become more attentive to how artfully distributing weight through my legs and feet can bolster the energy that is ultimately being channeled through my upper body. I like to imagine weight and gravity, how it all comes from the molten center of the Earth through centripetal force, after all. 

In the bodywork studio, downloads come in and are translated from practitioner to receiver; this is outside of my own doing and is rather a result of simply being a sensitive, attentive person. However, knowing this, I can be intentional and selective about what I choose to take in. Now, forms and energies from the mercurial elegance of a chassé, the angular excitement of a box step, the fantastical snaking of a Gaga dance response, etc. make their way into how I practice in the massage and bodywork studio.