I Love Dialogue (continuously keep studying, don't stop studying)

I love Dialogue. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good Dialogue class. I love the way the Dialogue works with the body and the class as a whole.

I came from studios using strong Dialogue so when I went to training this was the focus of teaching. After teacher training, my Dialogue remained my constant companion. I took it everywhere. Studied in line at the grocery store, or at night before bed.

I got great feedback from my mentors and littermates on improving my Dialogue--it is the foundation of my class. I use it to learn to make corrections and to understand the body better.

For years and years I worked on it. I used it to mentor teachers. I was constantly going back to look at it, relearn it, and learn more from it.

Two years ago some things changed in my life. My sister and daughter got sick and I was caring for them. I was still running a studio, caring for my family, mentoring visiting teachers AND for some reason also thought it was a good time to write a book! All this left little time to study Dialogue.

I know my Dialogue, so it should not be a concern, right? Until someone tapes your class and you listen to it.

While much of the information was still there, I had lost my precision. In a very short time, strange phrases has creeped into my Dialogue. I had lost sequencing in a few places. I just wasn't as precise as I had once been.

I have always said that precision in your Dialogue creates precision in the students' practice.

I took a vacation with some teacher friends and a goal of the trip was for me to relearn my Dialogue, to go over the--what I thought were just a few--places that could use some cleaning up. What an awakening I've had. Turns out there were only two things I needed to work on... the standing series and the floor series.

I am astounded how quickly my Dialogue had become inconsistent. I was surprised at how HARD it is to learn again. I'm revisiting the foundation of training.

But this is our craft. It is what we do, our class foundation. Going back to the basics is not always easy, in our practice and our teaching. I'm back to studying.

In this process I am learning SOOOO much about the postures and how they work. Revisiting what I had lost is frustrating but the key is: when you know beter, you do better.

This is not easy for me but I'm dedicated to going back and learning it again.