Sumi Komo has created an original way of working with individuals and groups that can bring conscious awareness and awakened presence into life. Her dedicated study of the Alexander technique and Zen Buddhism compliments her experience as a professional dancer, athlete and yogi. Now she brings forth the deep gifts of the Alexander technique, Zen Meditation, and Cunningham Dance. As a young person, Sumi had so much energy! She was a professional dancer, a yogini, a runner, a bicycle racer, and a mountain climber. That full life of activity and movement was brought to a frightening and abrupt halt when she was thrown in front of an NYC subway train … and she lived. Some of her toes were amputated from her right foot! For a dancer what could be more physically, emotionally, and spiritually horrifying, traumatic, and painful? However, through the practices and teachings of the Alexander Technique, Zen, and the modern dance training and performance of Merce Cunningham she was able to continue. Today she walks normally, dances, choreographs, performs, and teaches Dance, Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, and Zen meditation. Merce Cunningham was the High Priest of Dance, whose changing steps opened a new landscape of dance. He had an endless passion and animal energy of heart-mind. FM Alexander was a unique, creative genius. His devotion to his art of acting and the challenges he had with his voice lead him to uncover a new Way of Being. This was able to free him of his voice problem and allowed him to bring forth an amazing work. The Alexander Technique has enhanced the life and art of thousands of people with gifts as artists, musicians, singers, actors, dancers, yogis, martial artists, and athletes. Every day human beings can be freed into a fuller expression of movement and being from an openness devoid of egoic manipulation. We can release from the push and prod to do more, be more, have more. It is our greed that has gotten this Earth and the world into such immense trouble. There is inherent goodness, wisdom, and intelligence of the body being which is heart-mind (Shin). When the “I” is out of the way of natural functioning one can be unimpeded in all activities. Envision a tree with roots into the earth and branches into the sky which brings the ability to be present, aligned, trusting, and non-doing. During these challenging times in which we live, tensile strength can be revealed. There are deep dimensions of courage, clarity, and compassion that can come from the precious stillness within, in the here and now. We have an opportunity from this profound way of working to allow being and breathing, and letting go into effortless flow and easeful action. Just like a true yogi whose body seems to become “boneless”! Let us learn to be fluid and graceful like Water, sturdy like the Earth, light like Air and bright and energized like Fire. Let us enter into the endless space of Ether with both sound and silence. Sumi’s work is not about fixing, or telling oneself what to do. It is about opening to the essence of our humanity which is crying for harmony, balance, and grace. It is possible to be present, to breathe, and to be open to our highest and deepest nature. THIS is what Zen and Alexander training offers, a life of heartful presence. We can know that we, and all beings and every blade of grass, are one and that this understanding will heal each of us and the Earth. Our ability to breathe out is intimately connected to the Earth, the trees, the mountains, and the rivers, and every living being on this planet. Call me by my true name.
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