Thank you, 2022. Here's to 2023!

 

THANK YOU! Friends, thank you so much for moving, grooving, healing and howling with me in 2022. I'm so grateful for all of you - our expandance and Danceypants communities are only what they are because of what you bring to the dance floor. In 2022 I... ✨  Choreographed “Hair” for 6th Street Theatre. "Rachel Wynne’s choreography is vigorous and uninhibited" - Cari Pace for Aisle Seat Review ✨ Celebrated expandance becoming a registered Trademark - yeah baby! That R in a circle is ours, finally! ®®® ✨  Was interviewed about choreography for Gay Sonoma ✨  Taught many Danceypants classes in Sebastopol and got to meet so many new and fabulous friends (you!) ✨  Taught online expandance classes to five different countries around the world, as well as in-person private sessions here locally  ✨  Started working on the new expandance membership ✨ Continued to codify and record each exercise in the expandance canon - we're now at over 65 exercises And Laurie (co-founder of expandance) ✨ Opened her own Pilates and Slings studio in Derry, Northern Ireland (Yes, she's a real Derry Girl!) ✨ Was awarded and undertook artist residencies for expandance on both sides of the boarder ✨ Kept me focused and motivated in continuing to develop the expandance technique and practice from 4,000 miles away 2023 will bring: ✨  The launch of our expandance BETA membership later this month - stay tuned! I'm working on the back-end techy stuff and will let you know when registration opens in the next couple of weeks! ✨  More Danceypants classes! And I've some some fun Danceypants-related ideas up my sleeve ;) ✨  More expandance classes and workshops, possibly even a retreat (ideas in the works) ✨  And who knows what else? I'm excited and very much looking forward to how expandance (and I) can grow this year and connect with more of you all Thank you all for your support of my work; whether you came to a performance, worked with me in theatre, came to a class or had private sessions... you are not only showing up for yourself, your body and your mental and emotional health by moving, you're also supporting a small, single-mum-owned business that in turn supports me and my 5 year old child. p.s. I made a couple of videos on the Instagram page this past week with clips from a lot of my expandance classes throughout 2022 - check them out: Part 1 / Part 2

We're back with Danceypants on Jan 9th! New year, new routine, new pink posters 😀 I’ve missed all your smiling faces and I can’t wait to sing along off key with you all again while we shake our bits, Sonoma County 💖 Remember: it’s cheaper to sign up online! Registration is now open here. Most* Mondays *always check the website schedule - holidays may affect class dates 7:15pm - 8:15pm Community Center Youth Annex 425 Morris St, Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA EASIER: SIGN UP FOR THE WHOLE MONTH AT ONCE HERE. My little one dancing with abandon in one of the studios I use for expandance private sessions here in Sebastopol A poem for the new year I saw this last week and wanted to share it with you all... Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve? Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure? I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived. And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life. And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge to rest, before our bodies force us. Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens. Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside. Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth, with demands on our already over-strained humanity. When we could be learning to accept, that we were always supposed to be imperfect. And that is where the beauty lives, actually. And if we can only find that beauty, we would also find peace. I wish you peace in 2023. Everything else is all just a part of it. Let it be so. - Donna Ashworth