Blythely Dancing

Today I have an exciting announcement, and I also recorded a video on the A Blythe Coach YouTube Channel with this information if you prefer that media.  Folks have been asking me for years, “will you open your own studio?” and my answer is that it is now finally open, virtually ! At the request of my students and clients, I have been searching for a simple, elegant way for folks to pay me for my yoga and dance video content, live online classes, coaching, and other offerings.  My hope is that Patreon can be a place where I can share exclusive content about ballet, dance, yoga, and personal growth and transformation. It will provide, along with the private Facebook community, a meeting place and resource library to dive into these topics. Since there are different membership levels, my community is able to support me in my choreography, artistic work, writing, teaching, and coaching.  There are many benefits associated with becoming an A Blythe Coac...

[My Mom and I celebrate at La Mariana Sailing Club after my MFA graduation. Photo Credit: Rhonda McBride] It’s been five years since my MFA in Dance and what have I done with it? What do I have to show for my time since my terminal degree? Well...I taught at UH Manoa while I was there, then went on to Hawai’i Tokai International College, UH Windward Community College, Kaiser High School, Dole Middle School, King Intermediate, a number of private schools as a regular substitute teacher (Mid-Pacific Institute, Assets High School, and several others), two public elementary schools as a part of STEPS to Success, and the Movement Center (a nonprofit performing arts school).  I directed TMC’s annual summer show, “Dancing the Silver Screen,” got my HI State Secondary Teaching Credential and TESOL. For three years I rode around O’ahu on a beautiful Honda Shadow Phantom motorcycle named A’ama, my pride and joy and a truly beautiful way to commute. Riding a motorcycle...

LINK to the Video on YouTube This short (less than one minute!) choreography, "Like Waves," is an excerpt from my 2015 MFA in Dance thesis choreography “The Shrew Unleashed." The work was danced to poetry old and new, including an improvised collaboration, a slam poem, and some of Shakespeare's Sonnets. "Sonnet LX,” which we nicknamed the more descriptive “Like Waves," incorporates many themes, speaking of time, death, beauty, maturity, praise, and the ocean. This sonnet gives me the feeling of being resigned to an inevitable fate, in awe and powerless. Working collaboratively, the dancers chose to depict how “the waves make toward the pebbled shore,” rising, falling, turbulent, sustained, strong, bound and at times free, wringing and pressing with the tides. In order to dance the movements of the waves, this was performed as an ensemble, descending and ascending diagonals from upstage right to downstage left. Structurally it worked well to hav...

I love poetry! I enjoy reading it, writing it, sharing it, using it for teaching and inspiring choreography. What do you use poetry for? Who are your favorite authors? Every day during National Poetry Month (April) 2020 I shared a blog with favorite poems by other authors as well as my own work. Then I created a video to share some of my favorite resources for teachers, parents, and lovers of poetic verse: https://youtu.be/gvlBPVfounI   Correction: I misspoke about which website to go to for what purpose. The Poem-a-Day comes from Poets.org, videos of live poetry reading/recitation are on the Poem.org blog, and the Wild Poetry Forum is a live forum community for sharing and enjoying new works. I hope you enjoy these resources, and please share your favorites in the comments! Websites Poem-a-Day from Poets.org: https://poets.org/poem-a-day Poem.org Blog with Videos: https://wn.com/Poem Wild Poetry Forum: http://wildpoetryforum.com/phpBB3/index.php Books...

It’s the last day of National Poetry Month, and it has meant a lot to me to share some of my favorite poems here and also some vulnerable works of my own. I don’t think I can tie a neat bow around the experience, but I  wish instead to continue to share and create. So for today, I’m passing along a piece by Rudyard Kipling that I find quite inspiring (I just ignore the gendered language of the final lines), and a rough draft by me reflecting a personal struggle.  Through poetry, we can grapple with complexity and come up with new wisdom.  If-- by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can...

Today we look at poetic themes of diversity, equality, and the exhilaration of performance. Kind of random, I know, but both beautiful, in their own way. Celebrating all the ways that people are! People Equal by James Berry Some people shoot up tall. Some hardly leave the ground at all. Yet-people equal. Equal. One voice is a sweet mango. Another is a nonsugar tomato. Yet- people equal. Equal. Some people rush to the front. Others hang back, feeling they can’t. Yet-people equal. Equal.  Hammer some people, you meet a wall. Blow hard on others, they fall. Yet-people equal. Equal. One person will aim at a star. For another, a hilltop is too far. Yet-people equal. Equal. Some people get on with their show. Others never get on the go. Yet-people equal. Equal. Sun as Spotlight by Blythe Stephens Showing the dawn  something to remember. Dancing dangerously Without falling From the edge of the stag...