The Warrior Dancer

She is free; sliding, gliding loosely across the floor, even buoyant, airborne at times. Her dance is solitary, full of grace but surprisingly acrobatic as she levitates high in the room, spinning, tumbling. The music is for her alone. She is oblivious, lost, to the world around her. It is a joyous dance, hedonistic, erotic. Her environment is pure air, nothing else but the walls around her which allow her to bounce softly back and forth with arms outstretched, propelled by some mysterious force.

But the atmosphere suddenly thickens with peril. An unknown force, an enemy, bursts in wielding weapons. She is brave and strong as she plants her feet firmly on the ground to face her adversary. She fights, aware she must protect an invisible crowd from harm. It is all up to her. A chase, she the pursued. Panic. Then the power shifts as she becomes the pursuer. Somehow a large paddle like a cricket bat appears in her hands while she is momentarily distracted from this battle to sort papers. Her strength in prodigious. She delivers a crushing blow, knowing she could conquer anything. Her enemy falls as the bat splinters on his body. Vanquished. Her world is safe. But no. As he went down he landed a deep stab with his sword into the left side of her abdomen.

She awakens with the pain of the wound which disappears the instant she returns to this reality. She yearns to recapture the freedom of that dance, to bring it to this world. But at what price?

*Christian Rohlfs, “Nu de femme dansant”, 1927.

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Claire - Day To Day With Parkinsons Disease

One woman's journey as a caregiver to her husband in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease... Loss of freedom as we have known it is a common adjunct to any disease. In the case of Parkinson's Disease it is the slow degeneration of physical capacity that limits freedom, and later in the disease for some, the cognitive impairment that limits one's ability to make rational decisions about anything, including what clothes to wear. The story of our lives together with this disease is what I hope to bring to you. Be assured that it won't be a tragic tale but I hope one of grace, humour and love for, after all, we are all struggling with life's trials in one form or another. Ours is well mapped out for us at least with all the literature available on the subject. I hope to bring it off the pages of the medical journals and into the realm of the ordinary.

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