Dear Dancers,
September has already been and (nearly) gone. I have a few small things to announce and perhaps a couple of bigger ones.
1. Fortnightly rather than weekly
Since being back, I realised that weekly feels stressful. I tried to squeeze in a proper post for this week, and I realise, I just had that feeling again of pushing a deadline. And in between, my last two posts are pieces of writing I’m properly proud of.
The one I had scheduled for this week isn’t bad, mind. It’s just not… crafted. Not yet, anyway. And while it’s been good practice to hit publish, get things out and be on a rhythm, I am starting to care more and more about the quality of what I put out. As a learning journey, these are just different things; both are incredibly valuable.
So, after feeling down in the dumps about it, I realised that I am the master of my own Substack, so to speak, and can change the rhythm if I so choose. And I will.
So, from now on, please expect fortnightly rather than weekly posts, although I may occasionally fill a couple of the other slots for announcements.
2. Visual Thinking for Beautiful Brains
As it happens, today, in a few hours, I am teaching a class on Visual Thinking. It’s probably too late for you to come, but you can marvel at the flyer and wish you were there.
If you like the sound of what it is and would be interested in an ONLINE VERSION, then I am considering breaking my unbreakable rule (to avoid teaching online) to make an exception. If this is the case, write to me and let me know; give me a big “pretty please” face to let me know you’re serious.
3. Body-Mind Centering and the Six Viewpoints Classes in Vienna
Save the dates — Monday mornings, bright and early, we’re going to the the BMC and the Six Viewpoints. I will put together some more stuff about this in the coming week or two, but I think (waiting to get confirmation from the space) we’ll start mid-October.
If you’re game for this class, please let me know!
4. My daughter now lives with her Mother in Spain…
Did I mention that earlier? Looking back, I don’t think I did.
Well, she goes to a Waldorf school in Andalucia, and I cried when I took her there for the first day. She has been suffering with the Austrian school system a lot, which seems designed to make children feel ashamed of any impulse to be different or creative in any way. We both got sick of battling through that. Her mum, being in a good place for herself now, seems to be in a better position than me to give her what she needs.
Also, she’s in that pre-pubescent thing, and I think she needs her mum to accompany her through that—for now, at least. I plan to go every month for 4-5 days, give or take.
I cried because I saw that the new school would be a good place for her. While we were introducing ourselves to the other parents, the parents of one girl came up to us and asked if they had understood that I was in Vienna.
They had been here for over ten years and escaped a year ago.
“It was good to leave”, the dad said.
5. What about me?
You might think that might explain a thing or two: all this Songline stuff and all that. Well, yes. It has got me thinking. I am not tied to Vienna, and although I recently started Psychotherapy training here, I have only done a couple of modules, and it wouldn’t be a big loss to start again.
I have a hankering for the Island again. Not that anyone will tell me it’s a good idea. I know the country is a mess, and the arts funding is worse. I don’t know what post-Brexit artistic Britain looks like, but I’m sure a lot is very ugly. At the same time, in Austria, the party that grew out of the ashes of the recently disbanded National Socialist Party is looking to take the lead in the election on Sunday.
I don’t have clear plans to leave, but I know I have a strong feeling my time is going to be up soon. It could be a slow ending, but an ending nonetheless. I plan to keep some ties here, including the Verein I cofounded, Plexus, but I think I’ll be more good to the people here as a regular guest than a permanent fixture.
Meanwhile, I’ve been looking again at the London Gestalt Centre and its various certification tracks. Maybe I don’t need to do a two-year pre-practitioner training if I know that I want to just get the real deal straight away. I'm not sure how I’ll organise it, but that’s a bridge I will cross when I get there.
Please let me know if you know of any UK-based jobs related to what I do, whether directly in the arts or indirectly as a facilitator.
If you don’t know of any jobs, specifically, then companies or organisations would be great, too.
6. At home, with COVID
On another more simple, down-to-earth level, I’ve been at home, sick as a dog with COVID. I had a 38.5-degree fever, and that’s over, but damn, it’s a rocky bug to have. It’s going round. I am not the person to say hide from it. But if you do get it, don’t underestimate it. That’s all I have to say about that.
The good news is we made flapjacks.
I’ll leave it there for now.
And I’ll see you in two weeks. Not one. But two. Unless you come to Visual Thinking for Beautiful Brains, in which case I’ll see you in a couple of hours.
Lots of Love,
Sebastian