when the tower falls or... asking for help & slowing down in a prematurely post-pandemic world that wants to serve & birth the embodied revolution

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Dear ones who have witnessed this journey, thank you. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for real!

SOL VIDA and myself as Axé have been through a lot (as I'm sure you have as well).

So many things have shifted and changed since our teacher, Corona, arrived and I think we are all amiss to not pause to integrate and calibrate our teachings from the past year and thereabouts. People seem to be moving really fast again, I'm seeing accidents on the side of the road, mass shootings, and just plain weird. 

I've never been one to focus on the bad, scary things of the world and have in fact become even more empathic and energetically sensitive and in tune if you will as I have dedicated so much of the past three years to my personal healing journey, awakening more psychic and channeling abilities. 

As we come back into this new world which feels premature, I wonder what we have to do to coddle the life force that is within us and keep choosing to be in step with our intuition, the guiding forces of nature, and to live our truth in a way that blends money, exchange, earth stewardship, non-linear time and community?

I've recently had a reading with one of my newest dear comrades, Ajani Brannum of Talent Agency.... and I knew after working with them on underground underneath the underground with estrellex supernova that our work had just begun.

As we shared a day date meetup at Dolores Park during the project, we spoke of our life, our experience, dreams and it was evident to me on that day as I ironically woke up thinking I need help, I need direction and clarity that this soul told me more of what they are up to in the world.

With a gift for dance, dramaturgy and more, their super not-so-secret gem is that they can see, they can dilute and clarify information that is needed in a moment, an amazing observer and rectifier of speaking clarity. They do it through their channeling being, with tarot, I-Ching, good 'ol grounded reasoning, and other wonderful spirited energies. 

I heeded the call for help. I had two sessions with Ajani and they really, truly cracked my whole entire perspective open. 

You see, I've been having an "identity crisis" about SOL VIDA, what is this energy that I've been carrying with me since I was 19, what is my responsibility and relationship to it? What does it need of me? What is it? Where does it live? How to better work with it?

For those of you who have been on the SOL VIDA train for awhile now, you know that we have been so many things: a youth dance company, an adult dance company, festivals, a dance studio and community space for the arts, a women's empowerment movement, a QTBIPoC affinity space and a style of dance, movement and embodiment that gets in your soul and makes you rumble Sooooooolllll Viiiiiiiddaaa to the heavens, your heart and the sky. 

Then the real deals kick in and ask you to think about your sustenance, your foundation, how exactly do you make money off your "passion project" that is indeed legitimately your business, do you?

Can you?

As I attempt to recalibrate and integrate all past, present and future iterations of SOL VIDA in the time of "The Great Awakening," I give love and thanks to the past experiences that we have manifested: Festival de Vida I, II, and III, YTC, The Denver Dance Project, The Edge, Unwind & Grind, The Sol Vida Slumber Party, One Sol, and #SVXOnline.

Now it is clear that all of these things want to come together for a purpose of empowerment, free expression and soul connection on the planet. 

I am leaning into and taking my time (which has never happened lol 😅) launching The Embodied Revolution which will serve as a global movement collective. It's what I've been feeling like I want to do at my core, core, core. 

This concept has been with me since the beginning, if not before 2019 when I saw the need for people to remember who they are, get in tune, and live more freely. This project is still coming through and showing me how it wants to be served. I'm pretty sure it's going to have a few different manifestations, which seems to have already begun this summer with the super amazing dance reunions I've been having with former students (you can see on Instagram and Patreon). 

For a long time, I have wanted to start a virtual group that meets up; gets to have embodiment experiences together, a place to tool share, mastermind, heart share and also challenges/inspires each other to create work independently and together. I want to uplift emerging and established artists and their bodies of work, still. The big dream is that this collective meets up annually in a different location in the world for a summer intensive/camp/retreat/residency (one of those words, hahaha). And the even bigger part is I do want to connect so many artist friends from across the globe--hence the worldwide, we gotta keep that live!

I miss being responsible for a group of people who want to learn, create and produce things together (which is hilarious because the word responsibility is so personally triggering--we grow people, we grow)!

I also want to embrace the power of co-creation and partnership. Collaboration has been a sticky word for me and I know many others in the dance and expressive arts world. I realize, I am so much better when I am with others, when there is a container, a built-in community, a place for me to show up and share my tools with multi-generational artists, another division/department of SOL VIDA, if you will. 

Last week I got to be on my bff's podcast, "The Change," and as I stepped into this space  in what I will call the Old Denver, Five Points area--I was immediately bright eyed when I saw the movement/performance studio next to the podcast studio that almost took my breath away and immediately filled me with ideas for things that the community may love and need: Vogue Balls, ecstatic dances, livestream performance showcases, Burlesque, it was all coming through. Seeing this space reactivated a dream I have of really cool dance parties/grown up raves and holistic exchanges that are transformational and give us all a platform to shine and GET FREE together. 

As I mature, something about delegating and giving space for others to shine sounds so appealing. Putting on events for others to shine sounds great, in fact this vision came to me right as I came back to Denver after u.u.u.  I was ready to produce a series of Pop Ups every Friday for the summer which would highlight other BIPoC and QTBIPoC practitioners, healers and artists--and then the record scratched and said SLOW THE EFF DOWN. 

I am sure I will always be a teacher, educator, guide and performer-- and there is deep messaging in all of my work and ancestral line to keep the African Diaspora alive. I still get really high off of choreography, teaching technique, and giving workshops and those are definitely still brewing and currently activating in the virtual worlds.

This little crack in my life and "business identity" is actually what opened up my profound desire for help and for someone else to help me be able to see what is actually important and worthwhile. It's going to be mind blowing to see what happens after I meet with estrellex to apply for grants/funding---eeeeeeeek! Now please be patient with me as I work to craft a renewed social media identity, lawt help us all.

It amused me so much that my son came up in my reading with The Talent Agency... my final card was The Chariot (yes, I do want to just be carried up into my work, arriving in regality, and working so much more easily). It was great to be asked the question of what does my son represent to me--and it is cool to remember how my son told me not so long ago, mom, you need to return to the original SOL VIDA energy. 
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I was asked where was I when the vision of SOL VIDA came to me and when it came back....

Honestly, I think SOL VIDA was born somewhere between 1998-99, during the days of Constant Elevation --our performance art hip hop trio, to my first international travel experience in Ghana studying dancing and drumming, and landing myself back at MSU Denver, embracing leadership in Stop the Hate, BSA, becoming a peer educator and getting my first gig as a choreographer and dancer in ​Blues for Mr. Charlie. 

After a break to lead the dance department at East High School in Denver, Colorado--it came back after a five plus year hiatus, catalyzed by a sabbatical--somewhere between Orgiva, Spain (my ayahuasca/unschooling journey), to Bagnolet, France (performing Veins at La Obra) in  the "Brooklyn of Paris," the Brendon Burchard conference and in Guatavita, Colombia where I received a message to start filming content and going live every week.

As I have delved into the mental health and wellness side of SOL VIDA for some moments, I recognize that all of those messages are inherent in everything that we do. It's a benefit and result of being able to express ourselves and our truth. 
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So yes, SOL VIDA (which actually likes to be capitalized now 😋), has always been about performing arts, free expression and giving space for our bodies to say something, do something and release something. That is the truth. It's also been about radical acceptance, loving and creating a space for everyBODY in all our human forms to thrive and feel safe, well, accepted, nourished, and encouraged. 

I'm pretty sure we are the definition of "intersectional" and have been bridge building for many, many, moons inherently. 

I am so happy to have asked for help and received clarity about what it truly is and the circumstances I need to help it thrive and keep its original energy of creating safe spaces for authentic and free expression at the forefront. 

I also know that SOL VIDA has many divisions or projects if you will, that do include being able to coach/consult, making a crack in the world of embodied healing justice while yours truly gets to serve as a guest artist/facilitator all over the world.

My final question to Ajani--who is SOL VIDA? Is it me? 

The Sun and The Mirror cards were pulled.

YOU ARE SOL VIDA.

I AM SOL VIDA and it is indeed a light force energy that I carry with me eternally.

Peace, Gratitude, Stillness and Trust. #SolVidaPorVida always.
☮ & 💜,
Axé 

Upcoming
Aug 2-13: Empower The Dance for Older Adults with Stagebridge. Virtual Intensive.
Aug 7-8: Your Body is An Oracle with Water Has No Enemy. Virtual retreat. 

Available for 1:1's:
Intuitive Visioning, Consulting, Masterminding, Dance Instruction, Choreography, Embodiment Guidance, and Personal Wellness.  Book Here

Booking Special Projects and Workshops
Inquire within at iamsolvida@gmail.com to partner/co-create

Please comment, like and share if any of this feels impactful to you. We are because of each other. Fare well dear soul.