MY LIFE IS MY ART. MY ART IS MY DANCE

Julie Hart

She found the answer to life on the back of the bathroom stall door.

The flyer read:

Nia, a dance of body + mind + spirit + emotions blending elements of tai chi, martial arts, yoga, and modern and ethnic dance.

The first class was in 3 days. So she went to teach her water aerobics class and waited...

She is me. I am her. This is my story of Arting my healing journey.

My Life is my Art. My Art is my Dance. My Dance is Nia, and in Nia we have a guiding principle we call, “Dancing Through Life.”

I’d love to tell you about it — about the 21 years I’ve been practicing Nia, and about the summer I spent in South Africa training for my White belt (Nia is grounded and powered in the martial arts), and about the 6 years I spent as a professional dancer, founder of SoL Nia and owner of Studio SoL.

But what is most important here, for my purpose today, is to tell you how this dance healed me.

I discovered it when I was 31 and had already been actively in therapy for and speaking openly about my incest for the previous decade plus.

Then after years of looking, I finally found the dance I’d been looking for for years and a spiritual teacher I’d been seeking and longing for even more years. All in one body! And my whole body said Hell Yes!

At that first class I lie on the floor at the end in savasana, tears streaming down out of the sides of my eyes and realized I had found the answer to life that I had been seeking. emotions. I tae kwon do’d blocks and kicks and punches and felt powerfully angry and then turned right around in a circle turn and felt myself in a pink tutu, child’s joy at my twirling self. I listened to my teacher vocalize a hard “No!” while throwing an outer block and just couldn’t make that sound.

Until one day I did. It was then and there I knew I could protect myself. So many months after I found my “No!” could I even entertain my “Yes!” which is so much more feminine, vulnerable, trusting. I witnessed it all, allowed it all, let it all be just what it was, no judgment.

I learned through my body, through the dance, through my teacher that I could protect myself and I could say no and I could set a boundary but I had to learn that first before I could open myself to the vulnerability of saying yes.

About The Author

Julie Hart has been speaking out against sexual abuse and assault, specifically incest, way before it was “trending.” Since 1999 when she worked as a sexual assault counselor and two of her clients were three-year-old twins, she has believed in the ferocity of the human spirit to live through, survive and thrive after such violations of one’s body and spirit.

By sharing her story of how she and her six siblings ended the legacy of incest in one generation, Julie hopes to bring courage to others to share their stories. For it is by speaking that we are empowered. It is by fully living that we are free.

Julie Hart