Dare Sohei

1. How would you define your personal practice?

How can I move in ways that support better relatedness? Both between various “parts” of myself, and with myself and others? This includes my relationships with other humans, non humans, and all of nature, including various forces of nature, like gravity, time and death.

Tossing away the idea of right or wrong and returning to the well of curiosity and play, I strive towards expression.

My background is in modern dance, physical theater, expressive arts therapy and love of biomechanics and nature.

2. What turning points have you encountered on your movement journey?

I struggle with a lot of health issues such as chronic pain and trauma that i still actively engage with. Some of the turning points I encountered were the practices of doing what I could, rather than waiting for optimal, and that engaging wholeheartedly with the sub-optimal could be deeply nourishing and pleasurable.

3. What role has injury played in cultivating your current niche?

I want all of us to be able to play safely for as long as possible. Injury and pain allows us to find new pathways to humanity.

4. Do you consider yourself a teacher? Why or why not?

I would rather be a co-facilitator of peer practice. I am exploring this existence and won’t pretend to have found any certainties.

5. What has been your experience with physical education, both in the schooling system and sought out knowledge/ know-how elsewhere?

Phys ed in schools was humiliating and only favored the genetically and financially privileged. I sought out more inclusive methods of skillful practice as an adult and have been blessed to find that I’m not the only seeker on this road.

6. How do you involve your mind/ emotions into your physical routines?

There’s no separation. Emotions are the energy behind the physical expression. Emotions live inside the tissues of the body. I use my mind to discern variables and introduce games to play with. Emotions guide me to nourishing movements.

7. What are your personal aspirations regarding movement? How do you hope to find purpose and use in the skills you have built?

“The quality of your life can be reflected by the quality of your movement, and the quality of your movement can color the quality of your life.”
How can I help? How can we help each other?

8. How can people find/ contact you? Do you have a site or social media handle to share?

Dariussohei0@gmail.com

thenightgarden.substack.com

animistarts.art

I live in Portland, OR currently and am down to play, thanks for reading this!