Gaia: Dance Labs

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http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:16:37 GMT

hello everyone! it's been a loooong time since I've had an opportunity to update everyone and now that I've returned from Asia and back in the states, I thought I'd write a short note letting everyone know we are updating the community in "sound bites" via Twitter.

I also want to extend a special thanks to the spirits out there who allow our experiment in collaboration to happen!

keep holdin the space and look forward to gathering soon!

Welcome to new members and mini-update

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:57:26 GMT

Hello everyone! It's been a few months since I've been in this space (ie. zaadz) and there have been so many changes I don't know where to begin. Foremost, I do want to welcome new members to the pod: Sakanta, Conscious Dancer, and freedom! I would love to hear more from Conscious Dancer share more about the magazine you are putting together! It seems you are well aligned with our efforts here at Dance Labs so thanks for being here!

Now as for what's happening on the ground is yours truly making a transition in life - I have made the move to downtown Bangkok and no longer living with Morn, one of my life partners who created Dance Chalat with me. We are now unclear about the future and direction of this program now that we are not working on it on a daily basis together and just letting it be. We're committed to coming up with a new "game" so it can continue to live beyond just a conversation.

Other aspects of Dance Labs are now getting some attention: esp our original workshop: Dance Like Nobody's Watching. We've been asked to pick a date to hold the workshop in Thailand for the first time at a local acting studio. There are numerous insights we are looking to fold back into the original program after dancing with children, in business, at parties, you name it - it occurs as a massive integration and rework of what we've done. We're not committed to just sharing the "same ole thing" and at the same time, don't want to around too long letting opportunities pass us by!

ok - I've got a lot to catch up on and want to declare I am not in this space very often and here when I'm here. You people at Zaadz are a special listening for me and acknowledge you if you are reading this note right now. You have given me the courage to share what's been happening as of late at a time when I'm not ready to blog to the public and just starting to share with those in my life all the shifts we're going through.

All the best to you who move mountains too! :)

Chinarut

Happy 5th Anniversary Dance Labs!

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:33:42 GMT

excuse the belated post to this pod - the celebration must go on! :)

A big hello from Dance Labs! We're out of the gates kicking the year off to a great start and today marks our 5th anniversary!!!

You're receiving this message as we've shared the conversation of Dance Labs with you in some form or another whether it is in passing, through an invitation, a dance, or perhaps through volunteering over the past 5 years. Many of you have been in this conversation for the entire 5 years and wondering "when am I going to see something?" Others of you have been fortunate to get a glimpse and experience what we do.

Well - I'm here to tell a story - a story of events that have changed the face of Dance Labs in 4 short months. In the spirit of the Internet - I will play the loom and weave our creations into this story one element at a time :)

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is
where they should be. Now put the foundation underneath them.
—Henry David Thoreau

5 years ago this day we held our first dance experiment on January 13th 2002. As I reread our original invite, I extend a special thanks for those who were there - my heart still beats and it's hard to believe it's been five years! Today is Children's Day in Thailand which could not be more appropriate given how quickly Thai children have stepped into our lives to create a foundation for us to walk upon called Dance Chalat! We are pleased to share a 1.5 minute video we released over Christmas as a means for people to get quickly acquainted to our work.

Dance Labs is my life and proud to share my commitment with friends, family, and colleagues. Through my transition to Thailand , it has been a part-time effort for well over 4 years. It's an honor to give 100% of my time, energy, and focus to Dance Labs these past 4 months. I am making a bigger commitment to this year and we have much to share in the form of stories, ideas, things to see, and things to play with everyone!

I want to take a moment to highlight 4 areas I believe contribute to our values:

Integrity - We've (yours truly) cleaned up the integrity of our operations. We've had a breakthrough in giving up pirated software and music. We value licensed software and Mac OS X and iLife has come through for us wonderfully!
Freedom - Our action to place Dance Labs in the commons allows our research to be publicly available for non-commercial use. We support and encourage anyone to evolve our work in a way that makes a contribution to their communities.
Reality - We've grounded our vision powerfully in Thailand and have experiments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Bangkok to our record. Our video is an inspiration for many - thank you for all your positive comments! While we did not receive our first grant we applied for, we've achieved a big milestone in articulating a vision for community service we believe we provide.
Collaboration - Our vision has been shared with over 700 people worldwide. Almost half of our 70 participants are from the last 4 months alone. We have an immensely expanded presence on the Internet. We participate in the Omidyar Network, Wikispaces, and Zaadz communities and learned how to use wikis. We're busy connecting all of you together as a result.

Those of you interested learning how the tremendous leaps and strides we've made in such a short time came into being, read on!

It's fair to say in a nutshell, Chin's giving up "having see what happens" before sharing his commitment - life doesn't work this way, it's the other way around! :D

I've put together some pseudo-cliff notes for those of you short on time - if you don't like spoilers, kindly skip over the bullets! :)

If we've dropped the ball with you, please forgive us. Drop us a note if there's anything you want to say to be complete.
Stepping stone: Chin volunteers to organize a bloggers conference at a local university and get published in the post!
The founder of the P2P Foundation encourages me to take on my life and participate in the Asia Commons. We create a home on the Omidyar Network as a result.
Warisara opens up our eyes that our vision has the potential to make a difference with children!
The Asian Resource Foundation becomes our partner in peace.
Yvonne teaches us a goodbye lesson and we have a spontaneous dance experiment in downtown Bangkok!
Bob Niemic transforms our 1 page executive overview.
Pech dances for happiness, our production wiki is born, and all our kids leave with big smiles on their faces =)
Our research is put under a Creative Commons license
We play with the kids week after week, learning to invent activities with them on-the-fly on and off the dance floor. It is a lesson in patience.
Dance celebration is a success! 12 kids show up with moms on stage and dance breakthroughs abound!
Thanks for a great 5 years. Our future is wide open - what do you see on our 10th anniversary in 2012?

To be complete with the past: We've been out of touch with a great number of you - at best, we've been hiding in our blog (RSS) - passively sharing. Many of you were great to share your enthusiasm for Dance Labs and ask us when the next event is only to discover not another word from us - please excuse us for that! What it comes down to is I've never embraced the unknown and encouraged others to make discovery and learning a community expedition - I'm here to complete this aspect of my leadership.

Back in March, I volunteered to help a community of online bloggers gather together at Thammasat University - little did I know we would be published in the Bangkok Post! At this gathering, I met a gentleman by the name of Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation. In June, Michel invited me to a conference called the Asia Commons and absolutely could not see how I could make attending happen. I admitted what bothered me most was how uncertain my life was in Thailand. We had a good chat and will never forget the hearty laugh on the phone saying "well - then anything is possible!" That statement made history. I promised to meet him before the conference with my bags packed. I am very thankful of the conference organizers for giving me a scholarship to one of the most enlightening conferences I've been to. I was able to educate myself on topics off my radar such as copyright, intellectual property, and piracy and play with innovative structures like wikis and Open Space. Little did I know I would be meeting over hundred people representing countries around the world and that I would be one of the few Thai people there! I left the conference inspired to reconnect everyone together and lead a virtual community. I fumbled around a little bit connecting this community and turned to the community I knew best - our community! Thus a new home on the Omidyar Network was born.

Now just having a new home on the Internet didn't create Dance Chalat - it was a stepping stone to fulfill on a vision that we all connect and meet each other as we play with dance on and offline. What it did result in was spending the next few weeks sharing quite passionately and openly about our work. I extend a special thanks to K. Warisara for her curiousity in our work and standing we think big and consider playing with children. She got our passion we make things happen this year out of her commitment to children and the arts! Our bamboo sprouted in its 4th year!

Concurrently, I explored the art of community building by assisting the Asian Resource Foundation with their Amana Media Initiative website. It became a great opportunity to learn about web development at a whole new level and make a difference bridging Asians and Muslims - a thread that later came powerfully to us as Bob Niemic realized his vision for peace while volunteering to rework our executive overview. Bob has a vision for the capacity children of different cultures have to dance with one another outside of the societal rules that dictate their parents be separate - beautiful!

A spirited woman by the name of Yvonne was on her way back to Canada and thought it might be nice to spend some time with her before she left. I went to the local park, shared some of the exercises we do, and we had fun playing around with movement! She was so excited about this experience she immediately called her friends and suggested we all meet in Lumpini Park downtown. Morn, my Dance Labs partner in Thailand, got dragged to come with us and had a pivotal moment encouraging a friend who originally was not interested in dancing with us to dance with us! Before going home, he wanted to know when we would be getting together again - he said it was a lot of fun! Quite a few of you can relate to this situation - the difference being - the park is our new home and gives us to freedom to take one big step closer to Dancing Like Nobody's Watching!

I shared this story with Pech, a woman I met in Thailand purchasing IT hardware. How I really know Pech is through her passion to dance for happiness - it's what lights up her life! She committed to make Dance Labs a reality and she was great to help produce our next event the wiki-way!

The idea of bringing together the kids from the neighborhood was born. Morn took the initiative to invite my niece, Moo, and they in turn invited another boy on the same street, Puoh to join us on a Sunday morning on Aug 27th. Unplanned, it happened to fall on the night of the burn - Burning Man would be holding its ritual and burning a wooden effigy to signify completion and letting go in life and at the same time, we would be dancing in nature in a park in Bangkok - a green burn in Thailand!

Everyone had such an amazing time in the park and the kids loved it - they asked to meet again next week! We weren't prepared for this request and I froze - I could not possibly commit to another week and my mind was racing - I made it mean "another week? we'll have to commit every week for the rest of the year!" Well - that didn't stop Morn - she was great to get the excitment the kids had, make a commitment to "not know" and make a promise - Dance Chalat was born!!!

"Play is the child's royal road to intelligence, creative thinking, and joy. The child who can play will play skilfully and successfully throughout life."
—Magical Parent Magical Child

Chalat - what is Chalat? "ฉลาด" means intelligent in Thai. We believe dancing is something that pulls out the creativity in all of us. Call it spatial, creative intelligence if you will - we soon discovered we provide soooo much more than one could imagine!

We continued to hold sessions week after week - tried to take a monthly break before we realized that taking even a 1 week break really introduced continuity issues. Morn was really great to invent sessions with the kids to come back to our apartment and work on "generating" them - cause their leadership to come forth by working on their expression not as dance but through introducing themselves, their presentation, their voice - it was really great - we had no idea where this would take us - we were breaking new ground!

This is the kind of momentum that gets the creative juices going - I soon found myself documenting our experiences in a research wiki which technically started out as a program dashboard to coordinate all aspects of what we were creating - it suffices to say it's turned into the kitchen sink. The Asia Commons came full circle and within weeks, a Creative Commons License would protect our work and yet give the rights for anyone to use, modify, evolve our work for non-commercial use - the power and spirit of Open Source is now with us!

From my training in a Self-Expression Leadership Program, I got the importance of building a community display and we encouraged the kids to create this:

It was a real success as the kids could see the growth of the community over time! We invite everyone to play a game! We now want to put this structure in the hands of the children and have them develop their own community display in their own way in the next program we launch.

The kids kept inviting new kids and we weren't quite sure how to handle new people but we figured it couldn't hurt! It got quite chaotic sometimes and Morn & I certainly learned how to be with kids - we taught them how to cook, get along, clean up, and take care of themselves. It was not a role we anticipated - it felt like daycare! :-o We learned how to build our patience and really get kids have the best of intentions.

Sometimes we found ourselves educating parents and sharing the transformative process we wanted them to support their children though.   We learned to set expectations and clearly learned where we did not!   One of the most surprising aspects of the program is its ability to connect parents, parents who have seen each other but have never technically met and spoken to each other - this was a nice side effect!

From day one, we envisioned a dance celebration at the end of our program.   Our original plan was to host our own celebration and when we couldn't get all the details together quickly enough - it was serendipitous for a party thrown by Landmark Education International to show up with such impeccable timing - just one day after plan on Christmas!

We embarked on an adventure to put all the elements we thought were necessary to share our project in 30 minutes. It was a very intensive period of time each learning to generate ourselves, coordinating preparations, and learning to show up the way we wanted to show up in front of hundreds of people.   We believe it is essential the crowd witness the children express themselves newly whether it be speaking, dancing, or spontaneous creation - an acknowledgment of their freedom brings out to a whole new level of connection with the people all around them - especially their parents!

It was a successful event. We produced our first tri-foldout handout and we learned how to create an introductory video to build up momentum for the kids. 12 of our kids showed up on stage and we managed to have 50 people up on stage playing games we usually play in the park - all we were missing were trees and grass!   It was touching to have moms join their kids on stage and to cause dance breakthroughs for guests - precisely our mission here at Dance Labs!

That wraps up the first chapter in our Dance Chalat story - a community project born and executed organically over the past 9 months.

With a great success under our belts - I declare we are complete with the past - there is only room for expansion.

So what do you see in our crystal ball? What do believe we will share as a community on our 10th anniversary on January 13, 2012?

Thanks for your listening and for those of you who are in, take a leap of faith with us and embrace anything to happen this year - we're all in for a ride and the kids are coming along with us - time to dance! =)

Arts Festival suspended due to New Years bombings

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:49:21 GMT

Thanks Megs for the vote of confidence!

I have some good and bad news....per the subject header the unfortunate bombings we had over New Years suspended the Arts Festival.

I have mixed feelings about this as it clearly is a "win" for the terrorists in shaking up plans for this year. On the other hand, there were many delays in the process that proved to be frustrated and now we know the truth.

The good news is our future is now wide open and just posted a letter in honor of our 5th anniversay at Dance Labs! We invite you to read our story in regards to the path that got us to Zaadz!

We invite you to play with us!

The two winners of the Working for Good contest

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:44:00 GMT

We did not win this contest and pleased to annouce the two winners who tied for this contest:

Vinay Gupta and his Hexayurt Project
> http://mindismoving.org/hexayurt/
> http://vinay.zaadz.com/

Todd Lester and freeDimensional
> http://freedimensional.org/
> http://freedimensional.zaadz.com/

I'm particularly inspired [and biased] by any Burning Man tested concepts ;-)

Please support them wholeheartedly as we move into a whole new year of opportunity!

Re: Cultural Creatives

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:41:05 GMT

I've completed reading this book! I'm bubbling with new ideas and as with any good book - new openings for action!

So rather than go into a lecture as to what it is to be Cultural Creative - I am here to answer any questions anyone has about this topic.

I, for one, can say I can give up being affected by the negative judgements of others who perceive what we are doing - they are just human and we are to believe what we believe in!

DnB all nite long!

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:52:43 GMT

dude - pick up some dnb vibes from London and bring em back! look fwd to dancin with ya at Astra when you get back!

Julian is the reason this pod exists - please all welcome him for his encouragement we all work for good!

ps. your URL bounces back to this group - so either Fabric London is Dance Labs and Dance Labs is Fabric London or you're talkin bout this place: http://www.fabriclondon.com/ - if anyone comes across a free audio stream to listen to the work of Fabric let us know - didn't see any on first glance.

Hi, I'm Julian

http://julian.gaia.com — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:59:15 GMT

Hello All,

# A sentence or two about yourself.

Not that good at dancing, but its fun and I love it.

# What has you be here in this pod.

What has me be here in this pod? Arrrh, I be has in this pod 'ere coz I'm a friend of Chin's and I like dancing.

# Ways you like to play with dance.

Well I went to the park one time with Chin and he showed me some stuff he does for DanceLabs and it was great fun. And I love drum and bass and could dance to it forever!

# optional: introduce us to your life changing dance experience!

www.fabriclondon.com - You know it! ;)

A vision for how we work for good!

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 06:05:47 GMT

I'm proud to announce "we did it!" We're going for the gold and happy to share following statement of the community effort we are excited to help each and all of you embark on in each of your own communities no matter where you are in the world:

As individuals become globally-minded, there arises a need to preserve the intimate nature of local communities. Dance Chalat is a community service program designed to connect children, parents, and neighbors in fun, natural, and playful ways. We hold our programs in natural public spaces, such as parks that inspire freedom and creativity. Our use of dance and music encourages participants to explore their self-expression, their environment, and connection with others. Communities find they are able to visualize their growth and expand their sense of family, leadership, service, and fulfillment.

With only 100 words at stake, please do ask questions to help clarify what we are communicating with the world.

I also realize many of you just hopped in this pod (perhaps out of curiousity) so if there are thoughts and/or ideas you would like to add, we would be delighted to hear your view on of the dancing world!

A special thanks to Julian for bringing the impetus and inspiration to work for good - he is a catalyst in his own right!

Omidyar Network (o.net)

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:51:00 GMT

I am very thankful to the Omidyar Community who've shown up to support Dance Labs while we were still very much just a conversation.

The Omidyar Network is out to make a difference in the world and so are we!

Now we've grown up quite a bit since then and in the spirit of connecting communities, I invite you to have a wander into our o.net space - think of it as a second home - another place to play or even dance!

http://www.omidyar.net/group/dancelabs

Be great to hear your thoughts as we are busily trying to connect people together!

Re: Bangkok International Arts Festival

http://gmjnmegs.gaia.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:16:55 GMT

Yay! I'm very excited for you guys, because it sounds totally awesome! I wish you all the best of luck - I wish I was in Bankok with you!

Re: Dance Free

http://passionflower.gaia.com — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:24:24 GMT

Hi China:

No, I never had the chance, or made the chance to dance again with Aria. I smile in my heart each time I remember.

Thank you for sharing about not finding that moment again with your partner...you said you were in the past...be gentle with yourself...

I wonder a lot, too...

Working for Good

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:55:31 GMT

Hello all! a spirited friend of mine pointed me to the business plan contest Zaadz is sponsoring. We're excited about this opportunity as we're eager to move out of our grassroots mode and establish ourselves as a non-profit running through next year!

Quite a number of weeks ago, I took a first stab at the survey questions on this wiki page.

The deadline is approaching (Nov 30th) and already have our rough cut of our video introduction and our overview in the mail. We still need to quickly review the Working For Good Cirriculum and share my comments in the last 3 survey questions.

The countdown is on (4 days and counting) - please excuse me for not launching this pod sooner when we first got the reference and inviting y'all to lend a hand - I thought I'd at least take a moment to keep ya in the loop right now. There will be plenty of future opportunities to contribute if you're interested - just let us know!

If you have other opinions to share, please do!

Re: Dance Free

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:40:59 GMT

thanks for being the first to share a breakthrough and how great it is to hear you've actually explored this as a technique!

It is an amazing experience isn't it? Time is non-existent and everything just flows effortlessly - any attempt to think is absolutely thwarted - all there is is now!

I am curious if you danced with Aria again? Was your experience the same?

I ask because I danced again with this woman I speak of and unfortunately found myself in the past - it just wasn't the same :(

wondering what there is to give up - if anything!

Cultural Creatives

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:28:47 GMT

I just finished reading chapter 1 of a book called Cultural Creatives and while I've got many many chapters to go - it comes recommended to our community and agree it is the very essence of who many of us are. What excites me is the stand cultural creatives take for "social innovation" - exactly what we believe our work at Dance Labs represents.

Want to take a moment to thank the Zaadz folks for intentionally connecting us 50+ million peeps together!

If you've read this book are want to hop on the bandwagon, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

I think it's fair to say that I have my roots in being a Modernist and happy to have found my new self over the past 5 years.

happy trails!

Dance Free

http://passionflower.gaia.com — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:19:13 GMT

Years ago in Boston, and I mean years ago, there was a place called 'Dance Free'. I loved it because it was a safe space to explore movement without all the hype of a disco or dance club. I miss that place. I studied at 'The School for Creative Movement in the Arts' in NYC in the '70's. There I discovered a directorial technique to encourage 'break through'. I, the director, would choose a theme and create a space with instruments and objects. After a relaxation exercise I would share the theme with the 'dance/movement' explorers. Based on the theme, the participants would explore the space in time. A sample theme was 'Birth'. At this school I met a wonderful man/brother/mentor from Israel. His name was Aria Kelev. We connected in the moment and moved together. It was one of the most extrodinary experiences of my life---to connect and move in time with another---As true a love experience as I have ever had. Now I am exploring my passion in Flamenco Dance---Not as we know it on the 'Spanish stage', but as the Gypsies dance at the center of town after a long day of toil...S.

Re: To dance is to be free

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:04:43 GMT

welcome megs! glad to see a dancer from within! so happy you're feeling yourself out and playing with life!

while i very much acknowledge classes for giving me that kick in the butt - at the end of the day, it was the people who invited me to dance that really gave that freedom to look within.

we really think they're a less "abrasive" ways to encourage others to dance and can really relate to your friends who say they can't dance.

invite ya to read about how we got started what seems like eons ago!

http://chalat.dancelabs.com/#WhatHappened

cheers to being goofy!

Re: Passionflower...

http://chinarut.gaia.com — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 04:48:04 GMT

glad to see a new dancer on the floor!

what i hear in your share is natural beauty - dancing free appreciating your soul!

I love the Flamenco and like the flair of magic you've added to it!

Passionflower...

http://passionflower.gaia.com — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:58:18 GMT

It is through dance that I feel most free...
In the realm of the eternal I am Gopi
     who dances for the Lord Krishna...
In the realm of the Now I am Passionflower
    who expresses herself through the Gypsy
        art of Flamenco....
A professional? No. A star? Yes, in the eyes
             of the Lord...

To dance is to be free

http://gmjnmegs.gaia.com — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:28:18 GMT

Hi, I'm Megs. I love to dance. I haven't really ever been able to take actual classes, but fortunately, dancing is in the soul and not the pocketbook. :) I think a lot of people perhaps don't realize how amazing it is to dance what you feel and to feel what you dance. It's a release. It's freedom.
I dance pretty much whenever and wherever. Sometimes it's just goofy stuff, sometimes it's more serious than that.
My friends think they can't dance, but I believe everyone can dance, because everyone can feel.