Embodiment is about finding home in the body. The Gyrotonic method is one of the surest paths I've found to that sense of place in my body. It is about connecting to your deepest self, powered by whatever is present now. For many of us -- and especially people of color -- anger, exhaustion, grief and everything in between are present after the murder George Floyd.
A black woman in the Gyrotonic world recently said to me, "People keep giving me all this stuff to read. 'Have you read this? Have you read that?' I live in this body," she said. "I am black."
For me and many white people, up until Memorial Day 2020, I didn't have to think about the color of my skin. Privilege is blinding. That's why some of us white folks can so blithely say, "I'm color blind'" which is, by the way, one of the most dismissive invisibility cloaks we can throw over racism. So what does Gyrotonic have to do with this? What does embodiment have to do with changing the world, breaking down barriers based on race, and somehow doing my part to make George Floyd's death not be in vain?
The Gyrotonic method has given me a passport to my true self. It has taught me to live in my body, which is where my soul lives. It is where the truth lies. It's where we feel how things are breaking apart, burning down, coming in to the light. It's also, perhaps most important of all, where healing happens.
The same person who said, "I live in this body. I am black," reminded me to live in mine. "Be you, Susan." This fight for racial justice is a marathon, black people keep reminding me. To make change sustaining, beyond the performative gesture, it has to come from the place where truth lives. In a time of pain and power, I offer this work to you -- especially if you felt was off limits or not even in view, because of the color of your skin, or the color of mine. The Gyrotonic method is for every body. Here is a bridge. Here is my hand. One body at a time, this work can help move us from pain to empowerment.
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UPDATE: I have instituted a scholarship program for Black women, whereby I teach private Gyrotonic sessions to women who have been locked out of this work because of overt and covert racism, free of charge, preparing them to continue into teacher trainings for Black women only at Elements in Washington, D.C. These trainings are also offered free of charge by Elements owner and certified master trainer, Justine Bernard. This program of inclusion has brought some of the most gifted, beautiful women I’ve ever met.