• I help people fully inhabit their bodies and guide teachers to do the same • Get access to exclusive videos, articles and teachings from Domini Anne
Expand and Deliver
|
If March comes in like a lion, January feels more like a bear after hibernation… or maybe the crusty, mildly confused groundhog, blinking into the light and wondering what year it is. After the inevitably intense “end-of-year slide to the finish line,” many of us arrive here a little slower, a little creakier, and quietly eager to smooth out the internal — and sometimes external — lumps and bumps that keep us from feeling that “new year, new you” buoyancy in our step. Maybe by the time this reaches you Reader, you’ve already found your groove. Or maybe not. Either way, January has a particular texture — like slowly adjusting a filter from grainy to glowing — and we’re all somewhere along that curve. If you’re feeling stiff, foggy, or just not quite inhabiting yourself yet, you’re not behind. You’re thawing. And that thaw is exactly what this season is good for. This month has been shaped around experiences that support that gentle re-entry into your body — not as a project to fix, but as a place to return to. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through shared movement. Moving with other people — especially in ways that are rhythmic, expressive, and non-linear — does something very different to the nervous system than solitary workouts. Music carries your timing. The group carries your momentum. And your body gets to explore itself in three dimensions instead of repeating the same linear patterns over and over again. That’s why dance feels so good. Not just because it’s exercise — but because it’s multi-planar, social, sensory, and expressive all at once. That multi-planar piece is especially potent. When your spine moves through asymmetrical, unusual, gently challenging positions, it interrupts the places where things tend to get “stuck” — in your hips, ribs, back, and often in your sense of ease. It invites circulation into spaces that quietly shrink when life gets busy, stressful, or repetitive. It also shifts perspective. When your body experiences unfamiliar orientations, your brain updates its sense of what’s possible. You don’t just feel more mobile — you often feel more spacious, more curious, more available. Which is one of the reasons art can be so nourishing, too. And that brings me to some very good news… ✨ Iluminado has been extended. Even better: this will be your very last opportunity to experience Iluminado after sundown — which is, hands down, the most magical way to see it. I’m hosting a special after-hours experience inside the installation: After Dark — A Moving Evening at Iluminado It’s energizing. It’s connective. It’s physically, creatively, and spiritually activating. You’ll move, explore, sense, and play inside the installation itself — reclaiming mobility, creativity, and strength in a way that feels alive, relational, and deeply human. This event is open exclusively to my mailing list, it is the final after-dark experience before the exhibit closes, and space is intentionally limited. Once it fills, that’s it. Even if signing up for a dance experience isn’t on your January 2026 bingo card, you’re warmly invited to come simply be inside the art: You can visit Iluminado during this private event between 5:00 and 6:00 PM for the regular price of MMA admission — no movement participation required.
Think of it less as a class and more as an experience that reminds you what it feels like to be inside something bigger, brighter, and more alive than your usual routines. And for your small, at-home dose of movement this week: Your mini-workout is a short floor sequence called “Side Effects.” It came out of a class focused on rewriting the story your body tells you — building harmony from the core and letting that coherence ripple outward. You can do it slowly. You can do it playfully. You can do it once, or let it become a little ritual. There’s no right way — just a way back in. And if you’re not in Monterey, consider this your invitation anyway: Find some art to experience. January doesn’t have to be a sprint. It can be a thaw. With love, movement, and light, Domini Anne Was this email forwarded to you? |
Domini Anne
• I help people fully inhabit their bodies and guide teachers to do the same • Get access to exclusive videos, articles and teachings from Domini Anne
Years ago I read a story by Tom Robbins that apparently lodged itself somewhere deep in my nervous system. A woman sits down at a bar and orders asparagus. The man beside her keeps inching closer and she wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Halfway through dinner he leans over and says: "You and I have something very intimate in common that you don't know yet." Suspicious already. "Tomorrow morning our urine will smell exactly the same." Which brings me to an important point: The rubber...
There’s a particular kind of compliment that bypasses vanity entirely and lands somewhere much deeper. Not because it flatters you…but because it names something you’ve quietly recognized in yourself for a very long time. In a recent review of From Molecule to Movement — the short film Hanif and I created for the Shulgin Foundation about Sasha Shulgin, MDMA, and the strange, beautiful collision between chemistry, therapy, culture, and consciousness - I was described as a “ Movement and Design...
Read time: ~4 minutes Musing: astronauts, somanauts, and inner space Listen: Sasha Shulgin, 1983 Join: April 25 retreat + May 2 exhibit Over the past couple of weeks, something subtle has been moving through my world. A kind of shared pause. A collective exhale. For a brief moment, many of us found ourselves captivated by the language of orbit—liftoff, a release from the pressure of the known atmosphere. The Artemis program became more than a mission, it became a metaphor. For exploration....