Life's too fast to play it safe.

Tanz die Toleranz

having been asked many times in the past weeks to give a specific description of my final project, I believe the below spots it quite good.

On May 11th, 240 young people between 6 - 28 years will be dancing on stage in the middle of vienna, open air, for the opening of a large cultural festival.
Tanz die Toleranz is the name of the project, initiated by Caritas with a focus on integration and a search to work with new forms and platforms.
Besides following and assisting the open group of dancers, from refugees to homeless to ballet dancers my task is to design and start up a variety of dance projects that carry on the vision of creating touch points of societies' most diverse levels, through dance.

if we can dance together, we can live together. [royston maldoom, the choreographer]

there are many more pictures that were never taken, here just some that might express the atmosphere and excitement during rehearsals..also see the short video below.

alvin ailey and..

..arts in education, integration and motivation through dance.
http://www.alvinailey.org/page.php?p=dir&c=9&sec=programs

His (Alvin Ailey's) legacy:
dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching for the future.

first class // back to basics again.

it's when you think you actually should not try something new now again, this is all going to be too embarassing, that's when I know, aah, ulli, you really are on the best way to have to jump into something new.

I received a small tag for my key chain, that gets me into every course at the AileySchool. Some of the classes have never been offered in Munich, where I did most of the dancing.
Today it was HipHop - the feeling of dancing in the middle of Manhatten, with a teacher so tough and so humorous at the same time, makes my heart beat so fast I have to slow my breath. This is a quality without name for me. The warmth with which I was welcomed into a class very much advanced, me just enjoying to dance, and not getting much of the choreography, but..being there.

Lesson: music was so loud, wowowowow, and suddenly the teacher stops and says, "listen, it is very easy to give up at this stage. I do not take you're being here for granted, you let me do what I love doing, and my task is to make you go out of this room and feel good, feel that you have achieved something."

There is much cheesiness that is, I believe, put to some of the american pratices, but there was a deep spirit in what she was saying. Never, never give up. You better practice hard, but nobody said it was easy. Give it a smile, and just continue with passion.

I never heard that before in any dance class. And indeed, as Royston Maldoom [http://www.royston-maldoom.net] says, you can change your life in a dance class..if you just let it.

modern heroes//thomas d.

with love from new york - i am back, needed some time to find words for thoughts.
here we go with some borrowed ones from a new book..
______________________________________________

There is the saying: "if you've saved one life, you've safed the world." I think this really refers to your own very life. If you safe you're own life, by not giving up, not becoming depressiv, bitter or haggard, but you'll succeed to stay open and loving until the end of your life, then it will be ok for this world.
In the end it is about keeping our humanity, to respect and look after eachother.

Wenn du dein eigenes Leben rettest, indem du nicht aufgibst, nicht depressiv wirst, verhärmst oder verbitterst, sondern es schaffst, bis zum Ende deines Lebens offen und liebevoll zu bleiben, dann geht das in Ordnung auf dieser Welt.

ingrid bergman.

"Happiness is good health and bad memory."
Have a good weekend, everybody!

measurement.

Doing research for a book, that is supposed to come out in a years time. It will be on the topic on national innovation, and something that hits me again, is the role and ruling of measurement in society.

In the U.S. - and this might be an assumption, I feel, that performance and success is measured by looking at the top.
Looking at the E.U., or at least some of the northern countries, it seems as if the general national performance is 'felt', measured form the bottom. If things are not working there, something has to change on the higher steps, not vice versa.

How do you measure 'good enough'? Why are we trying to find measurement indicators, for innovations without precedent cases, that might fail, but need to happen?

I believe measurement in certain contexts to be one of the main threads of our time..

'Stay hungry. Stay foolish.'

there are loads of them - commencement adresses, motivational speeches of all kinds. But some of them are so clear in their message, that you ought to drive for them.

It was Devrims post that made me think and read this one speech by Steve Jobs in Stanford up again. It is about connecting the dots - and how it obviousely is never possible to do so looking forward.

In short, what he says in connection to you've got to find what you love is: never stick too long with something that does not fulfill you. Nevertheless neither do I know where I'll end up being, also maybe being stuck. A solution could be not to stick to the answers, but the questions.

Your actions become your character, old wisdom says.

titles.

Started to give titles to moods, attitudes, situations.

Soundtrack of the past 3 months:

. the bare necesseties . how to save the world (a beginners' guide) . to make out . don't be cold . without even moving from your chair . don't look down . why being foolish gets you cash . tell the truth and you don't have to remember anything . why stealing stuff is better than owning it . love the countryside . love your enemy .

It is a nice album til now - different styles. Let's see, how song writing continues..

Inspiration of the day.

24. Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26. Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27. Read only left-hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our “noodle.”

28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

read in: http://www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto.html

"Belief gets in the way of learning."

~ Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)

Corporate life advices.

"Be life confident"  -AXA 

"Getting There Is Half The Fun"   - Cunard Line

"When was the last time you did something for the first time? Keep discovering." - Emirates

"Live fast, love life and feel good in your shell"   - Diet Coke

Taken from PICKMEUP, worth subscribing!

"Pick me up, put me down Push me in, turn me round Switch me on, let me go I have a mind of my own..." Genesis

How about the non-corporate advices?