The performing arts keeps us human in a world where physical time and space are increasingly compromised.

We can improve our intentional focus, effort, and energy to hold more mental and physical space open.

Engaging with a performance may reveal emotion and energy that needs to be released.

In a modern society of virtual relationships, continuously racing deadlines, and invisible stress, Western classical music and dance provide rich environments for finding ourselves in the present moment.

In my previous post, What Music Teaches Us About Managing Time, I explored how Conscious Listening to Western classical music can sharpen awareness of our relationship to time. Here, I extend that idea to time and space by pairing classical music with classical ballet, which expresses space in a more visceral way than music.

Visible and Invisible Cages

At one time or another, we have had to endure the compression of time and space—financially, spiritually, socially, mentally, emotionally, or geographically. Sometimes we respond by creating our cages in our own imagination. At such moments, we might also imagine our way out of them.

When we get stuck in a cage of our own making, we need some peripheral vision, some help from the collective or higher powers, some revelation through the arts, to find an escape key. If music and dance can help us name the fear—the uncertainty, or the frustration, or the embarrassment—then perhaps we can release emotional expectations and redirect that energy to succeeding or healing or connecting more.

Beyond coping, we........

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