The first time I studied and completed the Silva method was in the 80's...very woo woo at the time. I was a young ballerina with the National Ballet in Toronto...lol.. with somewhat of an artistic temperament. My state of mind occasionally approached that of the victim... being in this highly competitive field we often waited anxiously for the casting of a particular ballet to appear on the company bulletin board.
My life experienced an accelerated progression the minute I completed the Silva method which was quite extraordinary. On the Monday morning after completing the course I walked into the rehearsal studio with the maestro Eric Bruhn, who could be quite the task master, (they called him the 'Great Dane')..and we ran through the dance we were rehearsing. Upon finishing the pianist stopped the music and all was quiet in the studio...he paused, looked at me and stated, "Something about you has changed...what is it?" I mumbled something about finally taking responsibility for my own life as I certainly didn't want to confess to doing the Silva method as it was considered by some at the time to be a cult.
From there on in things developed in an interesting way... I was invited to be part of a group Rudolph Nureyev's " Nureyev and friends touring to Paris and performing at the Palais de Sports, (Rudi was the first artist who defected from Russia before Baryshnikov), my career as a guest artist evolved and I had a well respected NYC agent take me on and we had a successful career both in Canada and touring on four continents. Considering it is like winning the lottery to actually succeed in the world of ballet it was quite the coup... in no small part thanks to the creative visualization and silva method techniques. I will just add that at the time I was living in Cabbagetown in Toronto in a wonderful old century Victorian. I had an impactful dream that I will never forget.. I dreamt that what most home owners aspired to in my neighbourhood was having a large fish pond with big fish that they lovingly hand fed....wierd eh? in my dream I only had a little fish pond with small fish. Well in the dream there was a torrential storm, and all the big fish ponds with the big fish were ruined. My small fish pond and my little fish survived and in my dream it was explained to me that the big fish were always waiting at the surface of the pond to be fed and the storm caused strong waves in their big ponds that dumped them out and they were left stranded. The reason that the small fish survived is that when the storm happened they did not wait at the surface to be fed or be saved ...they swam down deep into the pond and stayed there quietly till the storm was over. This dream was many years ago but it feels quite relevant today and there is no doubt in my mind that the greater message is to go deep within ourselves and we will survive and thrive and that is exactly where the Silva practise takes us. Xo
My life experienced an accelerated progression the minute I completed the Silva method which was quite extraordinary. On the Monday morning after completing the course I walked into the rehearsal studio with the maestro Eric Bruhn, who could be quite the task master, (they called him the 'Great Dane')..and we ran through the dance we were rehearsing. Upon finishing the pianist stopped the music and all was quiet in the studio...he paused, looked at me and stated, "Something about you has changed...what is it?" I mumbled something about finally taking responsibility for my own life as I certainly didn't want to confess to doing the Silva method as it was considered by some at the time to be a cult.
From there on in things developed in an interesting way... I was invited to be part of a group Rudolph Nureyev's " Nureyev and friends touring to Paris and performing at the Palais de Sports, (Rudi was the first artist who defected from Russia before Baryshnikov), my career as a guest artist evolved and I had a well respected NYC agent take me on and we had a successful career both in Canada and touring on four continents. Considering it is like winning the lottery to actually succeed in the world of ballet it was quite the coup... in no small part thanks to the creative visualization and silva method techniques. I will just add that at the time I was living in Cabbagetown in Toronto in a wonderful old century Victorian. I had an impactful dream that I will never forget.. I dreamt that what most home owners aspired to in my neighbourhood was having a large fish pond with big fish that they lovingly hand fed....wierd eh? in my dream I only had a little fish pond with small fish. Well in the dream there was a torrential storm, and all the big fish ponds with the big fish were ruined. My small fish pond and my little fish survived and in my dream it was explained to me that the big fish were always waiting at the surface of the pond to be fed and the storm caused strong waves in their big ponds that dumped them out and they were left stranded. The reason that the small fish survived is that when the storm happened they did not wait at the surface to be fed or be saved ...they swam down deep into the pond and stayed there quietly till the storm was over. This dream was many years ago but it feels quite relevant today and there is no doubt in my mind that the greater message is to go deep within ourselves and we will survive and thrive and that is exactly where the Silva practise takes us. Xo
