For thousands of years, and throughout the ancient world, vessels were a part of everyday life. Practical and beautiful, they were used for storing and serving food, for carrying water, holding milk and oil, pouring libations and countless other things that we can only imagine. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with earthen vessels. When I was a girl I would take clay bowls and pitchers from my stepmother's cupboards just to hold them in my hands; to admire their curved feminine shapes, to feel their weight and texture. Whether they were holding water, or flowers, or soup, they were profoundly comforting to me, as though their very existence seemed to represent maternal nourishment. Now, I watch as my own daughter appears to be equally enchanted with vessels. She can spend hours outside filling and emptying pots with petals and leaves and water, wholly immersed in preparing soup and salad for the local fairies and rabbits. In summer her little hands shape cups and bowls from the river clay that she puts on stones to dry in the sun.

And this leads me to wonder if this seemingly feminine object mirrors something ineffable back to us, something of maternal significance, of The Great Mother perhaps, of the holy vessel of the body itself and the soul contained within? And I am curious, what does the vessel touch upon within each of us? And what might happen if we carry the symbol of the vessel into the dance? What might it awaken?

For one moon cycle I invite you to join me as we take the metaphor of pots and bowls and jugs into the inner landscape to contemplate the symbolism of vessels both individually and collectively. Asking ourselves, what substances do our inner pots hold? What sacred essence? What medicine? What bitterness? What sweetness? What do we fill our vessels with, and how are they emptied? What scars, cracks and patterns do they carry? What designs and inscriptions? Through the dance, we will sculpt new vessels and we will mend broken vessels, and perhaps, most importantly, we will bring awareness to the vessel of the body itself. 

For as Carolyn Hillyer writes, "Our sacred vessels are the pots and jugs and bowls and bellies that hold the essence of our wisdom. All women have pots; we turn our lives around these vessels as we cool and stir and brew and carry and gestate."