The Dance with Ann Kite

Dear Dancers,

Been quite a week.
I said goodbye to my youngest as he headed to New York City for a summer internship.

"It's what's supposed to happen," a friend remind me.
“Yeah, but that doesn't make it hurt any less,” I said.

As I watched him leave, a familiar pain, tears, and the memory of a couple years ago…

The last dinner before everything changed. Sam was moving to Atlanta. Michael was heading off to college. Lilliah had landed her first real job in Arlington.
We sat around the table with Indian food.

I couldn't eat.
Someone made a wiseass comment and suddenly I was up in my room in tears.

Then I was surrounded, all three of them were there wrapping themselves around me in a giant hug. Through a broken voice I said, "I have loved being your mom so much. I hope you know how much you are loved." I hugged them each separately as I said their name.

One of them, "It’s not ending, Mom."
Another, "Don't invalidate her feelings."
I laughed through tears.

Now it’s a different time/summer.
No more spontaneous trips to the grocery store at 1am.
No more late-night conversations. No constant awareness: are they sick, hungry, need water, need to talk, tired?
No more how was it?

Love asks so much of us.
to hold and to let go.

To celebrate what is beginning while grieving what is ending.
To open our hands and encourage them to fly

and yet love stays, the dance stays

all the while the great unknown is moving through
changing us in its persistent wake

Whatever you are moving through, beginnings, challenges, goodbyes, joys

Come dance it
Bring it
We'll move through it together.

Either tonight or at a Buffalo Gap Retreat in June, August or October.

Sending love,
Ann

PS:
Friday Night Let Go tonight, 8–10pm, Carderock
https://www.annkite.com/letgo

PPS:
Advanced registration for The Gathering: Convergence.
happening now, housing is filling up
The Dance • Soul Motion • 5Rhythms • Open Floor • Ecstatic Dance
https://www.annkite.com/thegathering

Dear Dancers,

Finally some rain softening edges, calling us inward
beneath grey skies, life keeps moving.

Tonight we gather for our Let Go.

https://www.annkite.com/letgo

The beauty of dancing on rainy nights ~ allowing the weather of life, the fullness, the tenderness, the fatigue, the uncertainty, the joy
moving it together.

Breath by breath. Step by step. Beat by beat.
No need to arrive feeling inspired or clear.
No need to even know what you need.

Just come.

warm your body in movement.
sweat a little.
be with good humans.
remember yourself.

Friday Night Let Go
8–10pm
Carderock
Looking forward to sharing the floor with you tonight.

Sending love,
Ann

PS:
Advanced registration for The Gathering: Convergence.
happening now, housing is filling up

https://www.annkite.com/thegathering

Five teachers.
Five movement modalities.
One shared field.
The Dance • Soul Motion • 5Rhythms • Open Floor • Ecstatic Dance
June 26–29 at Buffalo Gap (extra day optional, June 25)

Photo by Nosrat Tarighi of DC MultiMedia Productions

Our last Sunday dance of the season starts today at 1pm! Potluck after class under the pavilion.

Sunday Connection, 1 - 3pm, @ Carderock

https://www.annkite.com/sundays

photo by Sue Green

Good Morning,

Today we dance, learning how to open what contracts, soften what has grown rigid, and bring balance to what has become too sharp or intense.

I hope to see you at 12noon ET today!

Sending Love,
Ann and Anand

https://www.annkite.com/online-classes

The Shed, The Opening, The Dance . . .

This April, each Wednesday, Anand and I will be teaching from the shed . . Dance and Writing together.

A weaving of movement and words—
body and page,
feeling and expression,
listening inward and letting what’s there begin to speak.
Come join us this month.

with love,

Ann and Anand

Dear dancers,

This week began with a call from my daughter, Lilliah. “The headaches continue,” she said. “I need to stop pretending I’m okay.”

Her doctor has prescribed another MRI, another MRV, and we’re again facing the possibility of another surgery.

What I noticed — even before fear — was how quickly my separate self decided a story: She’s okay now. We’re through this. We have more time. And how easily that story slid into numbing — not from lack of love, but from trying to protect myself from feeling fully.

And then… correction.

Love rides close to grief. An open heart carries both.
This is the practice: staying.

So I want to ask you:
What are the stories that harden you?
Numb you?
Pull you away from presence — from your body, from one another, from what’s here?

Because this life is not only sorrow. We touch the hem of joy. We bask in it. We feel the oneness of open hearts moving together. This, too, comes with presence.

The joy of being together is not to be missed.
This remembering — this awakening — is needed for our lives.

Friday night, we practice letting go — not of what matters, but of the stories that pull us away from love. We arrive. We commune. We remember what we are.

After all — we are just love.
That’s what we are.

You don’t need to be okay to come.
Just bring yourself.

With love,
Ann

PS: a few spots still available next weekend — dancing at the ocean. Join us? annkite.com/tranquility

Dear Dancers,

How much can a heart can hold? I doubt it’s finite.

A Monday meltdown - tears. More unexpected news of a close friend, the fragility of bodies - compassion. The weight of this human world - prayers. And alongside — delight in cooking for our VA Beach retreat with Anand and Lilliah - laughs, imagining the sound of waves we’ll soon stand beside - breaths, thinking of sharing these soups with dancers - smiles.

Joy - this is so beautiful this life, gratitude. Heartbreak - cancer, heart attacks, women abused, people hurt in so many ways. These share the same breath.

… consciousness moves, the noise softens. Breath is here. The body remembers the steadiness of existence underneath it all. We dance not to escape — we dance to meet it with a fuller heart - we dance knowing this all changes - we dance knowing we don’t know.

Fred Rogers said our lives are shaped by those who “smiled us into smiling . . . loved us into loving.” This dance floor, this community, is one of these places. The dance, our community bring steadiness, peace and hope into this world. This is an extraordinary gift we share.

Join me tonight. We’ll move it together.
With love,
Ann

Dear Dancers,

It's time to dance tonight!
https://www.annkite.com/letgo

So much is loud right now.

News cycles whip back and forth. Pain is visible — here at home and across the world. So many people hurting. So much uncertainty. It can feel disorienting just trying to stay human in the middle of it.

And yet… this is exactly why we practice.

When we dance, we are not ignoring suffering — we are unhooking from the habits that keep us locked inside it. The body becomes the doorway.

Add the body. Add the breath. Let the mind open — suddenly truth, clarity, actions that heal become something we can feel.

Hope to see you on the floor tonight at 8pm, Wednesday online or at VA Beach see below. . .

All Love,
Ann

The Let Go (Fridays) — Ann Kite The Let Go Friday Night Let GoLet go of the week and welcome the weekend. Join Ann every Friday at 8pm for a high-energy and deeply-embodied release. On January 9th: Anand will be subbing for Ann while she’s away. 8pm in Bethesda. Click here to buy ticketsSell tickets online with Ticket Tailor pho...