The day had been filled with stress, a wildfire heading toward the house, family chaos and arguments over nothing as usual and now this…. I was 16, walked into the theater and immediately stepped right on a big nail and bloodied the crap out of my foot.

It was the night of my first big exciting solo. I would be dancing with Eddie, the love of my life, my boyfriend at the time.

But there I sat on the theater floor with words I won’t repeat here coming out of my mouth, and a very bloody foot, followed by the tears of the repressed emotions from the day’s events. Yes, we got the fire under control and eventually put out. But my foot was punctured and bleeding right on the ball of the foot I had to do all my pirouettes on!

“Why couldn’t it have been the other foot”! was all I could think of just then.

There was not the slightest hint in my mind of not dancing that night, bloody foot, pain and all! The problem was how to hide it from the director because she would have replaced me in a NY minute!

I hid in my friend’s dressing room where no one would think to look for me nor have the snoopy young eyes of understudies around to see my efforts to stop the bleeding and wrap up my foot. I got it handled. warmed up, point shoes on, a few moments of meditation and visualization of how I wanted things to go that night and off I went to grab my costume and head for the wings.

You see, I had learned early in life out of necessity during other performances that visualization had an uncanny ability to override my insecurities and my self-doubt and carry me through every step, jump, or turn that I needed to do without ending up on my backside center stage!

So once again, I centered myself got myself intentionally into the ZONE, as had become my habit and went out there with Eddie to dance. But there was something different happening this time. Something strange. Something beyond…. I didn’t fight it, I went with it, full out, fully committed to the moment and the feeling.

I finished the performance bloody foot and all. The director learned what I had done only later that night. She wasn’t mad but said it was a good thing she didn’t know because she would not have let me perform! And she loved my performance.

My foot? Oh, I had forgotten all about it! It healed in time but trust me when I tell you that life and ailments feel very different when one is in the Zone!

What happened, or what I experienced of it, is this. After my quick meditation/visualization I listened for our musical cue, then silence and stepped out on stage. Three steps and a simple porte de bra (arm movement) and I suddenly felt as if I were in some deep cosmic space. No fear. No butterflies. Just this incredible energy that felt like it was emanating from me.

I experienced it as a feeling of energy and love and “saw” in my mind’s eye, a force of something that felt sort of spiritual and like a light force move from me, circle the audience and come back to me like a gentle but powerful boomerang. It came from my life in some way, not my brain but something deeper. Coming back, it felt like it came back from the entire audience! The audience got so extremely silent that you could have heard a pin drop. It all happened in this one instance when I first stepped out onstage, about 3 seconds of time that felt like time had stretched way out!

The dancing that followed felt like perfection, like dancing weightless on clouds, with time standing still. Everything worked. Every jump, turn, and lift.

Later someone told me we got a standing ovation from large sections of the audience. A rather large crowd of people came backstage afterwards for an autograph. Not saying this to brag because I don’t experience it that way, but only to share the joy and excitement they felt. And do you know what literally everyone I talked to said to me? They complimented the dancing, and then said, but Cinda, there was this one moment when you first stepped out onstage and moved your arms in silence that was phenomenal and it felt like there was an energy coming out from you, from the stage. I felt it. It was amazing. In essence, this was what everyone I talked to that night repeated to me!

The energy of being not just in the Zone but having a shared experience with the audience was so supernatural that I never forgot the moment and in fact built my personal style of performing, and later teaching, from that experience for the remainder of my career.

I share this here because this is an example of one of many times in my performing life where dance and meditation and visualization and extreme pain came together and created release, healing, joy and a sense of magic! And it came with an added gift of feedback from my audience.

But please hear me when I say you can feel this too in whatever area you live and work and play in. Dancers do not have a monopoly on it. Athletes and everyday fitness lovers as well as every living breathing person can benefit from this combo of meditative movement life…. stuff. When I figure out what to call it you all will be the first to know!

In the meantime, know that there IS a way to reach this extreme high, this extraordinary experience of multiple parts coming together, and use it in your life. I didn’t know it then, but I do now. It is repeatable. It can be accessed. And it can be taught!

Happy meditating and happy dancing!