FIRE meets EARTH: Dance!
The Dance of E-Motion
Each of the Elements in my System has a pair of primary emotions that we specifically work with:
🌿 EARTH: Fear & Comfort
🌪️ AIR: Apathy & Inspiration
🔥 FIRE: Shame & Desire
💧 WATER: Grief & Joy
⚔️ METAL: Anger & Bravery
In dancing with them, what I constantly utilize — and what is a huge part of what created the movement styles of each Element to begin with — is the basic body language that expresses these emotions.
🌿 EARTH:
Lie on the ground gutted and splattered.
Luxuriantly sprawl across the carpet and bask.
Curl into a ball on the floor to duck, cover, hide, freeze.1
Curl up and purr in a sunbeam on the rug.
Pick myself up off the ground to crawl, stagger, stride, run!
Stop.
Stand still, grounded and centered.
Breeeeathe…
🌪️ AIR:
Lifeless floppy hands of meh.
Fwippy, dreamy cloud-hands with gaze alight on the stars.
Slumped and thhhhhpt with limbs that swing loosely and smack against myself.
Whirling-whirling-whirling like a tornado — to tune out, or to tune in and get everything moving again.
Just move. Just a little. Just one step toward it. Inching. Stretch a little more. That’s all. That’s enough for today.
Breeeeeathe into every movement.
Pause and listen. Breathe. Feel. Let it lead and show me where to go because I don’t flippin’ know.
Breathe deeper.
Deeper still.
Deeper move.
Faster and harder until the tank is full.
Powerful bird-wings taking flight to launch like a phoenix from the ash of what was destroyed.
🔥 FIRE:
Posture closed and turned away with limbs drawn in around my heart, guts, vital veins, and sexual center.
Opening, surrendering with eyes closed, head falling back with arms thrown wide.
Chin ducked, eyes down, head shifted back in uncertainty.
Thrashing-bashing-screaming it out in a volcanic eruption of whatever fucking needs to be purged!!!
Whipping the hands down in “ENOUGH.”
Flicking the hands up in “I’M DONE.”
Chin lifted, throat and breast beckoning, eyes locked in desire.
Reaching out in a warm welcome of yesssss…
💧 WATER:
Body twisted and wracked like a dishrag being wrung out.
Springing and prancing and bounding with arms swinging wide.
Spine bowed and crumpled in grief.
Chest flung open, smile huge, fingers spread in glee.
Arms wrapped around knees as tears are engulfed by the shower streaming down from overhead.
Surrender…effortlessly moved by the ebb and flow of life’s tides and currents.
Diving into and under the next tidal wave before it can pummel me into the ground.
Fleet, undulating body rippling and zipping through the depths to burst through the surface, giggle once, then crash and splash back down to zip once more.
Fluid, purposeful, serpentine navigation around obstacles.
⚔️ METAL:
Eyes scrunched, face contorted, fists hammering anything that comes near!
Eyes drawn like the bead of a laser-sight.
Grounded.
Focused.
Facing it head-on.
Slicing-n-dicing whirling dervish of blades don’t get near me motherfucker!
Push that button.
Undermine this support.
Pop that bubble with a pin.
Crisply step out of the way and let it all roar down the mountainside. Hah. Missed me.
Control.
Precision.
Deftly marching back to the tasks that need to be accomplished with calm capability and a well-supported spine.
Feet striding.
Key gliding.
Blade coolly sliding in.
Bonds: severed.
Healthier bonds: forged.
What treasure!
Arms wrapped around it to protect, to connect, to nurture and sigh, “Yessss…” once more.
꩜ Back to Earth and Air…
Lie down and exhale in relief.
Breeeeathe and rest, now in a different place from the last time I was down here.
Rinse, repeat.
Or ping and pong.
Or sit.
Stay.
Good.
These dances. These movements. The emotions I’m feeling drive them all, and when I take care of my body so it can handle expressing them…when I can breathe and let the emotions come as they will…and then embody those emotions with my every cell, heartbeat and synapse…
It all runs more cleanly through my system.
Fuel in…burn it for energy…exhaust out.
This is the Dance of Fire.
I dare ya to sit still through this one.
I’m pinned to the chair
after knee surgery
and no way I can sit still.
🔥 RAWR. 🔥
© 2025 Hartebeast
Back to:
The original post from which this tangent originated:
Navigation for all the Elements:
I totally typed “curl into a bawl” in the first draft. 🤣🤷♀️😜 This was definitely a tangent piece of the Grief post. Hey, man. Whatever comes out comes out.
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