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Meet Trailblazer Phannie Haver

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Phannie Haver.

Phannie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was 19 years old, I experienced a life-altering event. I found out my father, the man who raised me, was not my biological father. This news deeply impacted me, and I credit it as the moment I decided to discover who I truly was. At 20, I began my journey of self-discovery. At this point, I had been dancing seriously for about seven years, had acquired my massage-therapy license, and had been living in Denver my whole life. I wasn’t sure who I was or what I wanted, so I ventured out onto the road in search of me, the real me [the me no one could take away from me]. Over the next 10 years, I treated my life as my teacher, searching for the things that made me feel most whole. I traveled, I moved to and lived in Seattle and Los Angeles. I continued to study dance as well as begin teaching at my own studio. I studied energy-work techniques, a martial art called Aikido, somatic-movement practices such as Continuum and Authentic Movement, amongst other consciousness-expanding activities. I dove into the dimensions of what makes us human, and more importantly (at least to me), what makes us being. Through lots of trial and error, committing myself to practices that weren’t quite right, and those that were, I found my center. I found what is most fulfilling to me. What brought me the most joy.

Now, I live in Denver, teach dance, facilitate Authentic Movement, coach, provide body/energy work, and my main focus is my dance company Radical Love Movement. Radical Love Movement, or RLM (RLM the letters, or also pronounced like ‘realm’) for short, is my heart. It is the accumulation of all my life’s studies and works so far. It’s my creative outlet, how I communicate my truth. It’s also a place where I get to share what I’ve learned with some of the most impressive women, who continually challenge and inspire me. RLM is a platform to connect to the public via performance and community classes.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, I wouldn’t say it has been a smooth road. Where I sit now, looking back, I see that everything was in perfect service to my personal evolution, each experience building on the next. At the times when I was in the weeds of my life, I didn’t see it that way, while experiencing heartbreak and betrayal, navigating new cities, relationships, jobs- and my tumultuous relationship with dance, having a need, a deep desire to move and express through my body, but coming up against the culture and environment of traditional dance, i.e., having the ideal body, ideally executing specific dance movement, being the canvas for someone else’s wishes. I couldn’t ever get on board with the mentality of being a “dancer.” It was too damaging physically and psychologically.

I’d say the biggest struggle along the way was discovering and executing what dance, movement, life, growth, change, and love was to me. There was a real schism in what I saw in the world of dance, even just life in general, and what felt true in my heart. I was lucky enough to follow this feeling of truth within me, though it didn’t make any sense at the time, I couldn’t help but stick to what it was my heart wanted. This feeling, this deep knowing within me guided me through many experiences — ones of joy and despair, profound loss and elation, and through it all, I just kept learning from the experiences. Kept learning more about myself, and why I believed what I believed, and over many years of this process, I chiseled away at the societally built ideas about how things should be, how I should be, and what I should want and discovered the real me underneath it all. I discovered how I wanted to participate in life.

The advice I would give is to keep with your heart, do the work to know yourself and trust that the expression of that unique you is exactly perfect. Life is meant to be lived, and you can only do that in the now. Try and never get ahead of yourself, and even when things aren’t clear or don’t make sense, come back to the feeling that got you there and trust the process.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Radical Love Movement – what should we know?
My work is with people. I do body and energy work, embodiment coaching, teach dance, facilitate Authentic Movement, provide consciousness coaching, and my dance company Radical Love Movement is an accumulation of all these things.

I am an artist who wants to support others in their conscious evolution through the experience of being a body. The way I’m doing that right now is with my dance company and our upcoming show.

I’m very excited and very proud of my dance company’s upcoming show The Only Way Out Is Through. We have been working on this show in one way or another for the last two years. We started the process by doing Authentic Movement as a group then shared and discussed our experiences. From this process, a theme emerged and we simplified it into – the process of embracing our emotions and experiences. This then formed itself into 3 parts. Resistance, Awareness, and Acceptance. We created and performed all three of the sections individually, at various art galleries around Denver. (Resistance- ArtGym, Awareness- Dance2b, Acceptance- UrbanMud).

Now, we are putting the whole show together, telling the entire story of The Only Way Out Is Through. The performance will include Dance, audio, music, and projection art. We are collaborating with Chris Bagley, a renowned digital artist to create the projection art/and light-scape of the show. And with The Armory Denver for the audio recording and music composition.

I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to make art at this level and to share it with audience members. This isn’t just a show, it is an experience, one that will hopefully spark many questions of introspection.

Our dream is to offer to coach, or classes for post-show questions, or desire to go deeper into the exploration of consciousness.

We will be performing on November 15th & 16th at 7 pm. If you are interested in seeing our work, please visit our website and join our mailing list so you can be invited to the show. The event will be ‘private’ to comply with city regulations. So, be sure to get on the list! You don’t want to miss this.

Which women have inspired you in your life?
I have many women in my life who inspire me. To start, my mother, Jill Bishop, taught me to be kind but direct, to trust myself, and to love without hesitation. Long-time family friend Gail Haywood who inspires me to stay with my passions and continue showing up for life no matter what gets tossed in your pathway. My dancers, Les Martin, who inspires me to be the best version of myself, Katie Wiegman who inspires me to stay curious, Leslie Klieman who reminds me a change of perspective can change the world. Some dance heroines of mine are Elle Sandstrom and Amy O’Neal; they both gave me the gift of exploring and experiencing dance in a new and non-traditional way. And many, many more.

Pricing:

  • tickets to show $30-60
  • Private embodiment with Phannie $50-90
  • Authentic Movement Privates $125-250

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Ariel Elich

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