Dear Silvana,
You left us so suddenly.
Leaving us all in disbelief, with a sense of emptiness and grief. It feels surreal.
You left us at a time when your life was expanding in so many ways. You were reaping the fruits of many years of dedication and love in action, both in your personal and professional life.
We want to honour "the Mother of Movement Medicine in Italy.'
You are the first certified teacher (please let us stay in the present tense for a little while longer…) and you have given so much to this practice and to the creation of community, both in Italy and internationally.
Weaving relationships, bringing together red threads and threads of so many other colours.
Your vision of community has inspired us and will continue to do so.
Thank you for putting your face, your heart and all your energy into helping deconstruct the prejudices and taboos surrounding the menstrual cycle and menopause. Your work has touched, and will continue to touch, the hearts of so many women, men and beyond.
You brought your presence, your dance and your teaching to so many places, continuing to break taboos in this field too — even dancing in a museum in Trento, as part of a three-year project co-created with Tarin Meneghello, which was just beginning to take flight these days.
Thank you also for all the work of weaving connections you carried out in your own city, Pordenone, building relationships and bringing different visions together.
Ubuntu in Movimento, the association you created and managed with me, Tamara Candiracci, eleven years ago, holds all of this within it:
"I am because we are."
We bow to the Great Mystery of Life, feeling all the emotions that are present in this moment.
We are embodied beings. Grief, and anger too, belong to this here and now, as does the feeling of being lost and disoriented.
*What’s next?*
For now, we slow down. We feel. We honour your beauty.
We feel you as mycelium, a living network that connects us and nourishes us, beneath the earth and in the vastness of the sky.
May your teaching continue to keep us close, nourishing us precisely through our differences.
We carry you in our hearts and allow what you have sown to keep growing through us, in dance and in life.
Thank you, Silvana. ❤️
Kat, Tamara, Camille, Marie-Laure, Giorgio, Ilaria, Shanti, Tarin, Giulia and Gaia
**
P.S. On the day you died, you were meant to begin your Movement Medicine session, *“Like autumn leaves on the trees…”*
And perhaps, right now, another dance is beginning. In another form.
**Safe travels, dear Silvana.**
Tamara has written so beautifully on behalf of us all. Thank you.
Just a few more words and images to share from us at the School of Movement Medicine.
A poem for Silvana
Silvana, woman of the woods,
weaving simple magic among the roots,
fierce in your seeking,
graceful in your finding.
A roundhouse of welcome,
woven in red.
Always a kind word,
a breath of fresh air,
an unexpected light through the trees.
Your laughter echoes in our hearts.
We hear it still,
even as our minds struggle
to understand your leaving.
Thank you
for all you gave,
for all you were,
for all you stirred awake in us.
We will miss you.
Wherever your journey takes you now,
dear one,
they are lucky to have you.
As were we.
Follow the brightest light.
You are free.
We will carry the medicine
you left in our keeping.
Your name will be spoken.
Your stories will be told.
Your laughter will find us
when we least expect it.
And we will love you
across the bridge,
beyond the reach of our knowing,
into the mystery
you loved so well.
Ya'Acov DK
Italian translation
Silvana, donna dei boschi,
che intrecci una magia semplice tra le radici,
fiera nel tuo cercare,
piena di grazia nel tuo trovare.
Una casa rotonda che accoglie,
intessuta di rosso.
Sempre una parola gentile,
una boccata d’aria fresca,
una luce inattesa tra gli alberi.
La tua risata risuona nei nostri cuori.
La sentiamo ancora,
mentre le nostre menti faticano
a comprendere la tua partenza.
Grazie
per tutto ciò che hai donato,
per tutto ciò che sei stata,
per tutto ciò che hai risvegliato in noi.
Ci mancherai.
Ovunque ti conduca ora il tuo viaggio,
anima cara,
chi ti accoglierà avrà la fortuna di averti.
Come l’abbiamo avuta noi.
Segui la luce più luminosa.
Sei libera.
Porteremo con noi la medicina
che ci hai affidato.
Il tuo nome sarà pronunciato.
Le tue storie saranno raccontate.
La tua risata ci raggiungerà
quando meno ce l’aspetteremo.
E continueremo ad amarti
al di là del ponte,
oltre i confini di ciò che possiamo conoscere,
dentro il mistero
che hai tanto amato.
