Bear's Blog

On the full moon lunar eclipse in April, Emilie Conrad took on her light body. A true pioneer, exploring consciousness through the human form, she challenged our thinking and awareness of what’s possible, and how we limit our own experience. She was at the cutting edge of many disciplines, enlisting collaborators in the arts and healing arts. She was a pivotal teacher for me in many ways. I studied with her off and on over 15 years, and have included Continuum movement in my healing school curriculum because it is so valuable in understanding and working with energy. Fluids are the interface between matter and energy, and move in the same way as energy – as spirals, waves and stillness.

" In Continuum, we are dissolving form and creating something new moment to moment. At the age of 80, after decades of practicing Continuum, Emilie was so vibrant that I thought I had many more years with her."

She died of lung cancer that metastasized to her brain. She started early in life as a professional dancer, and for 20 years she smoked a pack of cigarettes a day – like many dancers – to keep her weight down. The cancer was discovered late but she outlived her prognosis by many months, allowing time to spend with her co-teachers and students in a last series of classes earlier this year. I thought she might defer to her co-teachers more at that time, but she was front and center, amazingly coherent and present. Being in the continuum field was the best medicine for her. I “worked” on her but the cancer was intransigent; yet as I held my hands over her head, I could literally see her scalp rippling in response.

She was okay with dying but was still very engaged and felt she had a lot to give. On the soul level, I saw her with an armful of flowers, a big cruise ship behind her, throwing kisses as everyone said “bon voyage.” Although she had a very strong and forceful personality, she loved her students and was much beloved in return. Her classes were intimate, the work an opening – of the body, feelings, and to the cosmic intelligence available to us all. Releasing thought, moving with the pure experience of being connected to everything through the field - in Continuum we are dissolving form and creating something new moment to moment. At the age of 80, after decades of practicing Continuum, Emilie was so vibrant that I thought I had many more years with her.

We all have many teachers in this life. I am reminded to make the effort to spend as much time with them as I can, now. Of course, they are still available from the other side, but as we know it is a different kind of relationship once someone has passed. In our Advanced class in May, Emilie came in spirit form for Continuum and stayed for the next few days – still a class junkie, even from the other side! Her many collaborators will continue to expand on her work relative to their various fields, but no one will replace Emilie. She was constantly pushing the envelope of pure Continuum and developing revolutionary ideas and theories of how we are shaped by culture, society, thought and movement. Her contribution was enormous, and I will miss her.

-Bear McKay