Intention, awareness, and attention. These 3 words can come in any order, there isn’t a fixed way. From Landscape of the Now I read that ‘some intentions never enter conscious awareness, they come from nonverbal realm’. I saw this reflected in the practice, because when told to improvise with our eyes shut and no arms (arms inside shirt). I did moves that are not habitual to me, because I was more aware of the people around myself. Adapting the exercise with our eyes shut, we were told to dance a duet with our eyes closed and coming to a stillness together. I enjoyed doing this exercise, and found it quite easy to come to a stillness with my partner.
The following exercise was 3 down 2 up, which is 3 people have bent knees and 2 have straight legs, sound easy? However, I found it difficult because we couldn’t look anywhere except the front, therefore we had to use our peripheral vision and somehow know when to change.
The next parts to this exercise was easier:
– 3 forward 2 back
– duets and a solo
– duet and a trio
– only one duet touching
Finally, to finish the practice off we did a ‘performance’ of a solo, duet, trio, and quartet, although only one of each was allowed. At points, it was difficult because some people would have the same intention as yourself, but then one would have to change your mind without communicating.
Bibliography
De Spain, Kent. (2014) Landscape of the Now. New York: Oxford University Press.
Leave a comment