Skin & Tattoos of Vehicles
Pakistani vehicle art and this lovely Lipton Tea elephant.
Every surface in NYC is patterned, tattooed. Nothing is naked.
Archive for April, 2010
Apr 29
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Apr 27
About Anna Halprin: Breath Made Visible
I have followed postmodern dance pioneer, Anna Halprin, in very small doses over a long span and this documentary about her life did not change my impressions. I find her work underwhelming except for a few astonishing images, her integrity and longevity, and the first film piece of hers I saw when I was a student at Bennington College in 1972. I have remembered “Parades & Changes” after one viewing for nearly 30 years. That says much for its impact on me — the slow, gentle way the dancers removed their clothes to Petula Clark’s “Downtown”; the sound of the tearing paper. So simple and expansive. It’s the dance that drew me back to her. It is one example among many of slow, conscious movement that continues to contribute to my own performance.
The documentary is lovely. To see any dancer’s life so affectionately, patiently, and fully framed on film is a blessing. Her activism reminded how front-and-center dance stood in the counter-culture movements of the 60′s and 70′s. Dance was so valued, so vibrant; it truly became a full-fledged art. I still look around at our current dance climate and say “what happened?”
I wished there had been more of her pale chalk-caked body sitting in the crook of the embankment stroking her cheek with dark mud. More of that. And of her wrapped in fabric rolled by the ocean waves. More of that. Less biographical interview and more of her body, her dance…
Tea Dance in Boston
Saturday’s Boston workshop had a solid, deep feeling. Beforehand I looked at 5 hours and thought, “That’s too long!”, but this bi-yearly workshop has got its own feet now. We do our 4 hours of moving, resting, chanting (really good this time!), dancing, etc. then take the last hour to sit in a circle and talk over tea. The tea & talk is a perfect wind down from non-verbal hours. The conversation was rich and smart. Just want to specially mention again Lisa Tieman’s beautiful dance. See you soon again on Cape Cod!
Why Retreat?
“Action expresses priorities.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
To change anything takes practice. Addictions — they’re bad habits. Very bad. Beyond our reach, we say to ourselves. Beyond our will power. Breaking them takes more than wishful thinking, more than a few days of intentionality. If you’re hooked on addictive substances, you’re dug in deep; you need a 12-step or more. But if you’re in a self-destructive rut, retreat works.
One part of Summer Movement Monastery is training out of self-destructive habits. The body needs time and repetition — more than once or twice. Two weeks of preparing and eating cleansing food isn’t only a yearly retreat clean-out; it’s a springboard to taking care of oneself by preparing and eating good food daily throughout the year. Two weeks gives our bodies enough time to retain the new experience, to develop a comfort with it, and a preference for it.
Amazing to think that many of us live on crap, dead food, predominantly cooked by slave labor of others, but we’re so busy, etc., blah-blah-blah. At Summer Movement Monastery, we get rid of blah-blah-blah for two weeks. We prepare and eat good food, envision how we will implement this at home, then prioritize this action.
We also practice Dancemeditation. Why didn’t I say this first? Because its more obvious. We know we are in session 7 hours a day, and we can imagine, or know from experience in other retreats, that we retain a craving, at least for a while, to do practice at home.
The most important thing about the 7 hours of Dancemeditation daily in retreat is what I call the Operation. Our time in retreat makes a permanent spiritual change. After, we return to our world in a changed condition. Yes, it’s possible to forget that this happened, possible to bury the change under dark choices, but why? A Path has called us. All we have to do is open to it, spend time with the Guide and group, and then not forget. Retreat is a spiritual rip in time. We enter Timeless Time concerned with our spiritual evolution. Permanent change — the Operation — happens because our Deepest Being needs Communion with the Deep, All-Pervasive Subtle. We need what is beyond the daily world of cars and screens and din.
There is plenty of discourse about whether or not a Path should be socially useful. Should spirituality be politically active to be relevant? Are our choices to make a better world a result of how evolved we are? Is positive change possible, and can we even effect positive change without changing our condition? Or is the world a mirage and all that matters is the internal spiritual struggle? Does activism distract from spiritual path?
No matter how you consider your own role in the world, or the role of spiritual path in your life, retreat is where the most accelerated growth happens. Looking at retreat from the most mundane perspective regardless of your philosophical stance, cultivating positive habits is, at the very least, good for you and the world.
Apr 16
Is Not Is-ness
During the Asheville, NC Dancemeditation Weekend:
I had strong dreams which I can’t remember — part of their charm, but it was a relief to sleep deeply, to dream fully, to be in a world not nailed down. A world of odd intuition, paradox, pockets of clarity and pockets of dark fragments that weren’t frantic but simply unordered. Chaos. The word ‘chaos’ implies pandemonium but it can be quiet, floating, peculiar. Chaos may contain both potential and unraveling without knowing which is which. Chaos is the Is Not for a mind that favors categorization and definition; for a bodymind that lives in a cognitive netherworld, this Is Not is a balm, a boon, a peace, an Is Not Is-ness.
Not exactly Wujud, but clasping its edge. Wajad.
When I taste Is Not Is-ness — the pure place that has no white light, no angels — insanity departs, fear departs, bone-deep exhaustion departs. I drink happiness.
Without it, my life is slow death.
