DANCEMEDITATION

May Day-ly Practice 6

Dunya — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:01:31 +0000

Shadow & Light again, only this time I cast the front of my body––her ventral plane––into shadow and illuminate the back, the dorsal plane.
She is iridescent, as if covered with fine rain-bowing scales. A reptile. An upright fish. I feel how I was once a fish, my belly mostly facing the pull of gravity while the a little filigree of fins carved wavy lines as I swam, peeking up once in a very long while above the succulent ocean into something so thin. Air. Wind. That was many incarnations ago. Now my back is mostly where I sleep. In my dreams, it communes with the center of the planet.

My friend Anastacia tells me that in the Hawaiian system of body significance, the front of the body is the Past, the middle is the Present, and the back is the Future, because we can’t see it…

May Day-ly Practice 5

Dunya — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:59:33 +0000

I’ve been thinking about doing intensive work at Kripalu in comparison to doing it at the Summer Movement Monastery. Kripalu is such a cushy place, wonderfully supportive, with all the cooking and cleaning being done for us. The day-to-day living never brings people into conflict. It is by nature a much easier place to be.

The Movement Monasteries are hard core. Like a blast of convent life. It was good to remember how much more goes into our relationships at Movement Monastery retreat. We cook, wash pots & pans, sweep the floors as well as share intensive Dancemeditation practice. This is a good place to develop clear boundaries, express oneself with kindness, mind one’s own business while receiving high quality connection with others and with oneself. And we are all in very rich communion with Self and the Now.

This year I so needed Kripalu’s nurture; I’m a little worried about SMM. But I also look forward to doing the work for two weeks. Two weeks! Yay!

May Day-ly Practice 4

Dunya — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:30:05 +0000

Perpetual Motion Practice
Use any music that has a steady rhythm (different tempi are fine) without silences at a sustainable pace.
Keep moving as much of the entire body as possible for a minimum of 20 minutes. 40 minutes is best.

What I’ve been liking is that, though I generally begin with a sense of obligatory gloom, this practice invariably morphs into fun midway once endorphins kick in. Also, I need the purposeful parameter to simply get off the floor where I’ve blobbed down far too often, glazing off into dreamy stretching that is little better than a nap. Of course I love napping, but when stressed (as I had been for many months) napping became an escape rather than a healing. Opening the door of self-witness was something that I’d gotten out of practice with, not being able to tolerate much self-contact. Now that things have levelled out, I need to jump back inside. Perpetual Motion gets all my sleepy synapses popping, and my body wakes into her story.

In terms of combining this pratice with Shadow & Light, I’ve found the right side of my body being very busy with space and time, very punchy, so Perpetual Motion suits the right side’s process.

May Day-ly Practice 3

Dunya — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:28:49 +0000

My left side is twice as long as my right. I don’t care what the mirror says. When I close my eyes, my left is longer than my right. So which is truer, seeing or feeling? Which do I care about more?

May Day-ly Practice 2

Dunya — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:26:26 +0000

Shadow and Light practice is now very active. The right half of my body continues to feel dense, but brewing…

One exercise in formal dance composition is to create symmetrical designs with the body. These are rather static as it is difficult to locomote in symmetry. With two of four people, symmetry is more lively but still suggests stability. I enjoy considering my body in light of these universal esing principals, though they have no bearing on physical sensation.

In daily life, we employ our natural symmetries, for the most part, asymetrically: dominant-handedness, driving the car, etc. If we could get our eyes to operate independently of one another we’d multi-task our vision. Limbs develop according to the tasks they are asked to do.

I suddenly recall my ballet teacher beginning preparatory barre-work exercises always on the same side. Sometimes she didn’t even bother with the second side (unusual in ballet!). And I think of the Islamic prayer, with the right toes curled under in the Qa’adah. Or dervish whirling only going counteclockwise. (Those of us who do this practice feel how the two knees have opposing torques.) Examples are endless.

In Shadow & Light practice my body has an opportunity to object, react, and express her experience with these long-term habituations.