electromagnetic pulse

open studio 8.

Today, I cheated. But good things came of it, so I am allowing myself one day with broken rules.

I did not dance without music, but I did think of a great idea for my open studio visitors. Starting in September when I will officially invite everyone to come watch me practice, I will ask folks to bring in a piece of music that they know very well for me to dance to, hopefully having never heard it before, but that's not a requirement. In the same way that I like to affect the way we experience silence when I am dancing, I would like to know how others experience something "equally" familiar through the "strangeness" of my dancing (though to many friends, my dancing is no longer an unknown, it too is something with which we can grow familiar --turning to fondness or boredom).

I was very tired in the studio today, which is why I let the music continue. I hardly warmed-up, in the traditional sense, spending instead twenty minutes "merely" sinking into the floor. This is my absolute favorite thing to do in the studio. I lie on my back in a relaxed position, arms and legs dangling straight from their sockets. My muscles and bones wrap around the floor, which I hardly even notice because all the pesky thoughts of the day and week are flooding out into my head. And I let them. It's such a relief to take the time to notice that they're there, and then to relax as they dissipate from my mind and I start naturally to focus on my melting body.

When I am dancing, I often come up with the "best" ideas or the most lucid thoughts or the loveliest revelations. Perhaps it is the patient clearing of the mind that allows for this; perhaps it is the pulsing flow of blood from exerting myself; or perhaps it is that these are my most successful and secure moments in life, and my inhibitions are too low to prevent the ideas and thoughts from happening.

Today, I spent the hour floating. In my head, on my feet, in my arms. It was the steady 3/4 wave of the music that kept me going.

Labels: openstudio

posted by e m p @ 10:38 PM