Watching me leap across the floor, jerky and stiff -- a catapult trying to fling itself through the air -- a fellow dancer came up to me and said: You want to fly so badly. It's a beautiful dream, but it's not helping you, at all... Why don't you just change dreams?
That question, though many years have passed, still rings through my thoughts and befuddles my brain. Isn't perseverance good? How can you tell where life wants you to be? Isn't inspiration more fundamental than my friend would have it seem? Consider it as I may, a shrug is all I come up with in response.
Still, I love the sound of it. Why don't you just change dreams? It's so simple. Surprisingly crisp for something carrying such weight. It trickles lively and floods my brain, until I find myself floating, face down in my own head. And, I love that, too. Because, when you're trying to move better, less-thinking's a good thing.
When analysis finally decides to take a break, the mind is free to work differently. It can pick up sensations from outside and in, get a feel for each part and where and how it fits in. Differentiation, after all, is the first step towards coordination. But, perception comes first.
The purpose of this project is to offer a different point of view on dance and movement in general. It's not just my view; it's shared by others who have spent years and years exploring, who have chosen the longer road. It's the view that the indirect has as much value as the direct. That, for one good step forward, you might need to start with four steps back. It's the belief that, no matter what our interests are -- dance, fitness, sports or movement techniques -- by considering basic things like rhythm, space and weight, we can create a shift. We can invite new relationships to come, bringing efficiency and ease. Coordination, after all, is just an access to the body's quieter intelligence.
But, before we go there, let me rant and get that out of the way.
Dance has absolutely nothing to do with falling into a split. Nothing to do with the size of your breasts or you hips. Nothing necessarily to do with youth, tights, Flashdance or Fame. And, if you're into submission, self-dominance and pain, save it for the bedroom!
It's about adventure and mystery, seeing yourself and the world-around-you differently. It's about being awash in the unfathomable and getting a feel for the waves. Striking a slippery balance that works well for you and doing it again and again. Until you find yourself weaving and spinning out, wild and calm, into the warmly pertient and refreshingly unexpected.
It's less about flying high, more about diving in.
