Once we get good at shifting and are able to clearly and articulately discriminate between one frame of action and another, we will have built up the skills to work on transformations, the measured step-by-step change from one state of being to another.
Transformations demand a clear mind. The required oscillation between experiential awareness and analytical attention ignites a path of never-ending waves, ebbs and flows of tension and undulating feeling states. The challenge is to stay alert. To let the minute changes in material lead you rather than cling to the planning/ need-to-know mind. The “noticing,” the assessing, or measuring mind is an extremely useful tool, an active part of the process. Without it, we simply bonk around from one state to another, quirky blasts and regressions, and/or chunks of stagnated material. A smooth incremental journey is often disrupted by small shifts, or “jumps” in material, or interrupted by getting stuck on one piece of material, a “plateau.” We must administer equal amounts of attention to the multitude of details included in our awareness. Beauty arrives as we discover how a transformation guides us into material we would not have previously discovered; the “Aha!” of self-surprise.
We have to pay attention to the small changes in the opening or closing of a motion; the tension in the mouth, eyes or face; the pitch and tension of the voice. Any detail may pull us further. We simply allow those details to lead. It’s rigorous and demands focus. With side coaching from one another, we encounter the absence of needing to know and surrender to the body’s leadership. We don’t know where we are going but we can sure as hell notice that we’re on the road to somewhere.
Experiencing/measuring, wild/analytical, in the flow/assessing the flow, we are always in collaboration with a part of the brain that wants to know what the material is, right now, to clarify and find stability. Transformations directly challenge that need. They ask us to let go, to jump in the fast flowing river and stay there, not cling to footholds, nor know exactly how far we are from the riverbank, but rather take one small step after another into the wild ever- changing waters.
Some of the transformation work included in this training:
- Differentiating between Shift, Develop & Transform
- Feeling state, movement and voice, separately and in combination
- Voice into language and vice versa
- Full body
- Solo, ensemble and parallel duet
Other possible names for this workshop:
Staying with the Trouble (credit to Donna Haraway)
Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
Comfort with UnComfort
Dancing with the Unknown
Morphing Into The Unknown
Comfort in the Uncomfortable
Knowing the Not-Knowing
Playing with Loss
Letting go Again and Again and Again
Again, Again, Again, Let Go!
Easiness in the Wild
Advanced Human Condition
All Ghosts Are Worthy
Changing Spirit in Seconds