Writings

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Sunday 2nd,  October, 2022
Helsinki, Finland

Next︎

I’m working on a dance piece that currently carries the project name “Cybernetic Body / State of Emergence”. The aim is to reflect on the isolations and pressures that are created in the ‘strange and uncertain times we are living in’ through modes of movement and allegories of the individual, society and nature. The specific reference is the effects of lockdowns on professional lives, especially with artists, because that is where I have experience. But there is a larger scale subject here: being trapped in isolation; the feelings of pressure coming from above; the question of trancending our condition when in isolation and being marginalized outside society; the common tendency to ‘fall prey all too easily to the ultimate anomie’.

There was a practice session (see video below) that we were late from and there were only 30 minutes left to practice with no specific plan except to find ways to approach the project’s themes. During this fantastic and short session, four plus three specific points of seeing emerged:

Point 1

Pinky was suddenly leading the whole body. So a small and unlikely part of the whole might be the leader, even if the whole is unaware of this.


Point 2

Using the same internal circuit that we scan during Morning Sitting is a fantastic practical tool for making a symbolic connection between the moving body and society. Practical in the sense that it helps the movement to emerge.


Point 3

One great way to do a move that symbolizes the 'weight from above' is to do a suspend>collapse. This is the same idea as suspend and release but with a more sinister vibe: the weight coming from above and crushing us.


Point 4

The body scanning technique is much more difficult in movement that is close to the ground, especially in the more 'acrobatic' stuff. Something I have to work on. Actually, one new aim for me in dancing.But there were more that I knew after the session...


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Point 5

There was a different kind of movement quality that I found in close to the ground movement. It's where you use joints in a very counterintuitive way and lean on them to create impractical, uncomfortable and weird geometrical body shapes.


Point 6

Stillness works.


Point 7

We were late for the session due to issues with public transportation. There were only 30 minutes left to work and find something for my future solo performance. So I told the person with the camera, that "just start filming whatever I do". This brought within it a necessity that something has to happen, but it's impossible to know what would happen. And from this came the general kinetic/somatic idea for the whole thing. A point of seeing.


_{Acknowledgement to DH for
the opportunity to verbalize
these thoughts.
︎}