Presence

As a performer I ask myself what is presence? How is it that some people command a room and others just blend in? What is it that attracts an audience to some dancers/performers and not others?

There is a power in presence. There are performers who when I see them just attract my attention. Sometimes it’s their physicality, sometimes it’s their expression, but it is always their presence in the moment and the vitality that they exude that makes me want to watch them.

I remember as a child watching older, retired dancers perform pantomime and being absolutely enthralled. Their stagecraft was amazing, perfected through years of experience and passion, and an innate sense of expression. The performance was riveting and I was on the edge of my seat hanging off every moment. One of the dancers, Colin Peasley, taught me on occasion and he was possibly the first teacher who focused on performance rather than pure technique. The wisdom that stood out was, “every movement has a text, saying or story. Make up a text for yourself and say it as you perform!” Wise words from a true performer!

I also remember seeing some male dancers enter the stage and lighting up the auditorium with their presence. Steven Heathcote springs to mind. This type of performance is still the most inspiring moments I've had watching dance. There is something electric about the moment that is switched on and alive. A passion expressed fully and authentically. An energy filling up the room and demanding attention. As an observer, in the moment there was no thought of technique or form, just an excitement about what they were going to do next.

Sadly presence is often missing in todays performances. I have many theories as to why. Perhaps it is not just one reason but a complex series of reasons. Or maybe it is just my perception!

• There is an extreme focus on technique and as I have learned and experienced myself both as a dancer and a teacher, focusing too much on the form leaves us with no mental capacity to focus on the feeling of a movement - where expression and presence lie.

• In schools and training, there is a perception that presence is a natural thing that you either have or don’t. “Natural performer” is such a throwaway line that says perhaps more about the teacher than the student. I believe in a growth mindset that anything can be taught / learned. It is perhaps less quantifiable - presence and expression than form and therefore difficult to measure. Also perhaps each individual has their own individual approach or need meaning that there are many ways to get there, but not all students need the same information or take the same path to improve.

• Dance has changed immensely and continues to evolve as an art form. Back 30 years ago it was much more of a presentation with direct focus to the audience. Now the philosophy is one of observation where the audience is in the room and the performer is being observed. It is presentation vs embodiment as expression. In presentation one could direct a dancer to smile, look out into the audience and capture peoples attention through their focus. Nowadays performance as embodiment means the dancer needs to feel the emotion and intensify it to bring the audience into their world. Sucking an audience in rather than reaching out.

I’m trying to theorise as to what it is that creates presence. As the word states, it is being present in the moment and alive when entering the stage. By being here in the now we enter a state of flow and fully connected with the role that is being performed. That requires awareness of the present moment and full engagement with its feel. There is also something to be said about filling up the stage with ones presence, projecting energy into the room and expanding to be passively aware of the audience.

By focusing on the feeling or text of what one is trying to express it changes the dynamic of the movement being performed. The greater the intensity, the greater the expression.

There is also a form of spontaneity to presence. It’s being there in the moment, flexible, engaging with the energy of the space and being able to react. Actually this all can be summarised broadly as play. Presence is the ability to play with the moment and movement, experiment and keeping it alive.

Emotional pain...

It’s getting deeper and darker here! Thought I would write about pain and suffering… it’s a feeling that is tough and one I totally want to avoid, but it does come up in my life and has it’s place. It’s a tension in my gut, stress in my heart and a general closing in of the world around me. My awareness is so limited and I jump into survival mode. I catch myself not breathing and need to consciously take a deep breath to get myself going again. Feeling hurt is a struggle. It’s emotional pain. I find myself physically curled up whether seated or lying down. I find myself in a place of inertia, hardly moving. It takes effort but does help to stretch myself out and rise up… following the breath. Small steps to get my energy flowing again.

Verbally, emotional pain is a really hard to thing to express and when I try I seem to get run over by emotions. A lot of the things I say are extreme and hurtful whether to me or others. There is something instinctive about wanting to hurt others, as if that would be a way to feel better. Because I’m hurting, I am going to make you hurt too. Perhaps it does help for a moment releasing energy in a fight response, though it creates pain for others. So in that sense it’s “valid” but can be very destructive. I think from hurt is the place where I have done most damage to my relationships. My ability to listen to someone else is gone and I only want to put across my own point of view. I can laugh now at conversations I have had where I have tried to express my thoughts and another has tried to express theirs. I often know what they are saying and realise it has nothing to do with what I am saying, yet I can’t bring myself to listen or respond because what I have to say seems so important in the moment! The pain talking and playing havoc with my communication skills?

It’s interesting the way pain plays out because we have the three responses - fight, flight or freeze… Freezing will most likely traumatise us. Fighting is pretty destructive, so flight is perhaps the best option. What I am thinking of here is emotionally stressful situations where, though my life is not in danger and such a response would be necessary, my body is reacting as if such a situation existed… it doesn’t know the difference. And so I have this instinctive nervous reaction. Perhaps the pain I am talking about areare two different things… one is the exact moment of the “shock” or trigger causing the pain and then second is the pain that exists and later needs to be healed. A broad arc at least?

As I sit and think of pain, I can activate the fight response by boxing like a prize fighter in the air. It feels good and well, I always win! It can get really intensive, but at the same time it brings a char grin to my face. I’m sure if I looked in the mirror my eyes would be twinkling!

I’ve also experimented with my daughter in activating the flight response. She use to struggle with a fear of separating in the mornings at kindergarten. She’d hold me tight and never want to let me go. By getting her to run and wiggle her legs in the air for a few moments (simulating flight/running away) she calmed and was fine.

I can remember too, myself, after arguments having to remove myself from the situation and walk. Get out in the fresh air - anyway other than here, to shout and scream for myself to let the energy go.

Another time I can remember my son being so frustrated at his homework that he broke down crying and couldn’t process a word. It’s interesting because he freezes pretty much and becomes physically stuck. I’m not really sure what happens next. It seems if he sits there crying, he can’t continue, but if he runs out and slams the door etc. he’ll calm down and be able to refocus.

What I find interesting is the physical process and how much it helps. I’m always amazed at the body, how much is instinctive and how powerful it is to self heal. It’s intensity of emotion and physicality - another way of expressing ourselves. Extreme situations, yet intensity seems to bring out more of us!

Good and Bad Stress

As someone who likes to be “easy going”, I am coming to terms with the idea of good and bad stress. These are a summary of some of the ideas that I find inspiring from Todd Hargrove’s book “Playing With Movement”.

Stress occurs whether we like it or not, but not all of it is bad for us. Actually stress is a stimulant helping us to grow. The idea that we can live without stress and just flow and be at ease, sounds great, but is actually utopic.

What’s bad stress? Stress that is prolonged, uncomfortable and beyond our control that in the end leave us weaker, depleting our energy even to the extent of being overwhelming.

And good stress? Challenges that are shorter in nature and within our control. Also experiences and tasks with adversity that is not overwhelming. They need a bit of will power and effort to resolve, but think doing a workout or taking a test, solving a puzzle or being socially vulnerable by speaking in front of a large audience. These all have an element of stress that through the process are actually beneficial. The stress is part of the challenge allowing us to grow.

There is obviously a difference between how people react to different stressors and the amount they can take. Bad stress for one person may be good stress for another and not necessarily seen in a competitive nature. Think how alcohol relaxes some people and makes others obnoxious…

There is too, a point where our systems get overloaded by stress. The metaphor of a bucket is great for describing stress and what/how much we can handle (resilience)… the bigger the bucket, the more we can take before it is full and we are overwhelmed. So small bits at a time are needed to be added to the bucket then released through sleep, play, relaxation, light exercise etc… daily, eventually through experience, growing the buckets size.

We are after all organisms that are continually evolving and changing and adapting. Our bodies and minds are muscles that we need to exercise. Since the physical body is pretty efficient, energy is directed into functions that are required. So when we don’t do something for a long time, the body sends energy to places where it is needed instead. Think going for a run… if we hadn’t been on one in a while, the muscles to execute such a feat would not be in the shape required. By then training for a few weeks with a gradual increase in effort, energy is directed to grow the muscles needed to develop this function. The body is truly fascinating in how efficiently it uses energy and how it works.

Another analogy to do with organisms and stress is how Gardners prune trees. They cut them back in winter so that they grow healthier and stronger in summer. Or non-fatal failure tends to lead to us growing and coming back even stronger (and / or wiser from the experience). So being subjected to limited / controlled amounts of stress is actually a good thing and something that we need.

Nassim Taleb coined the term “Anti-fragile” in his book to describe things which grow stronger from adversity, seeing it as the opposite of fragile - things which break from adversity. There is a certain flexibility to them that allows growth and change, rather than a fixed ideal or a permanent state of balance that eventually becomes brittle.

So I’m going out to make sure that I have some healthy stress in my life! Exercise, discussions of ideas with people of different view points, striking up conversations with strangers, challenging myself to learn new ideas… I’ll have to think of some more.

And definitely less of the bad stressors… lack of sleep, unhealthy diet (sugar!), social media…

More on body mind ideas

I’ve been working some more on the thoughts presented previously in this blog to do with movement exercises and connecting with oneself. It’s still in its infancy and is really only a theory, but it’s the basis of something that I think is worth spending some time working on. It’s grown through the desire to get to these emotions and work on new ways to develop exercises. For some reason, once one has a philosophy or a concept, it seems easier to fill in the details.

Most of the information I have gained through different ideas from books that I have read. They aren’t necessarily mine. What I am searching for is a way to put them together that is useable or to find a blueprint that I can work off to explore.

Physical activity to address the body, which my field - dance is a part of, is of such importance here. The flow down from the physical into the rest of our being is powerful. As I think of people who have dis-ease in their bodies and how that affects the rest of their being, it shows how reliant we are to our health. At the other end, chronic thoughts continued over time can build and build into something that affects our body and in doing so our whole being. It’s a theory of an interconnected system that is constantly flowing from one part to the next.

Where I want to take this, is using mindfulness to create awareness of where one is, then through basic exercises (coming from the dance/movement side myself) to engage a trickle down flow from the physical body to the rest of ones being.

Maybe this is just the basics of Dance Therapy! I will do some investigating…!

Though the more I think about it, it does sound a lot like dance therapy, it’s not my intention to be a therapist or to conduct therapy sessions. It is my intention to find a flow or a tool that enables us to be our better selves. For me personally, it is about structuring my classes in a better/more effective manner. That is why I am exploring!

Stage as a moral institution - Schiller

The world is an ever evolving and changing place, facing new challenges the tried and tested stay the same and ring evermore true. Schiller’s text The Stage as a Moral Institution has not lost its touch.

“Never discuss politics or religion in polite company” was always the mantra as I was growing up. I never understood why, though if you look at todays debates, perhaps we can see. The amazing amounts of disinformation, opinions presented as facts and spin means we are caught in a web not knowing what is real. Healthy skepticism is perhaps the only way to take all news stories. The speed with which social media spreads information has meant that nothing is checked or even thought about before being spread. There is a general lack of ethics and nothing to really hold people to account (at least in the short term). Perhaps the reason for passion and extremities and culture wars in todays political world is a result of the lack of moral underpinning that has come as religion is in many parts losing its influence.

I grew up Catholic due to my Italian Heritage, though I was never a devout believer. I do appreciate the spirituality of a church and the energy that is present as one enters. The stillness and the space, the moment in time for reflection is very powerful. There is a lot to say for the morality and standards religion kept people to and how todays world seems to be lost due to the lack of beliefs. That said, the amount of damage done in the name of religion is probably proportionate…. so in the world at the moment we seem to be transitioning to being a-religious, somehow losing our values and decency. Of course this is a great generalisation and it is perhaps, that the most immoral people are usually the loudest.

Why do I bring this theme up? More culture theory! I have been reading another text by Schiller The Stage as a Moral Institution (English) (German - the text is slightly longer as it is from a speech. The English version starts at the asterisk about 5 paragraphs in). Schiller’s theory is that the stage is / can be the bridge between Politics and Religion.

This text needs to be given some context. At this time in Germany there were not so many permanent theatres and those that were permanent, were a part of the courts of the aristocracy. There was of course no other forms of artistic entertainment (thinking film, television, radio etc. here). It was also a time where there was a transition from theatre being for the court and becoming also a medium for regular people.

In the text we again find Schiller’s triads, Politics, Religion and Theatre or Laws, Morals and Higher Service or Head, Heart and Imagination/Creativity. The text itself is beautifully written, poetic. It is an appeal to our better selves. What it does show is how art, especially theatre, can be of value to society in such a way that news and opinion cannot. We can laugh at ourselves when presented in satire or cry at the tragedy of a depressing story, yet because they are just that - stories, they can say things that real life cannot. We can approach their message with a sense of perspective as it is “just a play” or a piece of theatre. It’s not life, but it can mirror what is happening in life around us and get us to think deeply about the points where politics and morals meet.

Many directors and producers are presenting pieces (theatre and film) about problems in society as well as creating satire to do with current events. Theatre hasn’t lost its power over the 250 years since Schiller wrote his text. Engaging with a piece of theatre or film gets us out of the instant gratification of social media and today’s ever quicker pace, slowing things down and putting us in a place where a message is well thought out, presented and developed in a thoughtful manner. Just the effort to produce a piece of theatre dance or film takes a lot of thought. It is an immersion in the idea or concept presented and explored. Yes, it can also be seen as an opinion yet a well thought out opinion. There is also a lot of “skin in the game”.

Skin in the game is a concept where a person has significant risk in an endeavour thereby making them vulnerable to the result. It is considered an honourable thing, as no-one desires to lose their own “skin” by producing something that is of low quality.

Here is another comparison to the instantaneous nature of social media, versus the time and effort invested to create a piece of art. By necessity, theatre and film can take up to several months to produce is a big investment of time, energy and usually money, meaning that there is a desire to create something of value.

Play and Learning

I am combining here the thoughts on play and learning. To truly learn something we need to understand it fully. To do this we need to play with the idea or thing. Knowing what it is and what it isn’t, how it functions, it’s strengths and weaknesses as well as its purpose is one of the best ways to truly know something. It’s the natural way that children learn (think experimenting with walking - balance, falling, etc.). It’s also learning through experience which is one of the most effective ways of creating a lasting lesson that can easily be recalled or used.

I’ve been searching out more ideas surrounding play and in doing so I found a book by Todd Hargrove called “Playing With Movement” (a book about exercise). He categorises play as:

Play is:

• intrinsically motivating

• not too stressful

• exploratory

• creative

• tinkering

• involves risk

So if I learn an idea, I need to use play to fully explore it. Find out how it works and be motivated to even take the time to do it. If I really know what it is, then I should also be able to fully explain it (see “A thought on learning” post) as well as knowing how to use or apply it.

Todd Hargrove also brought up some interesting comparisons between play and work. His thought is that we need a combination of both to produce the best results. Just lifting weights in a gym will only develop certain muscles, just as only practicing a sport without training will not give us an edge either. A child will learn to walk by themselves, but encouragement or other forms of help (holding a hand, placing two object close by to move between, etc.) will speed up the process and can still be enjoyable as long as the right atmosphere is there. There is alway room for a combination of both.

Social interaction also helps to motivate us as well. Encouragement from others, gets us to push further and take risks. Healthy competition can also help us strive to improve. Being part of a functioning team can help to motivate us to be our best, as there is a greater purpose involved than that of our own personal gain. Groups also provide social accountability and camaraderie that can motivate too. It’s not always necessary but it can help.

A Thought On Learning

Found this on twitter (https://twitter.com/ProfFeynman/status/1196101977664454657)… and I totally agree.

The FEYNMAN technique of learning:

STEP 1 - Pick and study a topic

STEP 2 - Explain the topic to someone, like a child, who is unfamiliar with the topic

STEP 3 - Identify any gaps in your understanding

STEP 4 - Review and Simplify!

My son has been struggling with thing that he’s been unsure about as I have been helping him with his homework. The most effective way I have found is to get him to explain what he is doing.

I find this works for me as well. If I can explain a subject / concept to someone and they understand what I mean, then I get the feeling I know what I am doing. Of course there are always different ways and perspectives to doing anything and that is where the review and simplify comes in!

An idea for an emotion / movement exercise

So I am working here on summarising ideas so far to do with feelings and movement.

I guess there is some ideas that need to be more concrete so I am putting them out here.

One of the wonders of dance is that it is experiential. All the theory and, ideas mean little unless they are experienced. I think this connects into our emotional sides, as feelings are just ideas. They need to be experienced to understand what they are and it helps if that experience is also physical. Physicality definitely gives them depth and / or power.

As feelings are internal, the physical form is secondary. It is a natural expression of what is going on inside. Physical experience is perhaps best done through improvisation, where the form is derived from the emotion rather than having a specific form and transposing feelings onto it. The form appears organically and can be identified through shape and dynamic drive, the six parts I have mentioned previously (see blog post - understanding how feeling affect movement).

Here is a basic concept of how to get to exploring emotions through movement.

1. Awareness - Awareness of the body and how I am feeling in this moment. Awareness of the flow of energy through my being and also of how I am, how I hold myself - posture - and how I am moving.
   By simply closing my eyes and breathing, listening to my body I create space to be aware of where I am. I am connecting with myself in this present moment. By doing this I am also tuning into what is going on in my body so that then when I move, it is more present.

2. Vulnerability - To connect with our feelings we need to allow ourself to be vulnerable. Allowing vulnerability needs trust. Trust that I am in a space where no harm or judgment will come from what I do. Trust that the experience will be one of discovery. So to be in a non-judgmental space with supportive people around helps. Also having my eyes closed and focusing inward lets me give up what is happening externally and whether people are reacting to what I am doing.
   Vulnerability allows us to experience and feel with depth and provides the basis of expressing those feelings which is what I do as I hold myself or move. Being aware is a start, but so to is putting myself in a safe space and allowing myself to release, relax and let go. It is going with the movement or where my body wants to go, rather than controlling it. It is seeing a flow and experimenting with this inner impulse.
   An idea is with eyes closed to start following inner impulses and movements. Start by releasing, changing shape and following ease. After tuning in our bodies want to move in certain directions, going with this is allowing the vulnerability to be.

3. Play - as a continuation of allowing vulnerability, the next stage is to play with the movement that comes. It is engaging with what is there, following it to its ends, sending it in different directions. It is allowing a flow and moving how I feel like doing. Giving into natural impulses.
   The difference here is that we are subconsciously directing/influencing our movement, feelings and thoughts, rather than just observing them. It’s not controlling the movement, but allowing them to take shape, move in different directions, be present with movement and feeling. Taking inner impulses further, even to extremes to enhance their presence and amplify them.

4. Directing - Here, after the experience of the first three moments, it is time to add a conscious decision. To decide what feeling I choose to experience and to discover and explore it. It is a form of conscious immersion. An improvisation that is actively driven by the chosen feeling, dynamically explored in its entirety. The aim is to connect with and discover what the emotion is (and what it is not). It is here that I am consciously expressing what I feel inside through movement of my body.

Where to next? In isolation a cool down would come to put us back into balance and in ourselves, a la no. 1. But there is obviously further to go with these ideas.

Ideas like contrasting two emotions, I find interesting. The question is always, if they are too far apart, can the body make that jump or does it need steps in-between?

Ill add to this as ideas come!

Dysfunctions of a team… Vulnerability / Trust

I reread a classic book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni during the week. It’s a book about teamwork that I’ve had for a few years now. The book is a theory on how teams work and don’t work. I sometimes wonder how much people understand as to how teams best operate or what a team really is? Anyone who is a part of an organisation or club encounters teamwork so what makes a team great?

Teamwork is really important. I’ve always believed that the ideas of many are much better than the ideas of one. It’s simply that many individuals with unique experiences can bring a lot more to a table than one person. Naturally they have differing views that need to be synthesised to create progress, but the scope is there to create something that generally is greater than the power of a single individual. Of course this requires leadership!

So what are the 5 dysfunctions of a team?

• Absence of Trust

• Fear of Conflict

• Lack of Commitment

• Avoidance of Accountability

• Inattention to Results

They can also be spun in a positive way - how a team functions best. A team:

• Trusts one another

• Engages in unfiltered conflict around ideas

• Commits to decisions and plans of action

• Holds one another accountable

• Focus on the achievement of collective results

It sounds so simple but of course it’s not! Each part builds on the next, with trust at the bottom and results at the top. Yet they are all so important.

So where to start with my thoughts? I’ll focus on the first one today: Trust

There is an interesting take in the book on trust. Trust in a traditional sense is trusting that people will behave in ways that they have done in the past… being dependable or reliable.

Yes, this is trust, but there is a second version that is perhaps more pertinent to teams, relationships and perhaps life in general. It’s being open and vulnerable and trusting that one is safe to be this way.

Vulnerability is a key theme that I have been thinking about and encountering a lot lately. How willing am I to be vulnerable? It’s the vulnerability of sharing, of being open, of being able to admit mistakes, of freely expressing ones opinions in a non-judgmental way. It’s exposing a part of oneself where one can be rejected or disliked and being ok with that. It’s about taking chances realising that failure is a possibility. It’s never about being reckless, but it’s about living life to its full.

Vulnerability is so interesting and is a choice in our hands. I can choose to be vulnerable or not.

In my experience, being vulnerable is quite uncomfortable. I have liked to avoid it, but I am trying to be more vulnerable. Yet at the same time as it being uncomfortable, the act of being vulnerable in itself is extremely valuable. Even with the possibility of failure or rejection. A growth mindset helps to get over setback, but it’s the fact that one was vulnerable, that one can learn from the experience rather than avoiding it and living in fear. Vulnerability is in itself is actually liberating! And that feeling is great!

How can we be more vulnerable? It’s expressing our inner selves, our unfiltered thoughts. It’s taking risks especially interpersonal ones. It’s allowing the true me to be seen, letting down my guard and realising that who I am is good enough, a work in progress.

The benefits of vulnerability are immense. Through vulnerability we create true connections. Through vulnerability we allow others to come closer. Through vulnerability we create and grow. Through vulnerability we are able to be ourselves. Vulnerability is about recognising ones weaknesses, deficiencies and shortcomings. It’s being able to make mistakes and owning them and being able to ask for help.

Relating to a team environment, trust is about allowing vulnerability, feeling safe enough that these weaknesses will not be used against the individual. With trust, rather than using valuable energy to protect oneself or manage ones’ own image, it allows is people to focus fully their energy on the task at hand.

How to do this? Well it starts with being able to share personal information, feelings, experiences. It’s giving insight into who one is. It’s also about being able to share ones weaknesses or ask for help.

Here are a few from myself:

I struggle with commitment. I’m not great at making up my mind or making decisions. I rarely treat myself or do nice things for myself. I’m awful at recognising others and expressing gratitude.

If I do commit to something I am very loyal and will see it through and give my all. I love working out concepts and exploring ideas. I am usually quick to understand how things function.

The Third Form - Schillers' Idea of Play

So in a continuation of the idea of art being defined as feeling or form, I found more art philosophy, this time from Schiller, about the mix of the two. A great post on the idea can be found here: http://www.goldenassay.com/2012/09/21/schiller-and-play/

Schillers’ theory is that there is a third form in art and he calls it “play”. It is the point where the combination of or the act of combining form and feeling.

It makes me question what play actually is, so lets explore play in more detail:

What is the definition of play? Here are a few select definitions of play from the dictionary (source):

1 Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.
1.2 Amuse oneself by engaging in imaginative pretence.
2 Take part in (a sport)
4 Represent (a character) in a theatrical performance or a film.

These are definitions that resonated with me (there are of course others). What links them is the engagment which I find crucial for play, as it is the part that makes it experiential.

In looking at these definitions, I also question whether play needs to be unserious? Sure it can be enjoyable and for recreation purposes (unserious outcome), but I wonder if anyone who truly takes part in playing does so without engaging themselves 100%?

There is a spontaneity about play in being alive and engaged in the moment - experiencing. Outcomes can be important but are not necessarily the goal. In my observations of young children playing, they are always 100% involved in whatever they do. Perhaps the act of playing can be described as letting go and involving oneself in an activity whether it be sport, art, creation of any kind with varying importance on the outcome.

If we take this back to the idea that there is a combination in art between form and feeling which is called play what does it mean….

Well as an artist, play can represent the creative process. Playing with ideas (form and feeling), synthesising them by turning them around, putting them in different positions, constellations, comparing them to others, stretching them, shrinking them, associating them… all exploration of the imagination - tangible and intangible. It is taking inspiration, a form and a feeling and then playing with it that is the creative (doing/experiential) process.

By engaging form and feeling we are developing art. Synthesising the two brings develops an idea, enriches it and allows it to grow.

The three parts form, feeling and play correspond with many philosophical and historical ideas: mind, heart and imagination (soul/spirit) or intellect, sensitivity and spontaneity. They have also been related to the ancient gods and mythology.

Great pieces of art have all three. A work that is sentimental, smart and imaginative, that engages both visual forms and provokes an emotional reaction, making one think and feel at the same time.

How does this relate this back to dance? It’s in the philosophy that dance combines and synthesises both simple forms creating play. This is an absolute luxury, though makes dance complex. By design all parts are essential to dance. Form is clear in the shapes our bodies make in their pathways as they move and also the positions held between movements. Feelings are expressed through how a body is held - its posture and also through the changes in form - dynamic expressing emotional depth and intensity. Or put another way A solid state conveys one emotion depending on it’s position or expression. A moving state can vary not only the emotions expressed but also their intensity!

Dance is play!