Two Streams/ Many Ways

cont...

The Red Square

"..practice is to take a ball of very thick red twine and create a square of red on the floor. it's definitely something, it's not ambiguous. It is not necessarily a "square", just an architectural lines appropriate to the space... choice made each time-- what wall will be the back wall? will it be 3-sided? how big will it be? It always has straight lines.

First practice is to present the space as being empty. Then invite people into a mind-training discipline of quieting the mind, closing the eyes, and then opening the eyes and seeing oneself in a posture, a still posture, in the space. Actually letting an image of oneself arise in the space, then go and inhabit what we see... A fairly intense practice of manifestation. YOU are going to invite a vision- a future image of yourself, to arise in the space; and then you are going to COMMIT and go take that shape, on person at a time."

The instruction is take the shape and spend a moment inhabiting the shape. Sometimes between visualization and physicality there are some adjustments of weight.

Then come to stillness and inhabit the posture 100%.

Then simply allow yourself to be seen, witnessed, so that you are cannot hide even while you are out there, solo... Really feel the kinesthetic surrender to let people see you.

And then at some moment, there is a flicker of consciousness; then it starts to dissolve and you let it dissolve and then you leave the space. There is no effort to try to sustain it.

It is rather you are looking for that moment when the mental perception and the consciousness are softening, and you let it go. "

"What is to inhabit a still posture? What is it to actually be present, to feel yourself in a shape in space?" "What is it to let you see me? And what does that feel like kinesthetically?"

Visualization isn't always like visualizing a photograph. For some people it's an energetic process. For some it is very visual, and for other people it is almost like a molecular density, or emotional coloring." It is not to be beautiful." It is not to make a clever posture. IT is to take on what you visualize.

Everybody does a solo, then you move on to duets, and then trios, which are much more accessible. So, one person takes a shape in the space and then you see yourself in the space because of that shape and immediately there is a relationship. So the liberation comes as people start to feel the engagement that way."

Then we get to do Round Robin.

So when you enter, it's not with the intention of "completing an image" or making a compositional statement? It is simply a visualization in response to what you see?

Yes. The person is standing there, and where do you see yourself because that person is standing? You start to see these two pathways: one is abstract and one is content. ONE is design and ONE is emotional/relational. And we talk about that.

Eventually you begin to add props and costumes; one group is responsible for the materials the other for the imagery. For example, "I'll go out in the space and sit down, then somebody will come and put a hat on top of me, or a candle in front of me, or a shawl around my shoulder. And I will stay there. And either I can stay there until I want to leave, or you come up and tap me on the shoulder because you don't want me in the picture anymore, and I'll leave. At this point, any number of people can be out there and it starts to get more dense. Then we start to include movement, but starting with only limited repetitive movement patterns, like walking."

IS there a point where people are working as an ensemble using all of these visual, kinesthetic, and compositional awarenesses as a foundation, where it is actually just open space?

Of course! that is ideal.

Does there need to be a frame of any kind, an intention, limitations?

Well, I think ensemble is a deep commitment. It is relational. You make an intention to be together and to really do that. 25 to 30 years ago we didn't have a lot of group consciousness. For all our brilliance, cleverness, and riskiness, we didn't have a lot of psychological savvy. We just blasted into material having no sense of what it was about. We where fooling around with our unconscious and our subconscious.

What is it to decide that-- those questions-- are up front before you even enter into the intentional community with somebody? talking about the different levels of perception, the slidings between awarenesses.

... to make theater that is about society, about culture, and about deep inner human existence-- ther is some longing I have about that kind of storytelling. But then again, my training is in pure movement, and I still love that.