Thursday, April 26, 2007

Improv- word and tango

Last Thursday, for Caught in the Act at Yugong Yishan, Roger and I danced a few tangos on words the audience suggested. We got "Carnivorous", "Whisky", and "Beijing." We danced our finale on "Infinity", which is the theme for homônumos' 3rd issue.

The exercise was worthwhile. I proceeded, climbing up over Roger, and whipping his back with my legs. Definitively not a traditional tango move.

What came out, as Roger points out, is that the sequence starts with 2 sets of vocabulary. 2 energies. 2 directions. And neither dancer knows what the other is going to come up with (or feel/dance the word up). Then, through a series of adjustments, a feat of balancing contradictory/dissonant energies, the dance evolves into one symbiotic intention.

Accepting not to know where it leads; taking the lead from where it comes. The body fights but in the end, the compromise it makes isn’t as heavy or disturbing as a vocal negotiation. The bodies evolve organically towards a footing on the floor. Once a common flow is established, the dance evolves in a non-tension motion.

I am applying this confrontational organic growth to my writing. I'm not worried where it will lead me. I feed the flow.

My exploration goes on.