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.

Voila

I learn from Alessandro, that Grotowski came up with this exercise for movement, which is to move your body from the accumulating surrounding mass. For example do not lift your arm using its muscles, its energy. Rather let the mass accumulate between body and arm until it pushes the arm up.

It works. Pablo Veron (Tango Lesson movie) conjures the spirit of the wind when dancing.

I'm experimenting whether I can do this with writing. I've tried it with an indoor Aloe Vera plant. Instead of writing down what I know and see of it, I take in the empty space between the plant and I, until I can read the space. The first sensation that translates in a word is that of taste.

My exploration goes on.