You Too Could Do Abstract Improvisational Dance!
1) Primer
There are strata of selves,
labyrinths of thoughts.
There is pure action.
The self will insinuate into all things.
It is a pond:
wrought and confined;
fettered by contrivance of beauty,
ideas of order;
compelled to habit;
shackled by relational rituals;
invariably succumbing to the world,
for it speaks in syntax
and languages learned.
Its references return to origin, always.
Action is the sea;
expression and understanding, one.
Remove self to free the act.
The body will be vessel;
no more;
agent of unencumbered neutrality,
suffused with awareness and courage,
assured it is true and good.
Presence is so.
Your training should be
wide,deep:
learn to fall like a leaf,
rise like wind;
practice lightness of clouds,
alacrity of fish,
suppleness of willows,
keenness of a cat,
weightiness of a hill.
Know gravity.
Understand your spine.
Seek inversion.
Plunge into inner space.
Hurl through outer planes.
Acquire vocabulary,
but relinquish always.
Never choose ornament above rigor.
Is improvisation whatever you want to do? A showcase of your best talents?
2) Practicum
Stand.
Empty your fingers.
Be here.
Allow — be seen.
Do not perform.
See,softly.
You are,and no more;
it is enough.
Do not betray the truth.
The idea is
an idea;
the dance is not.
It is.
And will be —
when you are there.
Lightness in fingers.
Ease in toes.
Space in joints.
Softness in neck.
Be.Hear.
What lifts you?
Go.
Photograph by JUN HUA EA
