2015-04-10 11.33.21

2015-04-10 11.25.12

2015-04-10 11.21.28

Focus of Wednesday: Breath

3 exercises I proposed on the first day

1) Assimilating the partner's Breath

Find a partner. One partner is going to get into a comfortable sitting position and is going to breathe naturally. Partner B is going to sense the breath of partner A by touching different parts of Partner As' body and trying to synchronize his/her breath with the breath of Partner A. Once this is established partner B is going to stay with the breathing pattern of partner A and allow that breathing pattern to take him/her into motion. It's like trying on a new coat or T-shirt and going for a walk with it. How does it feel to move with that new breathing pattern, a breathing pattern that maybe isn't you natural one? Partner A is simply going to observe the movement exploration o partner B. Do I see the breath and how it forms the movement? Do I recognize my own breathing pattern in partner B? How does watching this affect my own breathing?

Little by little the breathing pattern is going to change naturally. Keep allowing the movement to be born from the breath, to ride on the breath. . . if you wish suspend, exaggerate and play with the breath a little and see what kind of movement starts happening now.

Come back to a comfortable sitting position. Now partner A can approach and through subtle touch check in with the breathing of partner B. Are our breathing patterns still synchronized or are they different? Slowly, patiently partner A tries to synchronize his/her breath with the breath of partner B sitting on the floor. Once you've found it take it into the space. Partner B observes and notices if the breath in the moving partner is visible/palpable? Partner A takes a few more minutes to move on the breath.

2) How does movement affect my breath? / How can I challenge and change my breathing through movement? 

Find a different partner. Each partner does a 5 minute exploration. with a short 2 minutes response of the other. Jackson Pollock: the breath is like paint and by moving the pencil or the vessel or a can of paint vigorously you splatter paint into the space. Allow the breathing canal to be open and breath to come out through the movement. Don't force breath out by focusing on the breath. The focus is on the movement.

short response (2 minutes)

3) Apnea Move and pause. Move with breath. Pause with apnea (holding your breath). One partner explores the task, the other partner observes.

Then do the exercise again, and this time pause while breathing (gas station). Move while holding your breath. Challenge your patterns. Don't always pause after the same amount of time. Pause in the middle of a movement Surprise yourself and surprise your partner.

Apnea / Gas Station with everybody. You start all touching. After an inhale find a common agreement to disperse with apnea (full lungs). Move around as long as you can without breathing. In order to breathe again you have to touch someone. When you are touched stop moving and breathe. Try to create bundles of bodies breathing together. Create urgency in the space to be together. Because in order to breathe you have to be together. You can only breathe when you are touching someone else. Challenge yourself in how much and how long you move through space alone while holding your breath.

PERFORMANCE SCORE

On the last day of the residency the participants went through a performance score that linked some of the different states we had explored during the previous classes.

1)    half of the group (movers) in the space with eyes closed, the other half (shamans) stands in a circle around the movers. The movers start to react to sound (sound from inside and outside of the studio). After a while the shamans start to make sounds (voiced breath and other sounds) making use of the different pranayama techniques we  explored in the workshop, but also being more free and creative with sound. The movers move on the sound of the shamans. The shamans try (by directing their sounds specifically at movers) to take the group of movers through space, bringing them collectively from one area of the studio towards another, like herding a flock of sheep.

2)    Kappalabhati: after a while shamans introduce kappalabhati (breath of fire).                            this insisting, repetitive breath is contagious and everybody finds their way into the same breath rhythm. Explore resistance against surfaces (floor, walls, other bodies). This breath is about becoming more compact, solid, about density. Gradually bodies approach each other and become one dense structure, mass, giving weight into each other, pushing, eliminating holes, gaps.

3)    Apnea: From this place of maximum density and proximity the group lets go of kappalabhati and finds a collective breath that is about expansion  and moving upward towards standing with everybody - still touching and close in a huddle. The group collectively finds a moment of holding  the breath after an inhale. When this inhale is established, they all swarm out into the space while they keep holding their breath.

4)    Birds: movers individually swarm out into space, gasping for breath, splattering breath and movement into the space like Action Painting (Jackson Pollock), try to stay together as a swarm - light touch is helpful, image of flesh falling away from your center across the space, cross the space as a swarm a few times until finding the floor at one end of the space

5)    rolling along the floor like pouring sand, cave breath (breath carves cavities, hollows in your body), through these cavities a think liquid or sand is being poured. one crossing of the space

6)    bodies get up and walk through space in slow motion in one line with open soft focus, one crossing