Props and objects

Props and objects can provide a totally new source of energy. These object can be almost anything in your immediate environment. These objects create a new source of connection with your body. The shape and character of the object causes you to move differently. They become something that you can both move with and against. They bring you out of your self consciousness. And they literally become extensions of your body. Your body can flow its energy into the object with which it is moving. That object can help shape a story that you body would not otherwise tell.

Here are a few examples of moving with objects.

Clip #1

Notice how the cane is now not only a partner and focuser of energy but also helps create a whole narrative story of some noble warrior doing battle against some unknown threat.

Clip #2

How does the small chair change the traditional object of a love song like this? What shapes and movement are made possible because of this chair?

Clip #3

Watch how the chair literally reveals the internal state of the mover as it functions like a coffin container to a protective shell to a movement partner to a final resting place.

Clip #4

The chair and the body take turns being the energy center and focuser. In the first part of the clip the chair circles the body like an object in orbit around it. In the second part the chair becomes more of a partner and eventually tells the body how to relate to it.

Clip #5

How does the cane shape this body story?

Body story

Your body has a story to tell. It is your story seen through your body’s remembered sensory intelligence. It remembers what your conscious mind cannot and will not remember. It also carries in its genetic and cellular structure the collective memory of all organisms that have gone before it on earth. You can allow that untold story of you to be told. All you have to do is step out of the way of your body and let it tell its story in the language of movement. This will happen when you step into your preconscious mind where your body lives and breathes and remembers and tells its story. And when it tells its story other bodies will recognize it and connect with their own stories. This movement story is not told through choreographed movement which is a product of the highly over rated conscious mind. This movement is not performed; it is an instantaneous reliving of what your body knows and remembers about you. When your body speaks in this preconscious state of mind it speaks spontaneously free of any conscious control. It speaks in the form of spontaneous movement meditations.

Here are some examples of what a part of a body story might look like.

Clip #1

You may not be able to articulate the story being told here by this body in words but are you at some level pulled into the movement even if unconsciously; if so, some part of you is understanding the story.

Clip #2

Maybe the story being told here is playful joy. What do you think?

Clip #3

There is little doubt about the story this body is telling. It pretty much follows the message of the lyrics. Energy is flooding through all of it.

Clip #4

The story is all in the hands.

Clip #5

Something powerful is being allowed to enter this body and this body is dealing with it.

Development

Often a body story will have a movement line of development. The movement begins in a physical situation or position and the flow of movement will lead into a totally new physical situation. Not all body stories which are told in spontaneous movement meditations have developed movement story lines. Many meditations are more like snapshots that leave you with a feeling or images. At times your body may tell a more linear story. That story may in fact be responding to the verbal sound energy that you are moving to.  Here are a few examples of how that may look.

Clip #1

The movement story starts with an unusual physical position on the floor. The movement develops in such a way that the body moves off the floor and partners with the verbal/musical cues to go on a brief journey and then back to the floor in yet another unusual physical position. This is almost like one long movement phrase that unpacks how this body got from one physical position to another. The  movement incarnates the story of this particular combined flow of energy.

Clip #2

This body is working is working something out. After passing through two long phrases that brings the body to the floor of clarity the second time as it shakes, it makes a decision to let it go, to throw it away and move on to a peaceful acceptance and resolution.

Clip #3

The left hand leads this body out of some dream state or into some dream state. The more the hand and arm allow the energy to flow the more the movement develops off the floor and into another state of being.

Clip #4

It is almost as if this body had been frozen in the middle of being thrown to the floor. It now finds itself in a new world and begins to reinsert itself into this new reality. As the movement develops it enables this process to be revealed. Again this can be understood in part as both the body telling its story and  the combined energy streams in and through the body giving expression to themselves.

Going to the floor and off the floor

One of the most clumsy and difficult series of movements is the way in which you get your body to the floor and off the floor. It can also be a very powerful movement metaphor that speaks of loss of power, surrender and the regaining of power. It also allows you to develop a wider variety of movement phrases. And the truth is that the floor has an energy that your body can use to add shape subsequent movement. Your body will find its own ways to flow to the floor and off of it.

Clip #1

Here are three quick routes to the floor and off again. The first one rocks the energy out of the floor and the second two both use the floor energy to rock and jump spring off the floor.

Clip #2

This long phrase repeatedly uses the energy from the floor to propel the body while on the floor and moving off the floor multiple times. The floor almost becomes a partner which both receives the body and pushes it up into the air. The quick moves while on the floor cannot happen without the contribution of floor energy.

Clip #3

Here are two very different examples of falling to the floor. The first one is what might be called a “surrender” fall to the floor. Once again the floor becomes a welcoming partner as it catches the body with its energy. This is an example of a body literally trusting the floor to catch it. The second one is more like a “back up against the wall” fall. It is as though the floor energy  is pushing against the body falling to the it and catching it off guard as if to say to the body, “Hands up buddy” and again, just another kind of partnering.