Bridging Dilley and Overlie

Contemplative Dance ------- The Six Viewpoint Practice
Barbara Dilley -------- Mary Overlie

15 min. seated meditation -
Settling into the seat of the self. Becoming a witness to your thoughts. Emptiness. Breath.

5 ish min. personal awareness that slid into The Six Viewpoint Review -
Carrying the "holiness" and awareness cultivated in seated meditation through movement and free body exploration. Then deconstructing, isolating and identifying one viewpoint at a time with an understanding that we are approaching it within the layer of embodied awareness. It is almost like having two simultaneous meditational practices. Concentrate on this viewpoint only and remain focused on integrating the qualities within seated meditation into your performance.

in hale......S P A C E..........exhale.....

exhale......S P A C E...........inhale..........S H A P E..........

exhale........S H A P E.......inhale..........T I M E.........and so on with
E M O T I O N and MO V E M E N T

I'd never instructed to transition through the viewpoints using the breathe before. I'd talked about switching lenses and still mention the shifting of your attention towards a "separate" perceptual ability. Noted.

5 min. seated meditation -
Coming back to a still internal place of vastness.

OPEN SCORE -
So Contemplative Dance had been revealing a kind of style in the practice. It might have been different if we'd had Dilley to guide us, but with the resources we had, it seemed to fall naturally into a very precious, slow, gentle space with sporadic unique moments but with a very transendental kind of overriding tone. So how do we evolve from that? Bring in the abstract and pedestrian? Allow a more dynamic journey to occur? How do we continue pushing to find the unknown? With what tool can we push against these conventions?.... Viewpoints.

interacting with others was no longer with imposing act or taking away from my own awareness. Lounging on the Piano. Coalescing. Gelling. We are really just extensions of one another.

"I'm going to do something and it will take us somewhere else. You may not like it, but that's okay" ...Milt Jackson, Sunflower...

suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.

Rock. Rock. Rock.


Bush.

Then you were moving around the space and I came in and scooped you out of it. Reached my arms around and gave you a hug. to one side and then the other. An interruption. A hold. You were in wastewater, some serious sludge and then this release from it. So much more underneath.

Exciting to combine Contemplative movement with the Viewpoints. Really Meshes. a good marriage for a sweeter container.

It's like I remember why I'm moving...

Remembering why I don't want to move...

Stillness. Turning inward. Holding. now, Letting Go.

S T O R Y .....

Contemplative MIL

Calm. Simple. Clear. Only Two.

• 15 minutes of silent seated meditation around the perimeter of the room. Holding the space.

letting go, quieting the mind, noticing what it feels like to consciously shift the attention to the right brain from the left brain. Listening to the breath.

• 15 minutes of personal awareness practice.

checking in. Returning to an empty mind. Releasing expectations. Heightened awareness for every part of the body. Waiting. Allowing. Waiting. Moving. Waiting. Noticing.

• 45-60 minutes of group improvisation. This can be either personal awareness or group interaction. Bring the 'emptiness' cultivated in seated meditation into movement.

Waiting. An entirely new sense of 'flocking' for me. Just letting it be whatever it needs to be. Moving in and out of interaction and personal space. Softly brushing aside. holding the moment in between. Coming together. New pathways for moving and shifting in space. A sense of total control by relinquishing all control. Achieving a large sense of accomplishment and satisfaction without any agenda.

Tibetan singing bowl meditation sound score...


ding...




ding...





ding...


An idea for Performance:

Photo by LeAnn Brubaker of 2010 Pathways I Sculptformance by Amelia Charter in Durango, CO

We've been tossing the idea around about what a public viewing for the MIL would mean and where it would take place, maybe what would it look like. After this past MIL experience, we'd wanted to find a way to somehow share that experience with an audience. However, even though the slow, nurturing, meditative, waiting and abstract movement can be incredibly compelling for the performer from within the piece, it can be terribly boring for an audience. So how do we engage their attention with the work? I'd mentioned that parts of this contemplative practice was very familiar to elements of Sculptformance. But with Sculptformance, an audience is able to walk around, sit, stay, shift, walk, etc... and change their viewing perspective throughout the duration of the piece. It is like colliding watching theatre in the round and seeing 3-dimensional, 360 degrees of kinetic sculpture. With that in mind, we'd had the idea of each audience member having a disposable camera. Their "ticket" is the camera. And throughout the performance, audience members could move around and take photos of the work. We'd somehow organize it so that all the photos could be shared online where people could view each other's shots.




ding...





click.....




click....






click....

Photo by LeAnn Brubaker of 2010 Pathways I Sculptformance by Amelia Charter in Durango, CO

click....

M O V E M E N T - the perceptual ability to experience kinesthetic sensation. Do what the body wants. Observing sensations throughout the entire body and participating with movement. From the center of the room to the periphery and then anywhere. Exploring specific places on the body: Using a Yoga Nidra body mapping as a kind of performance score.


Noticing the building awareness and focus on isolating and listening to kinesthetic sensation. You must be grounded and present to bridge the internal experience with external expression. To be mindful. At one point in our development it became loud and fast and the awareness went away, but then came back. Then we were able to more gradually support the awareness as we arced back into louder and faster movement.

"As an improviser it hard to stay mindful of my kinesthetic when I am paying attention to composition. If everyone is present and mindful though, the composition comes naturally."

Peaks and Valleys: An organic Arc. We used local violinist Antony Salvo's Album, thank you. and the MOSS. I love the MOSS.


TRUST. Some of which is articulated with my previous post, but I further understood the capaibilities with a space where individuals allow time to expand, and patiently wait for the success and progress of the session. Rather than rushing to fill the short two hours with as much exploration as possibly, it is about learning to see and hear whatever that day that time those bodies need in the now. A bit of quality versus quantity.

Rainforests. echoes with voice. Molecules. Opening and Closing. Shifting the weight. Silk. Mud. Soft Sand. Circles. 4 women. 1 man. 3 and 2. 2 and 3. 2 and 2 and 1.

We miss the game changer.

Time Shrinks

With the school year ending, seasons changing, injuries, and people migrating, the MIL has kind of lost an arm or two but it growing new limbs on the opposite end of it's organic blobby body.

I am going to write a little bit about collective consciousness and familiarity from an observational and scientific point of view. I want it to be clear that it is no way my intention to ostracize or make anyone feel that they are any less than a wonderful contributor to the MIL experience.

First, Let's recap from the beginning of this group's meeting starting back on Thursday, January 27th:

Completely OPEN improvisation. It was simply, "see you on the other side" and we worked the whole evening with the lights off.
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We'd found some kind of vocal Chord together at the end of the last session. We decided to begin at the periphery of the room and I led us through a brief group ritual called THE CHORD; finding our breath and vocalized exhales together.
from the open score: Rich and Famous
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Lights on. We brought in a sound-scape of a rainstorm with bells and also just rain. We began the evening working in "corridors," which eventually opened into more corridors and then "the grid."
from the open score:
We ate goldfish and all the students died in the corridor. They wanted us to crush their bones into parchment paper.
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Developing a vocabulary to identify and play with during open improv: "Ding" "End" Notice" "Direction." We continued to work with the corridors and the grid.
from the open score:
Christopher was introduced. A dead fish in the middle of the floor. And swimming in sticky buns, but pollution.
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I introduced The Six Viewpoint Theory and Practice and gave a taste of all Six - then focused on SPACE.
from the open score:
A lot of people came that day. Including that one older women who ended up breaking her ankle maybe? There was a lot going on but we were more comfortable I think.
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Starting with a warm up on the floor working our way into sitting. Then I transitioned into teaching about SHAPE. Working with the boundaries of the body and the architecture. Also, Entrances and Exits: 1 2 3 4 ...etc...
from the open score:
I'd talked about about the shape of the larynx and the anatomical shape of the body. A much more unified open score. Some ending sequence with a couple in the corner that slowly made there way to the ending reflection circle. We all wished we'd called 1 more often.
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We had a musician come and accompany the MIL that day. We began with a warm up on our backs watching our hands drift from side to side and then just the hands then other peoples hands and eventually laban and other image phrasing.
from the open score:
THE BIG MIS STEAK. and I died, for a long time...but eventually came to, maybe as something else. The lines between being in and out of the open improv were blurred. Was I talking to the group as an instructor or as a performer? Someone helped me find my father in a cave in the cornfield and I was a vegan in the end, who felt very sorry for all the cheese I'd eaten. A bit of a solo there at the end.
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Reviewing SHAPE and SPACE. Massaging the Jaw and very gradually noticing the shift between the lens of SHAPE and the lens of SPACE.
from the open score:
Iodine, the president, something else. Still working with calling out numbers for entrances and exits.
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TIME. we started with rolling across the width of the room and back and then we all decided to focus on whatever we thought TIME was without the definition.
from the open score:
Lots of exploration of rhythm and different qualities of time. I ended up writing and drawing and scribbling in my journal for most of the score.
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No expectations. A small group. We'd just stretch a little and then go into open score.
from the open score:
Thunderstorm sound scape. It was warm in the studio that day- we'd started to get more daylight and could leave the florescents off. We were using entrances and exits more loosely. St Patricks Day and one of us sang this kind of lullaby. Id told everyone to treat me as if I was a sculpture and they'd all congregated with me around me around each other in this incredible moment of slow thoughtless soft air beauty.
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EMOTION. Just learning to see and let yourself be seen. Feeling the state of being and questioning perception vs experience
from the open score:
Floorboards and changing shirts. I only want to wear this dress. leeches. grandmothers. cobwebs. Really slow. Feeling like we could keep going- just getting started there at the end.
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I wasn't there the last couple weeks with the regular group, sadly. But I hear it was slower and easy going for the most part. If you have something to contribute here, please do in the comments.
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So here we are NOW, approaching another MIL today on May 12th. Two people came back who were there at the very beginning few sessions, and then were absent until now. We've also lost a couple people due to several shifts in life.

Last week when we met, the familiarity and unfamiliarity with one another was palpable. There was this need to fill in awkward moments with action. Or for some, it felt like filling expectations. For me, it was like time had shrunk and it crunchingly ticked off as I stressed to know what was going on. Little moments that worked happened more toward the end of the open score for brief blips and then quickly shifted down another path.

Through February, March and April- the core group had been developing a kind of collective consciousness and awareness with one another. We'd been able to kind of predict and know our unique and common characteristics and tendencies, and also click into a group mentality that had it's outside eye on composition throughout an open score. I believe that it was not only the ensemble building techniques and the time we'd spent together in the same room, but the learning of some of the viewpoints that allowed us to have this undercurrent of knowledge that supported the performance. It was this common foundation that lifted our play into more cohesive and commanding moments of theatre. The surprising moments where things work, started happening not only more frequently, but for longer periods of time. Transitions were happening more seamlessly; A through-line from beginning to end was drawn and we could all kind of gather around some volunteered awareness of one another throughout the duration of the open score. We'd made a significant amount of progress.

That is not to say that things are totally depressed or regressing now. Without this opportunity to kind of restart, I may not have seen these developments with the same gratitude or clarity. But that nurturing should be honored and noticed, so we can build that nest again.

So here are my questions:
How do we do it differently?
What stays the same? What do we bring back?
Do we review what 6 of the Viewpoints we've learned?
Should we move on to learning the last two and then come back to the other four (space, shape, time, and emotion) that we've already reviewed?
What is most needed?
Is there a way to expedite without rushing?
Is it possible to let the layers fall away more effortlessly?
Now that we are aware of our previous developments, will we slow down sooner?
Or does it need to go in whatever direction it does more subconsciously like before?

I ONLY WANT TO WEAR THIS DRESS!!!!

Every time is a completely different experience. It feels like the air is literally made up of different molecules. Each Thursday has it's completely unique texture, mood, quality, and taste.

_____

E M O T I O N: There is always some hesitancy about entering emotion. It is like we immediately see ourselves yelling or crying. However, with the Six Viewpoint Theory and Practice, we deconstruct our perceptions to look at and isolate our ability to perceive emotion: to experience states of being. We are always "emotional." We might be performing, living, or acting from a hierarchy with emotion at the top when the sense is stirred inside us with more intensity, but we are always experience some kind of state of being.



t h e p r a c t i c e....

Split the group in two
One half sits in the designated "performance" space, or somewhere that the other half can watch or observe them.
Individuals should be mostly in their own space, inhabiting their own pocket.
For at least 8-10 minutes, the observers simply watch and look at the others just being there.
Those being watched are encouraged to relax,
let thoughts occur normally,
allow any natural fidgeting,
let yourself be seen,
open the skin,
soften the face,
see with your eyes,
just be.

I talked about the DOG SNIFF DOG WORLD.

Floor boards. SMoKeD LinK SausAgEs. Dress. Knot. Knot. knot. knot. knot. knot. floor boards. I'm going to take my shirt off!! Not. not. not. not. not. Butterflies. Braintickles. still. internal. mediated. today. grain. queer Flutter Flutter. flutter. Love. Warmth. Slow. Brain tickles. Memory. Row Sham. Bo. Miss. Moss. Moisture. I only want to wear this dress! Grandmother's hands, soft cotton cobwebs, Shadow, Light. Slow. Slow. Slow. Quiet. Shhhhhh. !!!!.....Leeches. This is how leeches talk, protect, peace, dance....








* What is perception? What do we mean by perceptual ability? Is deconstruction violent? Is minimalism violent?

I just want you to know that you are doing a really good job

Photo by Ivan Mayes

just 4 of us. A really relaxing open MIL. We all came with absolutely no expectations. Kind of milling about chatting about this, and that, sliding around, stretching. And then we decided to just simply begin with corridors. I put on a thunderstorm, and off we went. The experience felt free, un-trapped. We'd all felt that without some contained warm up or didactic exercise to start off with, the improvisational exploration was left to develop more on it's own. Although we'd reminded our self that we'd had encounters with s p a c e, s h a p e, and t i m e. And it isn't that it needs to be like this every time necessarily. It was just the mood of the afternoon. A warm, long sunset in the east valley of Boulder, Colorado.

...and then there was 3.

The diagonal journey. Seated. Rocking. A complete evolution from OM to the other end of it. 3 of us had been slightly bizerk around the traveler. Once he'd reached his "destination" though we'd all fallen still and he rolled and lifted and fell all around us sporadically.

...and then there was 1.

LOUD------------------------------------------------ENERGETIC
ECHO. VOLUME. TRAIN. OOOO OOOOOoooo

This beautiful little moment. Where he danced so openly, so honest in front of us. I'd just recently had a solo show and had watched the video documentation and was extremely quick to be my own worst critic. Harsh. But in this moment of improvisation and being present with the self, I saw the simplicity and vulnerability. This kind of precious awkward uniqueness that is just as awesome of a gift as any technique might be.

....and then there was 2.

The jester and the hedgehog talking away, ramdoozling about. Laughing, playing, teasing, rolling.

i m a g i n a t i o n

The 2 men were just so B R I G H T .

HEDGE HOOOOoog. Heeeedge hooooog. Hogging the hedge. Hedge HOG. And then he threw me over his shoulder and ran around the room as I bounced over his back. hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.

I am a pancake with butter and I smother you both because you are getting out of control. Ooooh no!

I AM GOING TO EAT THE PANCAKE!

Nooo! Not the pancake?

Why not?

Because she's special....

I just want you to know that you are doing a really terrible job.

...2 and 2

How to make 2 duets more interesting?

....and then there was 4.

QUIET ---------------------------------------------------------------STILL




It all kind of began with this gentle rolling gestures close to one another near the hall door. We'd made a slow procession down the length of the floor and gently migrated our way around and drifted apart briefly. I was left in the high corner of the room next to cracked open door where the late afternoon sunlight poured through. I said, "I want you to see me like you would view a sculpture. From all three sides. 360." I was moving extremely slowly. One by one they slowly surrounded me and very softly, with such extreme care, began to lightly tap and make contact with my body. I'd listen, and respond. They had guided me down to the ground and my eyes were covered by my shirt. But I had this warm, hovering sensation of them all around me still. Protecting. Holding. Breathing. Waiting, without waiting. The quiet and the stillness and slowness was so full. We'd suspended time for what could have been a year in that corner.

Photos by Amelia Charter

Thunderstorms rumbling away.


1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .

1....2....3...... 3..... 4......

Still by Kiki Smith

We decided to review S H A P E and S P A C E :

massage
the face
the jaw
the cheek bones
the skull
the ears
the neck
the shoulders
the chest
the upper arms
the elbows - the pickle
the fore arms
the wrists
the hands
the fingers
the rib cage- front side back
the whole thorax
the belly
the lower back
the hips
the upper thighs
the knees
especially the back of the knees
the calves
the ankles
the top of the foot
now the feet

massage
the feet

then...

We begin to attune the awareness and deconstruct our perception so that we may realize space more fully. So instruct the group through the following practices while guiding them through the principle qualities of the viewpoints and encourage disciplined isolation. :

• choose a space in the room to go to
• precisely visualize yourself going there
• be specific about the pathway you take to get there
• once you've completed the visualization, do it. Execute.
• You arrive.
• And again, choose another space in the room
• visualize your pathway very specifically and the way you travel along the pathway
• (notice the dynamics shifting and changing within the viewpoints: relationships)

We begin to integrate shape with stillness. I stop the group in the middle or at the end of a journey and ask them to close their eyes. I guide them through at least 5 or so minutes of internal exploration of shape with their eyes closed.

notice the boundaries of the body, where the skin and the air meet, where it stops and starts. Sensing the geometry and architecture with pure sense, without the eyes. Developing a different kind of seeing and vision. Is it contained or not contained? Does this work or does this work?


O P E N I M P R O V I S A T I O N A L S C O R E

Is the beginning the most important? Wait. Be patience. Go slow. Trust. GO. A small group, only 4 of us. Very intimate and simple. Because there were less of us there was more space in the room. We had the ocean going the whole time. It was kind of washing over and under the whole scene. And in the duller moments, the slower moments, the open moments, the quiet moments...

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

Weaving the dialogue of the four performers together. We could keep track of each other better I think. And it didn't need to really make perfect sense in order for it to work. It was very cohesive. Some marriage of simplicity and complexity. Characters... personalities... qualities of the individuals. My politics seeped out. Some winding genteel swooping leaked all over. The wild game changer got the wiggles out. St patty's day people soaked through.

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

IODINE IN THE SALT
BABIES IN THE BOTTLES
PRESIDENT IN THE NATION
DESCRIMINATION


....cawing ....screeching

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

Rene Magritte