(no subject)

[danceboy]

I've been trying to come up with a way to say that thing that I'm trying to do when I dance lately. It's something having to do with not-responding just to respond, not doing just to do. Accepting what is, witnessing it, feeling myself and anyone with whom I may be dancing. Sounding pretentious as hell.

It's loosely based on Olivier Besson's theory of using the smallest motion that will fulfill what you want to do. Letting all of the options play out, rather than just doing the "obvious follow-through".

I've noticed it really bothering a few people, they seem to really want a response, for me to do that thing. When I don't they try harder. Sometimes I respond "wrong". Other people seem to love it. It definitely opens up a whole range of new space, ways to break patterns in my body.

Now I just have to decide how I feel about it, and when to use it.

Comments

Re: eep! I have been snuck up upon!

[danceboy.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor you.

Yes, poor me. I need chocolate to recover my strength...
Actually, poor me. I'm not sick anymore, but I'm not quite well either. And I have been sick more often this year...

If you respond "wrong" to me the only way I've noticed is that you're not one of those dancers who's got three moves that always come in the same order and I can predict them

That's part of my theory on why people see it as wrong. I was once helping a lady to fly and I decided to, well, not quite pirouette. She said something like "Wait, I don't know this move."
I managed to put her down before I fell down laughing.
She forgave me eventually.

(which can be kind of fun when I know what's coming and can sink into it, but the smoothly unpredictable is at least as fulfilling).

Interesting. When I feel something I've seen before I can't help messing with it. Debra Bluth has put it into words "When you know what you're going to do next, do something else." Honestly I think that she got it Deborah Hay.

Umm, so I've only seen you dance in your minimalist closet?

*Blush* Hi? It's a nice closet. Comfy, roomy enough for the occasional visitor...

Re: eep! I have been snuck up upon!

[queen-of-wands.livejournal.com]

Yes, poor me. I need chocolate to recover my strength...

Right. I volunteer to consume it for you, since you're obviously too weak to do it yourself.

That's part of my theory on why people see it as wrong. I was once helping a lady to fly and I decided to, well, not quite pirouette. She said something like "Wait, I don't know this move."
I managed to put her down before I fell down laughing.
She forgave me eventually.

Oh, well luckily I don't know any moves. (OK, that's not entirely true. It's body knowledge for me what the new dancer reportedly said: "you're saying I just raise my arm and that bitch spins?" -only my body knows the "girl's" role- so I suppose I could get it wrong by misinterpreting a raised arm as a lead for a spin.)

Interesting. When I feel something I've seen before I can't help messing with it.

See, I like that, but I still like the other way, too, when it's done right. Over the course of the summer my love for dancing with the Gynecologist shifted. It became that I knew his moves, so I could always be in synch with him. Boring sometimes, but releasing myself into it can be ecstatically freeing.

Blush* Hi? It's a nice closet. Comfy, roomy enough for the occasional visitor...

Sorry. I'm sure it's a perfectly nice closet. I think I posed the question poorly. Do you think the way that you've danced with me is the way that you're calling minimalist?