As I sit in my hotel room, the rest of the group in high spirits in the downstairs foyer, I reflect on the fullness of today. Is it really only Day Two?
Each day so much happens- so many connections
Through the body, newly discovered… Or is it more accurate to say Re-discovered? Re-found? Re-forged? Re-opened?
Between thought and physicality, self-belief, self-image, internal dialogue; voiced explicitly through spoken words, explored amongst the group and acknowledged; or voiced implicitly through the body’s opening pathways
Between past learning and present understanding, ‘light bulb moments’
Between people- meeting for the first time, or discovering newness in old friendships
Between people- in response to seeing how participants with visual impairments take in and express our verbal instructions of exercises, phrases and movements, we have noticed how much detail we miss out in our verbal instructions, just how inaccurate we can be, and this is deepening connections for our own understanding as dancers, as facilitators and as communicators. The gratitude I feel for this is truly noted.
Between past and present- the presence of Helen Lewis, a holocaust survivor who literally danced her way out of the concentration camps. Helen went on to develop vast amounts of dance in Belfast, she died last year and the studio we are working in all week is named after her
Connections from the wider dance world into our own little Luminous Soul bubble- we have all just returned from the Waterfront Studio where we watched AfterLight by The Russel Maliphant Dance Company: the energy is high in the group, the curiosity lit. One participant’s connection: “I get what Sally and Miriam have been asking us to do now, why they have been suggesting we copy other people in our improvisations, pick up on their movements and explore stillness and space as well as moving all the time.”
I can hardly wait to get back in the dance studio.
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