After listening to another awesome Speaking of Faith (Krista Tippett is my hero) I've been thinking about the mind-body connection. I listened to her interview Mathew Sanford, a paralyzed man who teaches yoga. A couple of things said in the interview have been rattling around in my head:
1. As people become more aware of the body and live from the body, they become more compassionate.
2. No one is as embodied as a six year old boy. (said laughing and in passing - but I have really liked to think about that simple statement.)
3. The body has a memory of its own.
Then today I went to a storytelling workshop, Belly Laughs and Beyond. The workshop leader, Bob Reiser, had us do all kinds of activities to loosen up our bodies. We had to try out different laughs - from a titter to a giggle to a belly laugh. We made funny faces and silly noises and passed them around and basically acted like 6 year olds on the playground. Some of the participants, the theater people, jumped in enthusiastically. A few were very hesitant, and the rest of us were somewhere in between. But the longer we made faces and noises, the more our bodies remembered how to be children and the more fun we all began to have. And in between these "silly" breaks, we told our stories. We each worked on something of our choice and told it to a partners and got feedback from those partners. And by the end, a story that had been very rough was tumbling out of me with great timing.
I left this workshop to meet Eric in Washington Square park to check out the after party from the first NYC Dance Parade. I followed the swing music and was delighted to find a dancing crowd. Some people were hula-hooping, a group formed to start a jump rope circle, a drummer and belly dancer performed off to the side, and the audience around the stage erupted when the DJ sang "Everybody dance now!" I stood on the side of the fountain with my yellow umbrella soaking in the joy.
The body knows how to celebrate life! All I've got to do is move it and I remember that joy. Here's to claiming the uninhibited movement of six-year olds!
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A space for reflection, insight, and musing on life.
3 comments:
its a wonderful blog you have up and running here...I watched a performance this weekend titled La Loba and googled the words to check other references to works of art on wolf woman and found out that a Mexican film in the 60s was titled thus, and then of course, your blog.
I am quite i n the gushing mode with all the things you have to say about body and movement, listening and storytelling and all those little things thatwhen experienced, make huge changes.
I myself am a person who has had modest experiences with theatre arts and have been highly influenced by simple tools...and see the benefits of these when co-participants feel the benefit and also when I facilitate workshops for children in schools or with communities.
...and of course, I love NY! Left the US a couple of years ago and now live in Bangalore, India, but have fond memories of my days in NJ/NY and your blog talk brought back those fragrances.
Hey!It's really amazing - May 19th around this side of the world in Bangalore, India, I had just finished watching a performance called La Loba. I reached work the next day and did a google search on the name and saw your blog. Found that a freind of mine at the performance had done the same and sent me the link.
So here I am, almost thirty myself and seeking la loba as well.
The performance broke me down to tears. It was really intense and very physical. The woman performing was quite amazing.
It's interesting that you are talking about the mind-body connection. I've spent the last year or so excavating some things from my body...
Thanks for your comments. I wish I could have seen this performance! It's great to know that these ideas are shared around the world.
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