as a yoga instructor and practitioner, i grasp how the work that merian has started with OYWPP has much vision and relevance in the world we live today. her work opens various venues and channels of possible mending of apparent fragments that have been segregated and that need to come together to heal and bridge communication and negotiate in another manner looking for viable solutions to repair our home: the earth. the need of heightening our senses as to notice the impact that our tiniest of actions and movements have on the integrity of our ecosystem, is a dance we all need to engage in.i started branch dancing w/ merian soto way before the one year commitment, as i collaborated on some proscenium performances. the investigation has had more than a year long impact on me; at this point it has made its way on to my living, thinking, organizing, feeling, etc…
i am very grateful for this experience. if there is something huge i take from it,
it is: SUBTELTY.
the refined capacity to fine tune, harmonize, surrender, let go attachments— ego being a massive one!!!!!
in my experience branch dancing is a most humbling and disarming experience
my first encounters w/ branch dancing proved much resistance from me!
i sensed right away branch dances are totally "anti-hero" dances.
with this i imply that the "normal" focus or intent -whatever that means- of "dancing" "as we know" [it gets more complicated by the second] gets absolutely shifted to ANOTHER REALM OF CONSCIOUSNESS and with it another set of priorities and intentions.
if there is something i know now "for sure" is, that a result of being a participant and
collaborator in La Maquina del Tiempo, Merian Soto work 2004, i became a full time improviser with "no go-ing back" to formal dancing. now as a result of branch dancing i have become a "non-dancer" dancer full time = there is no going back to other priorities and ways of immersing and thinking, creating and doing work.in my understanding and undertaking of this work, what had been stirred and woken up in La Maquina just got magnified and immersed into a way bigger panorama to tune in to. with this massive shift something gives, gradually, inevitably.
harmonizing is word that can help describe the nature of what happens. the you as you know and think of yourself gets peeled removed or transmuted on to possibility
you become one with
you become "other" stuff
you become the air
you become the branch or the former tree where the branch came from
you become water
you become an animal
you become something else
it is a big huge relief = extremely healing!!!
at this point, after more than two years of practicing, i can zoom in
(which is part of the work, the technique) right away - as soon as i come in contact with the branch. this is fabulous! i can drop everything and just connect: nothing else to do! no more multitasking! balancing comes as an immediate outcome of the focus. it is one pointed mind. nothing else. just present with.
i do not question or doubt what unfolds as soon as i hold the branch.
i get into challenging postures and situations, yet my mind stops working as i experience it on a regular basis. i trust. i know, without "knowing" as we know...
excuse my redundancy but it is [what happens...]
to be continued...
