Lab Notes: Heart #5 and #6

Well I've been very negligent lab scribe as the weather has been nicer and I've been resistant to sitting down at the computer, but now it's Monday yet again so I better get on with it. I have some very basic notes of what I can remember from the last two (very lovely) lab sessions.

Lab on 4/16 lead by Cyrus

Everything flowed together so smoothly that it is hard to separate out the different explorations/exercises, but this is some of what we covered.

Started in pairs and one trio, head-to-head, exploring and mapping the surfaces of the skull. This tender attention transitioned into the spine and a sense of fitting into the curvature of the partner's body.
Cyrus talked about the care around the head, the gentleness we give that sensitive area and compared it to how we treat children--with care and sensitivity. We danced again with that idea, to treat each person with the care we would give a child. Someone brought up the idea of having t-shirts printed with a childhood photo.
Then trios took turns with witnessing.

Here are some key words I jotted down during discussion:

Beauty, lack of agenda, no ego, high levels of coordination, finding stillness, organic discovery, fitting, feeding, nuzzling.

And some ideas:

Allowed to be open/non-defensive because you know everyone is in a state of care. Soft placed faces, eyes at back of socket. A score that is easy to stay with. The head is easy to return to. The head is the new pelvis.

Lab on 4/23 lead by Christian

Christian took the concept "what do you love about contact" and ran with it. We got to do some of Christian's favorites!

Started in a place of eyes closed and Christian paired us anonymously with partners for a ouija-style single fingertip dance of non-ambition, waiting, and listening. After a long while this was permitted to grow. Then one partner opened eyes and did the "Brushin' Russian" exercise (credit given to Michal) where one person gave little brushes that lead their partner on little movement journeys. Evolved from brushing into other qualities of touch. Then partner left alone to do a little solo of "surprises" imagining impulses coming at unexpected times from unexpected directions, imitating the quality of having the partner's information. Then we switched roles.

Then we did trios building on the idea of giving information through manipulation rather than center-weighted rolling point of contact. Then we had quartets where three people would fly one person through the air, and then the flying person would rotate. Then we did a 12 minute dance where there was always a trio and a quartet but it could shift fluidly.