April 19 2015
Compiling, processing, and digesting a bunch of linguistic and movement inspirations, I feel the interstitial. I occupy the liminal space, the space in-between sensing and feeling, light and dark, real and imaginary, and past and present. Dancing Life breaks boundaries while acknowledging past inspirations. Lineage moves me in highly codified ways, which might appear antithetical to the very act of improvisation. Yet, I find the sense of embodiment in the acknowledging of eclectic lineages as particular as that of a specific movement lineage. Stepping Besides: Distributing the Self in Collaborative Performance Research investigates the sense of collaborative perception in the shaping of subjectivity. “Movement Intention in dance improvisation is bound to a process of recognition through a complex relation of space, time and other bodies.” This rang in my ears throughout the workshop with Nancy Stark Smith. The particular sharing of small dances creates the foundation on top of which I build the framework of my discovery of the Mahari through erasing erasure and her obnoxious resurfacing. I find certain movement cues like wiping away imitating the gesture of erasure as a useful starting point. Eventually, my colleagues and advisers start developing more categories like interplay between conceal and reveal, bringing to light torso and the hip movement in Odissi, the obnoxiousness of the digestive system being related physically to hips and torso, for me to go deeper into my investigation that are affiliated to the concept of resurfacing the erased. The biggest take away for me remains the discovery of the disorienting potential of the quintessential toe graze in the Odissi vocabulary. This toe-graze makes a wiping gesture on the floor. The movement is not smooth. It has a sense of friction to it which clearly creates a vibration in the grazing foot. The foot changes direction while making the sweeping movement on the floor. I find this moment as the obnoxious resurfacing of my Mahari. The very act of wiping away Mahari sexuality through the erasing act of the toes makes space for the resurgence of the Mahari through a sudden twisting of the foot, probably facing the bottom of the foot to the audience. Further, adding exaggerated hip and torso movement to the sudden disorientation accentuates the contemporary erasure of the historic erasure.