Friday, January 2, 2015

Day 40: "function" and "expression"

#40 Improvise "function" and "expression" to your song(s)

I didn't know if I would find a good place to dance at Green Gulch. The public spaces are often in use, and I didn't want to be intrusive (a good impulse as it turns out that musical instruments are not allowed, so dancing is probably not encouraged either). I settled on the deck outside the yurt, which I had forgotten about at first. It's at the far end of things, so relatively private, and had nice echoes of Anna Halprin's dance deck to inspire me. It was perfect (aside from some splinters). There was a breeze, a creek flowing past, and the sounds of eucalyptus pods thudding down on the the deck periodically to punctuate my dancing.




The prompt itself was a bit of a puzzle. I wanted to ask clarifying questions, but that's not really part of this process. I interpreted "function" as a sort of straightforward, direct interpretation of the songs, and "expression" as capturing more of the general emotional feeling. I liked the "expression" versions much better, both in the doing and the re-watching. I didn't have a good way to play music, and it didn't seem suitable anyway, so I just ran the songs through again and again in my head as I danced.




It was wonderful to dance in that environment. I was inspired to follow this prompt up with revisiting the improvisation with sense of hearing, and then a walking meditation. I hope some of that will stay with me in the midst of city life.

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