Thinking Creatively, Creativity in Moving..

As much as I adored Andalucia, its delicious seas, shores, sky, sun... Its illustrious mountains, magnificent valley and majestic water fountain.. There is no place like home - and I have a very special place that I visit at home in South Wales, about 30mins drive from the city of Cardiff, the full identify of this place will be kept secret though, I'm sorry it is just too precious.. I usually visit my special place when I'm feeling, well emotional, upset by something or someone, or when I want absolute peace and quite, absolute stillness, when I want to shut myself away from the material, hustle and bustle of the modern world, of modern living.. Some stuff had emerged (which was upsetting) and I was heading to Coventry (in the Midlands where a closeness to water is less felt). I felt that my problems, re-ocuring injury in my pelvis was flaring up again and I visited my precious place before hitting all the M's up to the Midlands. I decided I was going to move (and document movement) in my special place, something I haven't done before, I usually just sit.. I went with the plan to explore developmental movement principles and movement patterns in Sondra Fraleigh's 'Land to Water Yoga' (2009), I left with something quite different..

A Precious Place

...lying on my belly, breathing into my belly, into the earth, the water beneath the earth.. feeling, sensing the circular shape of earth as I lie with my arms rapped around its surface.. sound of air above, air around me, sound of sea below, behind me, at my feet.. floating on top of the earth... holding on, pulling myself forward, pulling with the arms, pushing with the feet to stop me sliding, sliding off the solid surface and into the vast fluid structure beneath... a big drop, I hold the earth, the ground, feeling the water beneath, feeling my fluids... flow..  Developmental movement patterns leave and creativity enters... I dance a slow and gentle dance.. I dance to the side of the water... on top of the water...  twisting.. sliding.. pushing... pulling.. floating.. feeling.. flying.. swimming.. swimming in my fluids.. water... watching... listening.. clean and clear.. washed away the dirt of the last few days.. I see the world from a different perspective as I find myself upside-down looking out to sea, I smile, I like seeing the world this way... again from this position I feel, experience the circularity of planet earth.. everything flows in circles.. circular flow.. a feeling of being alive and open to the world...

Upside-Down Earth

Thinking Creatively, Creativity in Moving 

I reflect upon this moving exploration, experience for several days after. I reflect on, and question creativity? I find myself being creative, creativity comes, comes from the body and the body's surroundings. I begin with focus on the fluids, on the water inside and out, I begin with focus on the developmental movement sequences and explorations offered by the practitioners inspiring this study, but my focus appears to change, appears to be changing, taking a different direction... I have thought, felt this for a while now but have chosen to ignore such thoughts, feelings, movement ideas, creative ideas. I do not ignore them when moving, I allow my body to move in whichever way it moves on the day but I do start with a focus, a movement plan as such.. What is the purpose of my practice-led-research if there isn't some creative or definitive outcome? Hazel Smith & Roger T. Dean (2009) note that 'practice-led research can develop unique processes for creative work and for research.' Also noting that 'academic research can led to creative practice' (Smith & Dean: 2009, p2). Further queries flutter around my consciousness - how does somatics within dance develop avenues for creativity and creative practice? Martha Eddy (see blog reflections - Morning Meditation 'Not Doing,' 'Being,' 'Knowing') notes that one of the numerous benefits of somatic education within dance education as offering 'inroads to creative process' (Eddy: 2009, p23).

I believe evidence of the creativity emerging can be seen in the video documentation 'Waterfall' this is about mid-point in my practice-led study. Creativity is beginning to emerge which I obviously don't ignore, I make a short piece entitled 'Waterfall' http://vimeo.com/27479018

Unfortunately I ran out of recording space when moving from exploration of the planned developmental movement patterns to the creativity that emerged and therefore, don't have documentation of 'Dance to the Side of the Water' I will visit and move in my precious place again but the dance will never be the same. "A river never flows the same way twice" (unknown). "Continually moving, always changing, into and out of form - our lives, like water, are in constant flow" (Katherine Murray).    

Final thought - the pain and feeling of inflammation in my pelvis decreased, I'd even go as far as saying ceased instantly after this movement (creative) exploration - the pain/injury in my pelvis hasn't bothered me so much since...

Water, Spirituality, People, Place and Community

My final reflection of body, mind, spirit exploration in Andalucia, at Molino Del Rey brings me back to where I [we] began, water and spirituality. In morning yoga session we move with dynamic flow, water in the from of sweat covered the surface of my skin as the studio warmed, as the bodies in the studio warmed, as the fluid inside our bodies flowed creating energy and heat.. We were a room filled waterfall, a waterfall of solidity. In a moment of stillness the water, both inside and out was so clearly felt, so clearly sensed. In tadasana (mountain posture) we come to stillness for a moment, Danielle encouraging us not to fidget, not to pull the t-shirt down or move that piece of hair in our face, "come to stillness, let the muggy waters clam, settle, clear." It was in this moment that I felt my inner waters settle, cleanse, clear, wash away... I sensed, I felt the flowing, fluid energy gently and slowly still just like muddy water settling in a glass. In the same moment I was instantly drawn to the water outside, its sound, the dynamic flow of water circling the inner flow of waters, I united with the flow of water around me and inside of me.. this felt like an extremely spiritual moment, I can't describe this sensed spirituality (maybe I just did above?) it was calm and still, aware and present, joyous and light... I also sensed a connection, oneness, a unity with every body in the space, a sense of community and again it was through the stillness, the silence that this unity was felt..  

Later in the day, on one of our adventurous walks through the valley, up a mountain Hilary told me a small something of the history of the area, "it was originally an Arabic community the Spanish Christians pushed the Arabs out" (Hilary you told it much better). This congers more thoughts of spirituality through connection with people, and place; the generations, the different communities that have stood in this same place, their footsteps on the earth, their lives lived in the land, their hands washed in the waters.. a sense of spirit is felt through an awareness of generations past, lived in the experience of the land, the waterfall that runs through the whole valley, the rocks and trees..

The young lady in Edwardian dress steals this 1907 view of the rustic bridge in Roath Park
(Williams: 1986)

On a visit to my Grandmother yesterday I'm again reminded of the spirituality of the land around us, the stone walls of buildings, the streets we walk, the streams we sit by.. I was snooping around in my Grandfather's (he pasted 7 years ago, the kindest most gentle man anyone could meet) cupboard, finding two books of Cardiff Yesterday. On opening them I find little notes addressed to me, 'Lucinda's relatives' pointing out my ancestors, I was moved to say the least. Several pictures of my Grandfather's bother, my Uncle Stan playing saxophone in a Jazz band (I always wonder where my artistic side comes from). Then a picture of a young lady (no relative) in Edwardian dress sat by a bridge in Roath Park, a place I visit often, moving as part of my somatic/spiritual investigations near a stream close to were the girl is sitting (see video documentation 6). Our land is filled with the stories, the lives, the bodies, emotions, feelings, movements of generations, of communities past, which I believe must hold some spiritual significance, offering us a spiritual connection to place, to land, to earth...

Stan Parker front right
(Williams: 1987)

Williams, S (1987) Cardiff Yesterday no.15: Stewart Williams Publishers, South Glamorgan

Morning Meditation - 'Not Doing,' 'Being,' 'Knowing'

We begin each day with morning meditation at 7.30am on an outside deck and it is here I being to experience the 'Monkey Mind...' My mind appears more active, less in the present, full of thoughts... which may be of surprise for first thing in the morning but it's as if my thoughts have been put in a box over night, they've been asleep in my subconscious, and now they're awake knocking on the box wanting to join in this meditation malarky.. My body fidgets, I image bugs crawling on me, itchy nose, pins and needles... then there are the noises, the environment; dogs barking, birds singing, sound of water flowing, slight winds... Yes all lovely nosies and joyous aspects of nature, I try to take Danielle's guidance and let the sounds and sensation into the meditation as they are all part of this present moment.. but I'm thinking of my niece, the work I have to return to, September, 90s pop music "you can ring my bell," what to wear next Saturday... and I search, search for the lovely restful, still, beautiful place I experienced only the day before..

After meditation and the mornings dynamic flow session we engage in pranayama (breath, the breath of life). We explore a wonderful pranayama (can't remember the name please let me know Danielle) while resting in a ying posture and to my great satisfaction I find that beautiful stillness again... I find myself in the present, as I am now, not a thought in my mind to distract me or a sensation in my body to fidget with... just the breath and this moment... This is meditation but then I'm doing, I'm doing pranayama and my understanding is that meditation isn't doing, it is being... Jane acknowledged the 'want' or tendency to want to 'do' change the breath in meditation, not simply watch the breath - I'm with you on that Jane. In afternoon ying sessions I find stillness, I find plenty of moments of being, of being able to focus on the sound of water that encases us, of being with the posture but again maybe because I am doing something, I'm in a ying posture...

Meditation does not get any easier as the week goes on, actually it becomes more of a challenge... at times in the afternoon practice I get glimpses of stillness in sitting but the mornings are dark, uncomfortable places.. I resign to finding greater meditation in 10 extra minutes in bed and a cup of tea...  I debate a theory - it is in the knowing... My first meditation practice I knew nothing, I had nothing to compare, no expectation, the unknown... but now I know something of meditation (a little something). The more we know the more we what to know, the more we question our knowing, the more we look for reason, the more we analyse.. I recall my first contemporary dance classes, for me they were the greatest dances I've danced, I couldn't point my feet, or turn out, or balance, I knew nothing of technique. 12 years on and who knows how many hours of training and technique classes where I questioned, I did, I tried to understand, I pushed myself and was hard on myself if I didn't achieve correct technique, great balance, perfect extension (if there are such a things), and I remember it ceased to feel like I was dancing, not like those first classes when I knew nothing... now I turn towards somatic movement practice in my dancing and have found dancing again, I experience being danced, I explore not doing, I experience being, in the being I am moved by my body... I'm sure, in time, the being will appear to me in meditation just like it did in my dance practice (which only happened when I stopped searching, stopped beating myself up about technique, often in authoritarian training/class environments).

"If dance is experienced through classes or performances in a authoritarian and demeaning manner, it can be not only physically injurious but diminishing of the soul. Since the 1970s more and more dance professionals are discovering the usefulness of somatic education in softening these deleterious challenges.
The marriage of dance education and somatic education has seen numerous benefits... The world of somatic education has secrets to living life more fully - keys to finding and knowing when we are 'in the flow.' Somatic awareness could be used for a step-by-step manual to document that entry into 'the flow.'"

(Martha Eddy: 2009)

"One has to be able to let things happen. I have learned from the Orient the lesson expressed in the words wu wei: 'not doing'; not 'doing nothing,' but 'allowing.' Others have known of this, too, as for instance, Meister Ekhart when he speaks of 'yielding oneself.' The dark spot upon which one stumbles actually is not empty but is the Bestowing Mother, the Images and the Seed." 

(Horton Fraleigh citing Curl Jung: 1987)

Wonderland!

I arrive at Molino Del Rey in the Andalucian mountains tucked away in a valley surrounded by huge peaks that last for miles and miles. Molino Del Rey (www.molinodelrey.com) is a centre for holistic retreats run by a lovely couple Anthony and Lidia, and their son Dimitri. But we are not on a retreat, it's a yoga holiday with Danielle our gracious yoga teacher and 14 dedicated, delightful students most who haven't met before. The centre is stunning (to say the least), it's a dream land, every conner you turn there stands another beautiful Buddha statue or a bright painting, some of the paintings amalgamating with rock or stone and are all painted by the lovely Lidia. Caves have been carved out of the valley moulding into the centre's walls making it the haven, or heaven that it is... the centre submerges into (or out of) the land... but what is most amazing about the centre (alongside the food) is that a spring, a natural waterfall circles the whole centre, weaving in and through its structure... pouring out of rock crevasses... an ever flowing natural fountain that you can dip your hands into and drink... drink straight from the spring... I am in wonderland!

 

We begin our yoga holiday on the afternoon we arrive with a ying class and meditation. I'm new to meditation but have known it is a practice I will turn to in my investigations of yoga, dance, the body, mind and spirituality... after meditation I write...

light in the centre of my forehead... wave like rhythm runs through my body as I sit in stillness... sways my spine, rocks me like a newborn.. In a trance but aware... aware of my environment, where I am, Danielle's voice, a voice of guidance... aware of others in the space around me, not by their sound but through their silence... light, a pulsating light in my forehead, in my third eye chakra, a kaleidoscopic light opening, spreading, shaping... vision of a sun sitting on a horizon...  

What about the Spiritual (in all this)?

On the day I travel from Nerja to Jorox in the Andalucian mountains I wake early to make one last sea exploration... at 7am I climbed over some rocks to reach one of the little bays along this stretch of beach/coast. The sun had not risen fully and the sea was wild, roaring, it looked dangerous, worse than the pervious day, I daren't go in... This was ok because I planed exploring belly lying (lying on my front) on the sea shore. Inspired by movement explorations in 'Land to Water Yoga' (2009) by Sondra Fraleigh which focus on our development from water to land (land back to water) exploring the many yoga posture that resemble developmental movement in this process. I plan to move exploring stages 3-4 of the 5-part sequence of 'Land to Water;' third stage; sitting & fourth stage; front lying.

Playing in front lying on the sea shore, breathing into my belly, into the earth... being thrown around by the sea as it's waves move energetically in and out from the shore.. being tossed amongst the stones and shells, I am nothing against it's strength, against it's force, it's energy.. the sea simply brushes me aside as easy as blowing dust from a surface. I only have my own centre, my body's centre, rooting in my centre keeps me from being pulled away, tossed aside... I connect with the earth, with the sea and it begins to hold me, to mould me, I tune into it's energy, motion and movement patterns to support my movement exploration, I'm not working against it but with the sea, with the earth.. I am of the water, alive and awakened to it..

I sit for a while reflecting on my few days here.. I look up at the mountains standing still and strong, overlooking the coast, overlooking the land below, its people and the sea.. they are mysterious, like Gods and the great unknowns, the mysteries of our universe..

I think of my explorations and how I found, got to these bays; climbing over rocks or swimming in deep waters... I remind myself of some of my research into the fluid systems of the body, explorations and movement that stimulate, support different fluid systems.. I remember Olsen's writings in 'Body and Earth' (2002). 'Walking to your place, notice which fluids are engaged.. leaping precisely from one rock to another. Any movement of periphery, focusing on accuracy and correctness, engages lymph.' I believe I leaped here with accuracy and correctness, whilst my actual being here in Nerja, being in my body, exploring myself, dance, the earth in this way, well that may have something to do with destiny, something other than me - and I question 'so what about the spiritual in all this, in my explorations, experiences, practice-as-research, reflections? Back home in the UK I return to the books finding some resolution to the question although, perhaps only the beginning of such inquiry.. I again drawn on Olsen to help summaries my thoughts..

'Spirituality can be described as that state of spaciousness and receptivity that animates the body and connects us to the mysteries of earth. Our attention is drawn to the foundations of existence and our place within the cosmos... Perhaps our deepest spiritual desire is to regard ourselves as an integral part of nature... Through direct experience with the natural world, we engage other-than-human intelligence, powerful and mysterious qualities... Nature is immediate, dynamic, beautifully formed, and unpredictable, reflecting our own wild nature back to us...'

'Reflection on body and earth reminds us of our wholeness.'

Olsen, A. (2002) Body and Earth an Experiential Guide  Middlebury College Press, University Press of New England: Hanover and London

What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life?

I was reading last night, and before I proceed updating my reflections from Spain, I'd like to share, reflect on my reading; I feel my findings have huge relevance to my reflections concerning 'Water Memory,' birth/baby and our beginnings of life (in the womb and evolutionary) in a watery environment.. even the process of sowing the seed of life takes place within a watery disposition.

'Water is the medium in which everything is born and develops. It is literally the origin of all life, both ontogenetically (embryonic development) and phylogenetically (the history of the entire evolutionary process of a given species). There exists no living thing whose phylogeny does not start with water...'

'In the foetal stage, the human being is a symbiotic aquatic animal, suspended in a warm, salty liquid that reproduces the hydrosaline equilibrium of the oceans. For nine months we live like marine creatures... Up to the moment of parturition, the human foetus behaves much like a fish, immersed in amniotic fluid and receiving oxygen through the umbilical artery.'

'A human embryo does not pass through the stage of an adult fish, but shares characteristics with fish's embryonic development... the embryo and the ways in which it develops contain the seed, the meaning and the evolutionary dynamic of the species, wherein we find reminders of our ancestral past, a memory of the species contained not only in the genome but in its very anatomy.'

'The mind is not, it must be remembered, confined to the brain. It is immanent in the physical body, and at the same time capable of transcending it in space and time through thought, which has no spatiotemporal boundaries.'

'...specialists agree that the ideal environment for labour and birth is warm sea water, as it is similar in density and composition to amniotic fluid. Through the first year of life, infants are able to adapt to water with surprising ease, demonstrating a natural inclination for swimming and an utter lack of fear. Newborns are able to stay underwater for up to 40 minutes while still attached to the umbilical cord, and instinctively know how to navigate toward the water's surface.'

All the above quotes come from a fab book I stumbled upon in the beautiful little shop Halcyon Daze www.halcyon-daze.com (what a find);

Consigli, P, MA. (2008) water, pure and simple: the infinite wisdom of an extraordinary molecule Watkins Publishing: London

See video documentations 3, 4 & 5 (http://vimeo.com/27438474 http://vimeo.com/27440922 http://vimeo.com/27968368)
What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life? 
(Albert Einstein cited in Consigli: 2008)

'Water Memory' Remembering to Swim

I continue to explore the waters heading further out to sea, swimming out past the rocks, in and through them and finding more bays, bays that can't be reached by foot.. I'm reminded of the Beach (book) and my own explorations in Thailand over 10 years ago when I was just beginning my journey of dance & the body, this here and now is just the same, the beginning of something new, unknown feels eminent... the sea is so clear and blue..

The current is strong, very strong, I can swim, I'm a confident swimmer but I am nothing against the seas force, I have to work hard, if I was to give into the sea at any point, give my weight like I did in the rock pond I feel I would be dragged away within seconds.. I don't know how I learnt to swim, well I know a lot of my childhood was spent in rivers, seas, ponds and up trees but I don't recall being taught the technique of swimming, I just know, does this once again have something to do with 'Water Memory?' everyone can swim, we swam into existence it is only through our formation on land that that we forget, or even fear swimming?? I'm sure most are aware of the apparent safety of letting go of a baby in water and that baby begin able to swim (not suggesting anyone should try this at home), perhaps through the memory of swimming in the womb, or the memory of our evolutionary process?

As I approach the shore and am able to touch my feet on the land below the sea I kick back and give my weight to the water, I float on the surface of the water and listen once more to the sounds beneath.. This time I am drawn to the sound of my own breath within my body... my body is completely empty, hollow, there is nothing but the breath whirling around in this hollow structure, empty only breath.. The world stops moving, in just this one moment there is nothing but my breath and the empty space within..

Floating in a Sea of Amniotic Fluid..

Exploring the area, the beaches and the sea, I find little rock ponds and small bays created by the sea; the sea carving these spaces as water creates, forms, shapes, sculpts the land around us, upon which we stand..

'Water is the major component of the planet's surface, sculpting and redistributing the soil' (Olsen: 2002).

'In addition to being the distinguishing constitutive element of the Earth, water is also an active and powerful substance, having quite literally shaped our planet over millions of years, carving landscapes, sculpting valleys, modelling mountains' (Paolo Consigli, MD: 2008).

Moving with a plan to explore stage three: sitting, stage four: front lying and stage five: side lying & back floating (moving on the regression from land to water) from Sandra Fraleigh's 'Land to Water Yoga' (2009), I experience and write..

...moving in the little rock pond created by the sea.. giving in, giving into weight, giving weight to water. I am tossed around by the current like a piece of seaweed, my core holding me in place while the sea throws my legs and arms, my periphery around with ease... ripples run through my body as I cling to a rock for stability.. I begin to explore the rocks, like a lizard, sea lion, seal I explore my territory, light steps with my paws, playful, creeping, inquisitive...

Always drawn to the sounds, the sounds of the sea, the sounds it creates, it vibrates.. When my whole head goes under the sea I can hear the sounds of the vast ocean beneath..  the sound of the sea tossing sand and shells underneath it's surface, the surface upon which it lies.. as I lie with my ears under the water floating on the surface, again giving into weight, the sounds enter my ear, the sounds of the world within the ocean, the sound of sand and shells salsa stepping sings through my ears, down my ear canals and into my belly, filling my belly..

I can't recall being a foetus developing in a sea of amniotic fluid but my subconscious memory seems to know this place.. making me consciously aware of the connection, the feeling of floating in amniotic fluid.. as I give into the the water, as I allow it to float me, to hold me, to nurture, to grow me, I know this place... I have a memory of floating in amniotic fluid (see video documentation 3 http://vimeo.com/27438474).

'Some physicists have hypothesized that water, under specific conditions, has the ability to retain a sort of "vibrational memory"(Paolo Consigli, MD: 2008). Biologist Jacques Benveniste discovered, in an experiment with a drug for allergic reactions that 'water was somehow able to record and transmit information probably electromagnetic in nature. This property was later dubbed "water memory"(Paolo Consigli, MD: 2008).

Hola

I've been away in Spain for 10 days - 4 days of soulful sea and self exploration on the coast of Nerja, Andalucia and then 6 days in the Andalucian mountains on a blissful yoga holiday at Molino Del Rey (www.molinodelrey.com) both exceeding all expectations..  So I have several reflections, thoughts and observations.

I arrive at Hostal Tres Soles (three souls) to a room with a balcony over looking the sea... I sit for a while to watch little starling birds dance effortlessly over the the shore, darting in and out of evergreen trees, held by the air and surrounded by the sea..

I woke on my first day with no movement or fluid to support movement in my joints, every time I tried to sit or stand I needed to flop back down into a lying position where I could be completely supported by the earth (or the bed at this point). I tried waking, energising, mobilising myself and my joints with some gentle movement and yoga postures but even this felt impossible.. I thought to just go back to bed and sleep more, I obviously needed the rest but didn't wish to waste a minute of my time here, I then thought of coffee.. I headed out into the warm air and bright blue sky, stopping to watch the sea.. When I returned I didn't need the coffee the earths natural energy had woke me, woke my fluids, invoked my senses.. I questioned my tiredness and lack of mobility, then thinking of the pressure from the plane and sitting for 5 hours on a bus from Malaga to Nerja the day before - I further query how machines, man made objects had weakened my fluid system and the walk in a natural environment had strengthened my body, my fluids, my being.. I love the following thought of not spending any time over the next 10 days sat at a computer or spent sitting in a car, on a train, near a tv...