Concluding with 'Wholeness', ' More Creativity' and 'Ethics'

As the study draws to a close I take my final outdoor movement exploration concerning this aspect of my practice; I will endeavour to continue developing a body and earth approach to my dance artistry while it is likely that my next venture will focus more deeply on the creativity that has been emerging through this study. I decide to visit my precious place for my final movement exploration that investigations the spiritual significance of water, inside and outside the body. I go with the plan to move through all five stages of Fraleigh's 'Land to Water Yoga', beginning with standing & walking (stage 1) moving sequentially to side lying and back floating (stage 5) and then sequentially reversing the sequence however, when I arrived the force of nature has something quite different for me...

I arrive to blustering winds, howling sounds and a vibrant gushing sea... There has been talk on the news (and in the office...) of the UK receiving the off-spin of hurricane Irene from the US, while there is now word of a heat wave hitting the UK next week (the last week of September...), surely signs of a changing planet and globe warming?

I am fascinated by the energy of earth, by the energy of the sea and air, I feel it's energy bubble in my blood... I stand... I get blown... movement and creativity arise quickly without force or thought...  I feel air move through me, swirl inside, I feel air spin my fluid like a hurricane... I dance... moving with the sensations of movement inside and outside the body... In all this movement I sense stillness, I sense peace, I am happy, no concept of time, I am present in the movement, in the moment, I am present on earth... I see rain move from above, move towards land from the far reaching sea, the sea that lives beneath the land on which I stand... I am reminded of my findings on water as a 'divine path to heaven', water from above in the shape of rain connects with the lower water, connecting heaven and earth... it is like the rain has been sent to me as a gift so that I can physicalise this notion... I do physicalise it, I also capture the rain moving down from above and in from the sea, connecting with the water below and land on which my fluid body stands (see video documentation 7 to share in viewing the rain move in off the sea and down from the sky http://www.vimeo.com/29330718). Rain moves in and passes several times each time occurring with the quickness of a small fish darting through a big ocean... I feel spray from the sea so far below me and so deep beneath me... I know, I feel that there is something other than me, a force, an energy, a subtleness, invisible but felt...

On watching the video documentation and reflecting on the moving experience I believe creativity has again emerged, I was unable to focus on the 'Land to Water' sequences and thus, just moved with the sensation that arose through which creativity appears. I sensed, and see a connection with the moving planet, movement of sea and air and a sense of being very present in the moment, not a thought or care, or any concept of time, alive and at peace, which I link to a passage by an experiential mover noted in Fraleigh's 'Metaphysics in Motion' (2004)

When I dance I become, I connect with others, the world, and myself. When I dance my perception of time and space is different from my everyday experiences. When I dance with each breath I reach out, become a part of a bigger whole. When I dance I feel alive.

(Mariel Renz, Germany 1997 cited in Fraleigh: 2004) 

Such reflections bring up notions of wholeness, while the whole study has in itself conjured a number of adjacent topics, creativity being a key parallel topic alongside ethical thought within the field of somatics and somatic informed dance. The study has led me to think and feel more respectful of water, my own and earth's, I have experience profound moments of peace, stillness in movement, sensed spirituality and satisfaction in the moving practice which has seeped into my every day life. I feel at peace with myself, others and the world... 

Any integrative experience is a spiritual experience... One component of mystical or spiritual involvement that underlines ecological concerns is the feeling of being an integrated part of the whole planet.

(Olsen: 2002) 

I am an integrated part of the planet, I am water, air, earth, universe... I am therefore able to access spirituality in my moving, art, dance and everyday life...   

Where I feel this practice-led study will led, well I would like to develop the creativity that has emerged  and the ethical layer, intertwining these aspects to make a dance film, which is creative in nature while  addressing issues of globe warming, nature a subject, not simply an object to be bought and sold (Olsen: 2002), highlighting nature as an aspect of self, as an aspect of physical and spiritual enormity... reaching out to others, asking them, through art to think about the way we all treat our planet, our waters and our air, in a modern existence...