Although, for various reasons, I was only able to be there the first week sans both soundwalks, it was a great lab for getting back into a personal practice of being. I was really inspired by the open environment created by Michelle, Hope and the group, and the baby Uta. He was a special auditory addition as well, not just his crying and cooing, but his breath and the sound of his baby limbs moving about while we listened or moved in the space. It seemed that there was always an open question when we were working and that we, as participants, had a lot of say in how and what we were going to explore. I felt a lot of space and freedom when doing movement improvisations and now I tend to try and listen to people dance as well as watch. I, like Lise, had musical training (viola, French horn, voice) and gravitated towards dance classes that were musically-based early on in my training. When improvising with sound in this lab I became very aware of my own internal music that I make with my body as I dance and how hard it was to let go of that and listen to what ‘music’ was happening in the room, space, park etc. The day in Trisha’s studio when Lise, Biba and I worked together; I found that I started to break through that place and into a more present listening place but it was only the beginning of that process. I have a wonderful memory of the slow walk with Pauline and the group finishing behind me, but I continued until Biba told me that we were done! I actually saw more saturation in the color scheme that day because my eyes and ears were wide open. I also remember doing corridors with Barbara (and group) and feeling that improvisation can be simple and elegant and it can take a long time to get somewhere, and that being patient with a simple structure will actually allow something to happen rather than making something happen, which is the role I often like to play ….the instigator. Let’s hear it for changing some deeply ingrained patterns, or at least on our way to something else new.
