Movement Ritual: Remembering the Body

 

 

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Check In

 

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Introduction

 

Anna Halprin conceived movement ritual as a series of structured movements that helped to release tension, expand range of movement, and spark creative expression. In today's class we will explore movements that will help us create a community ritual. Our ritual will be based on movement metaphors, the creation of a group myth and the subsequent consolidation of our ritual structure (Beginning, Middle and Closing).

 

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Learning Objectives

 

• Understand the different ways of looking at dance
• Explain the meaning of personalized self-body as metaphor for the big collective body
  
• Gain an awareness of the concept of group myth 
• Experience the creation of a movement ritual
  

 

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Main Lesson

 

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Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance.

Page 245

The theater world is more inclusive than dance in Western culture, particularly when it comes to using movement connected to feelings. In the dance world the reaction I often get is that "this is therapy not dance." I've never found this prejudice in the theater world. I search for real-life-as-art. I want the personalized self-body to become the metaphor for the big collective body. I don't like the way ballet, modern and even post-modern dance armors the body personality by abstracting feelings, content and physical movement. It becomes formalized art, feels distant from life, it doesn't involve me.

 Question 1

Why would the personalized self-body be important in the creation of a movement ritual?

 

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Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance

Editor's Note (Pages xvi)

 

• 1973 - A myth is a tribal happening created by the unification of collective energy and group consciousness.
• 1974 - A myth is simply an "audience participation event."
• 1986 - A myth "embodies a personal and collective vision of how we see ourselves and the world.
• 1993 - Myth is more specifically defined as "a narrative pattern giving significance to our existence whether we invent or discover its meaning
  

In general, when expressed in words, a myth is a story; in sound, it becomes music; in visual images, a painting or a sculpture.

Through the shaping of matter, myth becomes a dwelling, a village, a temple, an altar; through physical movement, a dance or drama.

 Question 2

Based on the progression of the concept of myth, according to Halprin, articulate your own definition of myth.

 

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A Note to Remember

 

 Halprin's continual quest has been for a dance of meaning, one that comes from the authentic center of the person dancing (xvii). From the Editor's Notes of this book, written by Rachel Kaplan, one can understand that the main purpose of this work is to search for the place and meaning of the individual and the community, in the body, in the family and in the world. Thus, embodying our stories to feel our lives through the center of our bodies (our heart) is a way to come together in community. This attempt represents the way we therapists can develop central human strategies for survival.

 

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Case Study

 

 Ana Halprin Workshop

 

 Question 3

According to Ana Halprin in this video, which are the two ways of looking at dance?

 

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Discussion Questions

 

1. Why would the personalized self-body be important in the creation of a movement ritual?

2. Based on the progression of the concept of myth, according to Halprin, articulate your own definition of myth. 

3. According to Ana Halprin in this video, which are the two ways of  looking at dance?

 

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ACTIVITY

Movement Ritual 

Ana Halprin said that "a dance ritual is a dance with an intention."  Imagine a scenario in which you go to a community in despair with the purpose of creating a dance-ritual that could heal the members of that community. For this, you must engage in a process of exploration, discovery and performance.

 WARM UP

Students walk through the room in any direction, finding pathways between each other.

Eventually, every student pairs up with another student, adjusting their pace to each other.

Then, the two students add a third. They adjust their walk pace to each other.

Finally a fourth student is added. They experience attunement.

They move in a circular motion, around the center of the room. Now the group has to pace their walk so that they do not end up on top of each other.

Students experience attunement at a collective level.

REMEMBER THE BODY

Individual exploration of movement choices in which you recognize your emotions as you release them. 

Close your eyes. Focus on your breath. Be aware of what is in your mind.

Begin to shift weight from one leg to the other. Let the arms follow the motion. Begin to experience flow as you involve your whole body.

Be aware of the movements you experience .

Psychological and emotional healing only happens when you deal with your own emotions; so you dance your emotions; you dance trauma.

 BACK TO THE GROUP

Gather in groups of four and create a dance ritual.

 Reconnect with your group and share some of the movements you experience.

Try to explain the meaning of your movements so that they become movement metaphors.

Every member of the group now teach other members his/her moves.

Turn those movements into a movement phrase for the whole group.

 

COMMUNITY DANCE

Now, come back to the whole group. The smaller groups teach their movement phrases to the whole group.

The group finds the myth in the movements by giving meaning to every move the group has learned.

The group performs the dance and brings it to a closure.

 PARTS OF THE MOVEMENT RITUAL

Beginning (introduce the theme or metaphor; develop it), Middle (create a climax ; a pulsing) and Closing (consolidate the ritual with the achievement of the group-body).

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Journaling

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Glossary

XI

Sources

 

Halprin, Anna (1995). Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance. Wesleyan University Press

 

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STUDENTS' WORK

 Reflection

Max, Will, Jack, Leo, Matt, Julio, Paola

We felt like our routine went well. Our target group was able to learn the dance quickly and we felt that it had meaning. We also felt like we were adaptable as the participants for the other groups because we challenged ourselves when making the dance. 

The purpose of our dance was to connect to reclamation of the land. The group then became grounded with the land itself.

 

 

The Spiral

 

Ally, Pola, Abbie, Bella, Elsie, Kamiell, Gabbie, Jack, john, Tom, Saul

The Spiral was designed to connect and ground adolescents of South Miami considering they are technology reliant and disconnected with themselves and the outdoors. Being outside, particularly on the beach, allows the group to ground themselves in the sand and feel present in the space they occupy and their interactions with one another. The sound of the waves accompany this experience and make it even more therapeutic. We learned the importance of grounding yourself everyday with movement that sometimes requires no talking, just being present and moving as one entity, one whole. In synchronization we connected with one another.

 

 underprivileged children

 

Nati, Kitty, Katy, Carly, Maddi, Ali, Lin,

Our dance is called the parachute. The dance allows underprivileged children to relax, relieve, stress, and have fun. The parachute is a safe space for these children. We learned the act of performing a dance helps you feel grounded. It also creates a sense of unity and that we are all connected to one another. 

How to experience dance?

 

When she was speaking to the dancers she expressed that her experience is different from everyone else’s. When she dances it makes her feel better. She uses it as a way to connect to ourselves through the movements. She posed a rhetorical question asking the class how dance makes them feel, if it is worth it, and how their experience is. She stresses that everyone experiences something else and there isn’t one way to feel after the movement.

Make-Up Work

 

 

 

Albion Shala

Q1: The personalized self-body is of utmost importance when creating a movement ritual as it emphasizes the uniqueness of a person. It shows that no matter who you are, you are you – and you can be a part of something bigger. A ritual is created to unite, if we were all the same, we'd "already be united" for the most part. 

Q2: A myth is the embodiment of a story that can be displayed in all types of ways.

Q3: The first way is when the mind informs the body and its inverse. Communication between these two are paramount in its relation to dance.

 

 

Olivia White 

 

How We Experience Dance

Question 2 - A myth is an idea we invent and spread that carries on through different groups.

Question 3 - Dance is a way to use movement to plug into who we are. The ways to look into movement are when the mind informs the body and when the body informs the mind. 

 

Isabella Lopez 

 

Which are the two ways of experiencing dance?

1. Healing, dance has many healing properties especially mentally

2.  Everyone experiences it in their own way. You need to find your own experience in dance. 

3. Use it as a way to plug into who we are as people

 

 Class Work

Jack Marino - Two ways you can experience dance

Anna Halprin expressed that you can experience it via the body explaining it to the mind and sometimes the mind explaining it to the body.  She explained you can let the body flow and the mind follows and it can release all the stresses the patient is holding on to.  She also expressed dance as art or life.  She thought dance or movent was a natural way to relieve our problems and stresses