Day Three

There was a point yesterday where I felt that sustaining this level of energy would be impossible. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday felt like a full on sprint. Very little time to process, mainly just time to absorb. The rhythm changed on Wednesday. Not that it became less in tense, but that how some of the pieces are fitting together began to make a bit more sense. I’m struggling with documenting what I am learning, knowing most of it is experiential and in the body. The theory parts of it have all been explained by people with much greater experience and insight than I. So, rather this may be more about perspective.

The shift for me was seeing how these tools interact. Today started with Viewpoints – mainly movement through space. Walking and stopping, and then walking and stopping or sitting or kneeling or lying down. Then move between performer and observer. The movement patterns we just beautiful – very reminiscent of my experience watching Solo olos. Here and there a really engaging grouping would emerge and then dissolve. I’m not sure what was more addicting watching or performing – both locked into a very specific vibe. I could have done either of them for hours.

So, from there were went to Suzuki training. Our teacher today was Akiko – who – it turns out – I saw perform in Three Sisters when the Suzuki company was in MA in the early 90s. A very technical lesson with some brilliant images to help connect with the training. We went a bit deeper today and also reviewed what we had learned on the first two days. Moving from the flexibility and improve structure of Viewpoints to the demanding specificity of Suzuki made perfect sense. They complement each other so well.

Suzuki gave way to movement class with Wendell – which was a fantastic rediscovery of how our bodies can move – like infants just learning to lift their head and roll. A bit hard on adult hips, but my back and knees felt surprisingly looser when we were done. The last class of the day was Speaking with Ellen. Here a great integration of some of the movement work we have been doing and vocal work. These last two pieces helped open up the workshop for me in which the sprint was settling into something that could be sustained – something with infinite duration.

I recognize how fantastically privileged I am to spend this time doing this work. To a certain extent all of us here at the workshop share in that privileged. I say that knowing that some struggled to afford this, or traveled halfway around the world, or sacrificed being away from family or friends. But we have all made the commitment to this work and so that privilege comes with the cost of pushing one’s self every day harder and farther than I could imagine.

And so this was my revelation today – not a new one – but an important one. People don’t learn, don’t grow because someone is judging them or grading them. They learn because they push themselves to learn and seek out teachers from which to learn. Over the course of this month I suspect I will work harder than in any class I ever had in college. Hopefully I’ll learn more too.