THE PERFORMATIVE’S BODY PRESENCE AND ITS POTENTIAL

TO BECOME A CONNECTING ELEMENT

Reflections by

Andrea Gabriele Hackl

Summary

We all are part of this Universe. Everything consists of energy and, therefore, is connected. Most people, though, experience themselves as separated from the rest. The artist and art, in general, have the potential to create new connections and to shift the perception of what is “reality”, to step beyond set mind-structures and conditioning. To trigger a constructive dialogue art should unleash a creative force. We have to reconsider the responsibility of art, the creator and the performer as well as the positive impact the performative body can have. The poetry and power of expression through the human body as well as dance lays within its energetic charge that can reach people on an essential level. Everything is connected. We are part of nature and nature is a part of us. My inspiration is to support the understanding and experience of this connection. It interests me to see how the human body, being placed or acting within an environment, can mediate and function as a connecting element – by us identifying with its physical presence. I want to create work that allows people to connect to an essential level of their own Being, an “opening” that transmits a sense of co-existence. Keywords: Human Body, Performance, Energy, Presence, Environment, Opening, Connection

"A human being is a part of the Whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein, N.Y. Post, November 28, 1972

Thoughts at the Core At the core of my artistic journey as dancer and choreographer lays the conviction that everything consists of energy and, therefore, is connected. Following this belief, my wish is to create work that has the potential to enhance awareness in people. - Life energy as essential core connecting everything Everything consists of energy in different frequencies; therefore, everything is connected, ONE. - Going through physicality and working with the “energetic body” we can access and connect to this source of energy. We experience it, create with it, communicate through it and can let people experience it with us. And we can capture the essence of our surrounding, of the present moment. - Physical presence and motion project themselves and we receive this information. In its physical presence the human body can function as a connecting element to nature and to the environment being worked with.

Context and Motivation In Nowadays Society in which disconnection, individual isolation and exploitation seem strong tendencies, I sincerely believe that art and what I share should create connection and the sense of “potential” (to change); it should have a positive impact even in context of critical work – offering, if not a solution, a constructive perspective. One thought that seems important to me is: Whatever I focus on, I will give power to – or in other words: Energy flows where my attention goes. This thought, as I see it, gets often neglected in artistic work, though it should always question my responsibility as performer, as a creator who wants to share and contribute. Further, it seems very important to me to question the general role and responsibility of dance, the creator and the performer; to reconsider the positive impact which the performative body can have in it's energetic charge. “The only antidote to destruction is creation. […] Not art for art’s sake, but art for life’s sake.” – Stephen Nachmanovitch, “Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art”, 1990, p. 182

Despite or even because of the need I might feel to speak of certain issues, as well as the dialogue I want to pro/evoke; next to the necessity to confront and to push myself and, possibly, my audience out of the comfort zone, it seems important to question the place where my action(s) come from, if or what my work will communicate and the

impact it will potentially have – what I will contribute to and manifest into this world. As I see it, art should unleash a constructive force and inspire to trigger a creative dialogue. Inspiration is one of the strongest forces to motivate, move and empower people; to enrich our lives. Inspiration is a driving force that comes from a creative place – opening space for movement and growth, space to evolve.

Vision “Only occasionally in the lives of many are the senses fraught with the sentiment that comes from deep realization of intrinsic meanings. We undergo sensations as mechanical stimuli or as irritated stimulations, without having a sense of the reality that is in them and behind them. […] We touch but the contact stays tangential because it does not fuse with qualities of senses that go below the surface. We use the senses to arouse passion but not to fulfill the interest of insight, not because that interest is not potentially present in the exercise of the sense but because we yield to conditions of living that force sense to remain an excitation on the surface. ” - John Dewey, “Art as Experience”, 1934, p. 21 My passion is to create work that allows people reconnect to an essential level of their own Being. Everything consists of energy and, therefore, is connected. We are part of nature. In fact, we are nature. Through what I share, I want to support this essential understanding; to offer the possibility to sense connections, to create “openings” to re-discover a sensation of co-existence.

Energetic Charge “As performer we go on a journey ... a journey of discovery ... we become creator ... charged by and creating energy in different textures, states and forms ... we create with every breath and every movement ... and our actions connect to and become a part of space ... we are playing with space and time ... every performance is a journey we go on – performer as well as spectator ... a journey through space and time, throughout which every moment means becoming ... and we all are sharing just that.” We experience the energetic presence of another person. Physical presence and motion project themselves kinetically and we receive this information. In my work, an aim is to use this potential. When working on a performance, I want to create a sensorial and energetically charged journey, work that has the potential to enhance sensitivity and consciousness. The poetry and power of expression through the human body as well as dance lays within its energetic charge that has the potential to communicate, reach, touch and move people on a profound and essential level. Within this energetic communication lays the power of a performance to create a potential shift in the perception and experience of what is “me” and my role in a bigger context. – going beyond conditions and set (mind) structures. In this way, a fertile ground for new ideas and intrinsic motivation can be created. One challenge to create this shift might be to find and play with the gap that lays between the instant we see / get aware of something and the moment we interpret – that empty space of awareness. Besides, this shift cannot happen by exclusively communicating an intellectual idea but rather by inviting people, the audience to go through an experience. Physical and energetic work function as dynamic tools to

create the context and space where such an experience – shared by performer(s) and audience – is allowed to happen. In relation to these thoughts, a main focus of my research lays on how to create dance from an essential, almost “cellular” level. Before addressing any specific theme or issue that the choreography and performance will speak about, it interests me to work with energetic states and physical qualities, “textures”, in reference to the dimensions within my body and in context of the surrounding space. This research and approach comes before and, at the same time, forms the base of my work during a choreographic process. Life is an energetic process. Everything from the sub atomic particles, amino acids, peptides up to our DNA and our cells, which form to make us, resonates with its own unique signature frequency. Besides physical work with the “matter at hand” - the body, focused on the skeleton, muscles and their mechanics, I want to go beyond their dynamics. It interests me to find ways to activate and work with e.g.: the “energetic body” that traditions such as Yoga speak of, as well as with the liquid system of the body, its intrinsic motion and pulse. The “energetic body” (consisting of chakras, nadis and ch'i or pranic energy), in its dynamic flow, projects itself beyond our physical borders into space. There are many ways to perceive and understand the components of the energy body. It can be strongly experienced e.g.: in “Asanas” when practicing Yoga – which, though being positions, are never “static” but alive, expanding and charged by a constant energy flow. This understanding plays an important role in my choreographic work. Enhancing awareness of and working with the “energetic body” – to be tapping into and utilizing this source – will, first of all, connect us to more energy. To be in motion will suddenly re-charge us with energy. And second: It will create a different, profound physicality. I see the “energetic body” as the essence at the creation of “presence”, projecting itself, communicating.

Connecting Element Working with a highly integrated body and physicality, it has become a special interest for me to see in how far the human body being placed or acting within different landscapes and contexts can become a connecting element. My work investigates the human body's (the performer’s) potential to create a bridge to the surroundings being worked with – by us identifying with the body’s physical presence. In my role as creator and performer, I search for the possibility to physically create this connection by listening to and working co-creatively with(in) an environment, with(in) nature.

Essential Connection, the Essence connecting everything We are nature and nature is a part of us. To reflect on how everything interrelates and on the fact that the “outside” always mirrors “what is within”, will let us see the state of nature under a different light. It will let us reconsider its connection to dysfunctions within society, as well as disturbances within our own Being and Self. By exploiting the environment and

harming nature we harm ourselves. The recognition and experience of the essential connection between, as well as the essence itself connecting all Being – the Universe, The Whole, Atman, Soul, Energy, Intelligence, Consciousness, … – will create the space for a different, sincere respect. Respect for life in all forms – for nature, all Beings and for this planet that is our home.

Stories of the Land

“eu so devedor à terra / I owe the earth a terra me está devendo / the earth owes me

a terra paga-me em vida / the earth pays me while I am alive eu pago à terra em morrendo / I pay the earth when I die

- Cante Alentejano - My inspiration is to create work that zooms in on this essential connection, celebrating life and the beauty of nature. I search for the possibility to create “openings” for people to re-discover their own connection to nature, a sense of coexistence. Following this inspiration, I’ve started a (research) project in rural areas in which my aim is to work co-creatively with(in) the natural environment – with its conditions as well as “limitations”, its qualities, textures and elements. A main focus of this work is the potential of the human body to mediate between the environment and the audience. – The human body becoming an element of the environment. The human body functioning as a surface for identification and projection. It inspires me to, on the one side, work with the conditions / “limitations”, the raw qualities of nature and, on the other side, to show its beauty and essential poetry. To expand this journey, my intention is to integrate people’s stories of the land as well as the beauty of local knowledge that is often closely linked to the wisdom of nature. – stories which have or will eventually become the memories of the land, of the earth. I want this research and work to be nourished by knowledge of the ways in which people live with the (at times extreme) conditions of an environment which is their home – e.g.: extreme heat in summer, the absence of water. And as well, the profound respect for the earth and land that often can be found within rural traditions is truly inspiring for me. This research investigates two layers. Two layers – intertwined and being part of the land’s soul. On the one side: stories of the land and its memories. On the other side: its essence and presence. Two layers, speaking of past and present. Past and present, at the same time, being the essence of, being expressed through and forming, molding the ground, the land that is already holding the seed of the future to come. Both layers and all given information I want to translate physically and capture as well as express through the human body – using the human body in its presence or creating a “metaphor” with it. To dive into and reach the essence of the present moment, to capture the essence of what is, it seems essential to me to create and work with this special state and mind-set:

Open Presence

Creating Openings, listening to the Land “Hakuin wrote: If you forget yourself, you become the Universe. That mysterious factor of surrender, the creative surprise that releases us and opens us up, spontaneously allows something to arise. If we are transparent, with nothing to hide, the gap between language and Being disappears.” - Stephen Nachmanovitch, “Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art”, 1990, p. 30 In order to work co-creatively and in context of the surrounding space and environment, I cannot entirely plan and rationalize my research beforehand. An important factor is surrender – giving space to the unexpected, to surprise; space to let something new arise, something not yet experienced, labeled and conceptualized. I want to find connections and to create by allowing an “open presence” to happen. How can we connect to this “open presence”? It is related to an instinctive & animal state, in which all senses are alert and acting in concert. A state where we find “motion merging into sense and sense into motion.” (John Dewey, Art as Experience, p. 18) As human beings we can dive into this animal state, this unity of sense and impulse, and saturate it with a heightened consciousness. I am looking for this fusion. To achieve this “open presence” I have to, at times, consciously slow down. It is of importance to let time flow freely, not to force any actions – to wait till a natural impulse to act arises. It seems like a meditation and has a lot to do with “listening”. I have to ‘be with’ the surrounding. It means saying “yes” to what is, to the conditions at hand. In the Vedic philosophy we find the mantra “So Ham” - “I am that”. It means identifying oneself with the Universe or ultimate reality. At other times, this open and alert presence has an almost playful quality to it. “There is an old Sanskrit word, lîla, which means play. Richer than our word, it means divine play, the play of creation, destruction and re-creation, the folding and unfolding of the cosmos. Lila, free and deep, is both delight and enjoyment of this moment, and the play of God. It also means love. Lîla may be the simplest thing there is – spontaneous, childlike, disarming. But as we grow and experience the complexities of life, it may also be the most difficult and hard-won achievement imaginable, and its coming to fruition is a kind of homecoming to our true selves.” - Stephen Nachmanovitch, “Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art”, 1990, p. 1 When being in a state of listening, when acting from this receptive and playful presence, I believe, it is possible to capture the energetic essence of a moment and the surrounding / context being worked with. In this way, I can allow something to speak through me. I can become a medium and act from an essential level. In this way my work will truly honor and celebrate the moment, its essence and beauty. It means “surrender” to what is and wants to speak, which creates the space for a dialogue to happen. Myself, I will be a medium, a window, an “opening” and the earth, the land will be allowed to speak and to tell its stories.