‘What will change when science
discovers exactly how our bodies give rise to our minds?’
This is the central question that
we were working with a couple of weeks ago during Matthias Sperling’s workshop.
The workshop was divided into two sections; in the first half, we discussed his
work Now That We Know and in the second half we participated in Loop Atlas,
which featured in the larger body of work at Siobhan Davies Dance, material /
rearranged / to be in 2017.
Sperling’s two pieces of work
inform one another. Now That We Know is a performance lecture piece which
imagines that science has proven the relationship between the mind and the
body. In a similar strain, Loop Atlas focuses on the idea of looping. Looping
is a movement process pioneered by Deborah Hay which lets your body be your
movement mentor rather than your mind. In this blog post I’ll be looking at
Loop Atlas as I found that its content gave me a lot of food for thought!
Loop Atlas uses different
choreographic approaches to investigate the mind-body dichotomy. In Matthias’s
workshop we as dance artists were given a space to experiment with this idea.
The workshop unearthed some ambitious questions not just about choreography but
embodied experience at large. Will there ever be a time when our bodies are
truly in sync with our minds? Or is there a time when our bodies take charge?
When I’m walking to a familiar destination, when I am a pedestrian, my body is
leading me there. My mind is indulging itself somewhere else; it is listening
to music or zoning out at whether that is a pigeon or a boot in the distance.
My body’s activity brings a lot of shame to my languid mind.
But when we’re in a dance studio
this relationship changes in some instances. Dancers are trained to be aware of
every body part’s function, from their neck to their right toe. And we engage
our minds to do this – our mind is the puppeteer and the body is the puppet.
However, there is always an opportunity to let our mind and body forget what we
have been rehearsed to believe. Although it sounds unusual, it generates a
really productive and fresh outlook as you become a blank canvas for
experimentation.
In unconventional performance
spaces, I would say that both the mind and body are working cooperatively
towards creating and producing movement in new areas. During Matthias’s
workshop, I had a heightened awareness of my mind and body where I was very
focussed on the activity of each. But, as much as movement is about bodily
awareness, it is also to do with forgetfulness and solitude. In a workshop such
as this, we need to forget that the philosopher Descartes said the body cannot
think without the mind. You really have to detach yourself from the philosophy
that the two are separate. For me, I have a dance background, but I also have a
lot of experience in the Early Modern and the Renaissance period. This might
seem an odd combination, but the two have refreshing links which I stumbled
upon unexpectedly. Matthias’s preposition (that I present at the top of this
post) that the body gives rise to the mind resonated with me a great deal.
Early Modern philosophy is pre-Descartes and it is rooted in the idea that the
mind and body are one. In very general terms, the experience of the mind is the
experience of the corporeal body. With this in mind, has history come full
circle where we have returned to this viewpoint? During Matthias’s
choreographic tasks, I remember moving on bodily impulse. Barely can I remember
changing my movement because my mind thought it was time to. I will admit that
there were odd moments when I could sense my mind overtaking, but I would just
suppress the urge and let it go. I became quite comfortable in letting my body
do the work and this kind of hypnosis was cleansing and relaxing.
When I walk a familiar route, my
mind gives rise to my body. Unfamiliar spaces have a tendency to reinstate the
mind’s control. And of course, this is the reason why as Next Choreography
students we are always moving around the studio to find different spaces to
work in so we can see what limitations they pose on the body and the mind. We
are always debating the very nature of movement; whether it is detached from
consciousness, or whether it thrives on bodily impulse, and it was great to
participate in a workshop which really got us thinking about the origins of
movement.
