On the last day of the official class, we explored the chakra system. We began on our backs and visualized the chakras. The root chakra of earth connection, sacral chakra of creativity and sexuality. Solar plexus holds ego energy, heart is love and hate. Throat chakra is communication and third eye is intellect and intuition. Crown chakra connects us to a higher order of reality. We explored the chakras with movement, gesture and with sound.
What do you think about the chakra system? Coming from the traditional Indian system of medicine, it is not a scientific study (yet) but as I said in class, can you connect to this material in a personal or creative way.
What will you harvest from this class?
On Tuesday, we talked about the work of Gabriel Roth and the 5 Rhythm Wave. The 5 rhythms are flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. We did two waves today. The first wave we did without any explanation and then we sat and spoke a bit about the experience of the work. Then, after a brief exploration of each rhythm, their energy, elemental and emotional, we did a second wave.
How did you respond to this work? Would you seek this out again? How does this work connect to other topics in this course? What will you harvest from this class?
I really enjoy 5 rhythms dance. I did this for my final project and definitely enjoyed it a lot. I definitely would seek this out again. THis movement definitely allows you to move from within and enjoy the dance. It allows you to express yourself and take out all your emotions. I feel like the wave is really natural- I definitely feel complete after going through a wave. It flows really well with my body's energy. I think I resonate best with the staccato and chaos portions. In class it was said that staccato refers to fire and chaos to water. Water is always calming for me and fire is about energy and passion. I definitely like those waves the best but the wave would be incomplete without the other parts. When I was dancing to rhythms there was something in me that just clicked with the music. My body just moved- I didn't think much about it. The movement was from within. I danced with my eyes closed and definitely related a little bit about the imagery from Skinner and the authentic movement to this movement. It brought everything we learned in this class together.
ReplyDeleteJuhi
As I mentioned in class, the 5 Rhythms invited me back into my body a few
ReplyDeleteyears ago. The rhythms encouraged me to connect to my spirit, my breath,
invited me to sweat, scream, hang loose, and be still….I will forever
feel gratitude for this structure. I find it fun, organic and complete.
The rhythms are all inside of each of us and present in the world around
us. When cycling through a wave, I tap into my indigenous consciousness,
connecting to my most primal self. I dance knowing that women, children
and men all over the world and throughout our collective history on Earth
have moved to these rhythms too.
Each wave is different; throughout the years I have always felt a strong
relationship to Flowing, though each rhythm feeds me when needed. On
Tuesday it was the transition between Chaos and Lyrical that took me to a
spiritual place; liberated, full of light and love.
Revisiting the movement and Gabrielle Roth on Tuesday after not having
moved through a wave for over six months was so interesting. It was
familiar, comfortable, and yet richer because of the layers of
understanding I have accumulated over the last six months exploring the
study of Somatics. As I was warming up my Body Parts, I heard Skinner
telling me to release and as I moved into Flowing my arms were light, my
legs hung off of my hips, my neck and head were lifting toward the
ceiling….Inspired by the practice of Authentic Movement, I experienced
movements based on impulses from within sequencing out of me during
Staccato; my body was the guide. In Chaos my mind was still and
vibrations from deep within emerged in an explosion of primal emotion,
color and sensation. Lyrical was freedom, bliss, joy, rebirth and love. I
was reminded of Butoh, the image of bursting forth from my cocoon as a
new creature flooded my minds eye and I was lightly skipping, flighty
like a young bird. Coming into Stillness, my mind and body were one,
integrated. I am brought back to our session with Doug, I experience,
“Integration of the mind, spirit, heart, bones, muscles, organs,
systems and breath. Through the process of mind-body-centering, I came
out whole, experiencing oneness. I felt light, my endpoints carrying me
through space.” This final rhythm goes deeper than before.
Upon reflection I observe all of the teachings come together the methods
we have practiced together in community are tools to move with, and to
live by.
-Lindsey
I really enjoyed learning about the 5 rhythms dance. I had never been exposed to it before, but it still felt very natural to me. Similar to many of the other styles we have completed in this class, it made me feel as though I was really letting my inner soul speak through my dancing. This style of dance let me express my soul through dancing however I wanted to. Even though many of the other styles that we experimented with focused more on listening to our insides, this form allowed us to express ourselves and channel our inner energy into external movements.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first began the exercise, I was skeptical of doing dance through listening to an instructional CD, but really enjoyed the structure of the 5 movements, but also the imagery that each individual person could create from the words that Gabrielle spoke. In this way, I think that merely listening to a CD was more helpful because it really allowed each person to interpret the dance however they saw fit. While I am not sure I will ever take a structured 5 rhythms class, I will certainly include and incorporate the ideas I learned in future dancing.
Exploring my chakra was also very helpful in expressing my inner feelings and focusing on different body points. I felt very empowered and was invigorated from vocalizing the feelings in my chakra. Prior to class, I had only briefly heard about the idea of different chakras, so it was great to spend some time exploring each one.
The Chakras
ReplyDeleteIntroduced to the Chakras last quarter through a yogapractice, I was enlivened by the wisdom and intuitive brillianceembedded in the story of each energy center. Each chakra has a physical,mental, spiritual, and emotional connection; they are composite layers of oursomas.
Today in class I enjoyed recognizing the associationsbetween each chakra with a color and a sound. Initially, my interpretivemovements were personal and sensual as I discovered them through my intuitiveunderstandings of each layer. As the class continued it was fun to share mymovements and ensuing sounds with others, taking them through space…ourenergies collided, overlapped, and merged, we built on each other’s insight,bright eyes, smiles and giggles.
Louis describes that, “theroot chakra of earth connection, sacral chakra of creativity and sexuality.Solar plexus holds ego energy, heart is love and hate. Throat chakra iscommunication and third eye is intellect and intuition. Crown chakra connects usto a higher order of reality.” Throughout the exploration of each center, Ifelt provoked, inspired, challenged, and overwhelmed, knowing that within eachcenter I have untapped dimensions of my self to explore. I think the chakrasystem is powerful and I seek to understand it in greater depth. I believe thatit could serve my development as a human being, inspire a deeper connection tomyself and help me to facilitate stronger relations with people in my life.
Throughout class I felt vulnerable, ecstatic, awake, andplayful. It was a fantastic way to start my day and an even better final classto end my academic program with! Thank you!
-Lindsey
5 Rhythms
ReplyDeleteAt first, I felt a little weird about having someone guide me thru the movements. I actually felt restricted by the guidance, it was like I was needing to fulfill a particular requirement. I believe I felt this way because prior to this class, I had attended multiple ecstatic dance session which are very free form. Then I realized I needed to just let my thoughts go and allow myself to be moved. I enjoyed the flowing, lyrical and stillness the most, it just made me want to move, and swerve, swirl, curl, wander, relax, lay, focus, enjoy the moment. I found it hard to connect to staccato, it was hard for me to stay true to the jerky, harsh, fierce movements in staccato, I kept feeling the sensations I had during ‘flowing’ connecting these impulsive, harsh movements. It was rather interesting that despite the sounds my body wanted to move in a smoother fashion. I felt much more natural during chaos relative to staccato. It was during I had the jerky connecting with the swoopy, it was fun in a crazy, random way. In general, I like to dance in a very free way, rather crazy and randomly. I wish I had more time to explore my movements but unfortunately, my sleep deprived self injured myself during the first wave . My injury restricted during lyrical, during lyrical I had the urge to travel, not just move. I didn’t participate during the second wave, but I feel that if I had more time to feel the music, I could’ve made a deeper connection between my movements and the music. I would like to explore the 5 rhythms in the future again, just so I could explore my bodily reacts to the sequence of the music/sounds again.
I connected the 5 rhythms work to authentic movement, ability to free our minds from thought and allow our bodies to move how they want to. I’m really appreciative, Louis, that you have brought us through this sequence of learning topics. I really felt like the organization of the class allowed. All of these topics were never introduced previously to me mentally and physically. What I got most out of this class was that its better to listen to your body regarding movement. Its much more satisfying for me to move the way I want to move, who cares who’s watching. All I know is that I’m having a great time and I’m doing what I want!
Chakra System
The chakra system was very new to me, I agree with the idea that there are centers of energy for specific connections with outside sources and within ourselves. I really like this connectivity of our energies to areas of our lives. For example, a particular chakra could be connected to something or an even that occurs in our lives. I was able to relate to a particular sensation in one of my chakras to an event in my life. It was really mind boggling at the time, but after this class that previously confusing sensation now makes sense.
I really enjoyed connecting the chakras to sounds, that was amazing and so much fun. I’m always a little timid when it comes to making noises, but it ended up being a lot of fun. The range of sounds seemed to suit the chakras very well, for example the earth connection had a very low, earthy, primal sound associated with it. Whereas the crown one was very high pitch, dolphin sound to it.
This day was one of many of the great classes I have experienced through your class Louis, Thank you.
Much love,
Rachel Rumiko Bruckman
On Tuesday I came into class a little stressed out. I wasn't really into danceing at first. But I just went with it because it usually makes me feel better. When I was done with the first wave a did feel better and it was interesting and surprising to me because I normally don't care for any sort of improv. I think that because I was so upset and stressed out that it just didn't matter anymore. It was a great feeling. Before the second wave I began to have a minor panic attack and left the room for a moment. During the break I knid of broke down. Then we did the second wave, and once again I felt better. This is definately something that I will seek out in the future, so long as I have the money to go. I found a new way to deal with emotional problems through this class.
ReplyDeleteAs for the chakras, I had never experienced them like this. I think that whatever new idea you are coming up with as to present the chakras, or whatever it was that you spoke of in class, is going to be great! I had a lot of fun today. It was a great way to end the quarter. I thought that it was interesting to connect my past abdominal pain to the solar plexis chakra. I was even able to particpiate in the voice section of class! :)
*Kali
I cannot even begin to express how sad I am that I was throwing up, etc. during our final week of classes – I’ve been looking forward to ecstactic dance for most of the quarter! Well, I suppose that this is just an excellent excuse to go to a jam of ecstastic dance sometime.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, though I was out of sorts still, I feel that I harvested so much from the work with the chakras. I have had yoga before and last quarter it was nice to focus on a new chakra each week in Catherine’s yoga class since it brought my attention to the different focus and characteristics of the different chakras. However, I felt that the use of colors, sound and movement was a beautiful depicition of the chakras. I found it very interesting that the chakras which I feel drawn to and more connected with were the chakra colors which I prefer and vice versa.
1 Root – Red, I feel strong in this chakra, I feel stable and secure and feel quite comfortable bringing attention to my pelvic floor.
2 Sexual/Creative – Orange, I find this chakra very difficult to maintain and this is also a color that holds some uncertainty for me
3 Ego – Yellow, I feel fairly comfortable and confident in this chakra and love the sunny, happy nature of yellow
4 Heart – Green, my favorite color and probably my favorite chakra since love and compassion should constantly have our attention and focus
5 Throat – Blue, I have always struggled with this chakra and have never really preferred the color blue. This chakra has to do with communication and, though I may give the impression that I like to talk and communicate, etc., I do sometimes feel that I do not express myself very clearly or well.
6 Third Eye – Indigo, I feel fairly connected to this chakra and a soothing in this shade of purple.
7 Crown/Divine – Violet, though I would never want to make any claim of connection with the divine lightly, I feel that I have a fairly good focus and relationship in my spiritual life and feel very comfortable with this chakra and soft shade of purple.
Also, before I head over to the next blog, I must say that after I layed down in class on Thursday, there was a moment of perfect beauty and harmony in my classmates discovery and flow of chakras as everyone made their chakra sounds in unison – I couldn’t help but smile and breath a much need sigh of relief and love.
The five rhythms experience was a different take for me on ecstatic dance. I have had experience at the dance underground with the ecstatic dance community. It was different for me to have more prescribed movements, but I appreciated the flow of the movements from one to the other and felt that my body responded really well to the progression. For the first wave, I was bit distracted by the talking, I appreciated the descriptions at some points, but at others I felt there was just too much repetition of the same words or phrases and I was brought out of the experience a little bit. One description, 'moving through honey,' however, helped me envision the movement and feel of 'stillness.' For the first wave, the descriptions were necessary and helped me understand the movements; flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness. I was able to get much more into the second wave. It could have possibly been because my body was more enlivened from the first wave, but I think being able to just respond to the music also helped me get into it. Flowing brought my body into ease and I felt extremely graceful. My energy began to flow throughout my body, I felt a connection between this movement and the sequencing we explored earlier in the quarter and our exploration of end points. Moving onto staccato, I felt a connection to my pulse and my joints as I shook things out and performed many angular movements. The energy heightened excitingly and then expounded into chaos. Chaos was my favorite of the movements; if I had to connect my movements from five rhythms with the kind of movement I most enjoy at ecstatic dance, I would say chaos most embodies this. In the second wave, I most expressive when exhibiting chaos and also danced myself to exhaustion, lyrical was sweet relief. I understand the explanation that lyrical is what naturally follows chaos, after the intense movement of chaos my body felt light and tingly and disposed to the lyrical movement. Stillness gave me time to reflect on my body and absorb the changes in energy and the effects of my movement. I appreciated being able to sequence through the movements, though I think overall I enjoy the freedom of ecstatic dance to movement. However, if more opportunities for five rhythms presented themselves I would surely want to be involved and experience again.
ReplyDeleteExploring the chakras on Thursday was a really fun experience for me. Before, I have only engaged with chakras through reading about them so I was really excited for the opportunity to experience them bodily. I was the most intrigued with the chakra within my throat. That chakra seemed to want the most attention when I created the chakra dance and was also stimulated when we moved onto vocalizing the chakras. I have often connected other bodily organs or ideas, like the third eye or heart space, to my conceptualizations about the chakras. But with the chakra within my throat, I had a harder time connecting to it by just reading about it. It was a pleasant experience to be able to connect with the chakra that had somewhat alluded me. When we all moved and made sounds corresponding to each chakra it was just a really great, fun and celebratory experience that I feel was a great way to close the class.
-Allexa Laycock
I have hears of chakras before, but never really explored them. Thursdays exercise in this was quite interesting. When we did the heart chakra, it was initially really hard for me. I have recently lost my Aunt to a car accident and I felt like that part of me was broken and really was trying hard not to lose control and break down crying, however as we kept going it got easier and I felt less broken inside. I looked up a bit on the hear chakra and in Sanskrit it is anahata which means unhurt, un-struck and unbeaten. Somehow, this seems to fit. It is actually hard for me to talk about things close to me and I really hold in my emotions, but I think letting go helped in this case.
ReplyDeleteThe noise part was also quite memorable, though in a much lighter way. I am not very good with making sounds generally and tend to feel awkward making them, but by the time we got to the very quick succession I was having a lot of fun with it. By the end of class I really felt less disconnected within myself and everything in general.
I have had introductions to working with the seven chakras in both yoga and modern dance classes. In your modern class last year, we did the chakra dance where there was one motion for each chakra and we moved our heels in and out. I loved this portion of the dance because I felt an inner and personal connection with the movements I was doing because of the meaning and relations of each chakra. In Kent's yoga classes last year and Catherine's yoga class this year we touched on the inner belief of each chakra and why focusing on these points in different yoga poses can be beneficial. Having worked with chakras before, it was easy for me to feel the different chakras and what emotions, feelings and sensations pertain to each.
ReplyDeleteThe dance that we ended up creating in class after exploring improv for each chakra reminded me of the chakra dance from your modern class but with sound effects. I loved the addition of sound effects because with each sound effect I truly felt the connection to the location of the chakra in my body.
For the root chakra, our voices were grounded and deep like cave men. I felt more connected to the earth and also it seemed like the deep sound was coming from my tailbone area. Our dance and sounds with the sacral chakra connected with my sexual and creative ideas that were running through my head. The solar plexus chakra is the focus of ego energy and my body seemed balanced in this area during our dance. Moving up the body we made sounds and movements to express the heart chakra which was an "ah" sound. It reminded me of how I wanted to share love with all of my good friends and everyone that may be going through tough times as well. The throat chakra movements allowed me to say certain statements I felt were hard to say, but I finally seemed to get them out of my mouth. My inner focus on my self and my intellect brought my attention to the third eye chakra which made me think about everything I learned from college. And finally the crown chakra brought my awareness to the puppet strings and reality of graduating and entering the real working world.
5 rhythms was a great experience for me because I felt free to do what ever I wanted to do within the five different genres of this dance form. I enjoyed 5 rhythms and feel truly connected to my inner self and pure happiness of dance and movement. I enjoy how each section of the 5 rhythms dance leaves room for creative expressions, but differ from one another greatly as well. I also love the idea of stillness and how some movements are still part of stillness. But stillness can have such an impact in a performance to viewers as it can on the dancer themselves as well.
-Katie
Chakra systems are a way of representing the body and spirit that I feel really close to. The first time I learned about this particular system of representation I was really glad because I found myself connecting to the images and words that were being said and shown. I truly enjoyed the chakra experience we went through because of this. Exploring each chakra in a new way rather than primarily through a yogic movement was really exciting. It allowed me to accumulate all of the types of moving that I love together, improvisation, and constant movement with this spiritual connection I find whenever I focus on the chakra pathways and intents.
ReplyDeleteThe 5 rhythm pathways were also really exciting, because they allowed me to experience a fantastic rush of emotions while following a directed pathway. I felt myself almost zone out and my body take over in expressing each step of the 5 rhythms in various ways. I was really glad to move through the pathways twice, although it was exhausting it was more meaningful the second time after I learned what was going on with her intention.
The work that was presented on Tuesday was very much in line with the other work that we did throughout the quarter. During the first wave, I felt at peace and simultaneously invigorated in much of the way I did during the guided movement meditations. The music played sounds as well as the designer's voice. She guided us through the various stages of the wave. Each of the segments had a movement theme, and this began the journey. One gesturing pattern led to the next. During the wave, there was growth and there was destruction. Half way through class, Louis presented the work that we were doing in a formalized way. he told us that we were practicing 5 Rhythm Wave, and that Gabreil Roth had copyrighted and markets this form of movement THis turned me off. I don't believe in copyrighting anything. I also finding it discouraging to see that in order for someone to learn or practice this potentially liberating movement expression, that they must have a certain income. I don't think I will ever practice 5 Rhythms Dance. After the small discussion on the history of this movement, and on the experience we'd shared in the classroom, we moved again into a second wave. This time around, I had it in my mind the purpose to this form. I found that I was able to travel o a journey, through time and space, and see the benefits of each movement sequence. The different patterns of each section, from flowing (water like), to stacatto (fire like) to chaos (the rhythm of letting go) to lyrical (the rhythm of poetry) and ending with stillness (focus is on the breath and inner dance here), led me to different psychosomatic spaces. I felt different sensations and memories arise, at some points I was able to release those and move through differet moments, other times I got stuck with a certain image or movement and had to focus on letting it go, and jumping into a fresh space, for the sake of moving forward. Overall, I enjoyed it. I plan to read her book, and to use what she's offered in a way that feels meaningful to me and my dance.
ReplyDeletealice
On Thursday, we explored our bodies using a discussing and imagery of the Auryveda system of medicine, and its chakra system. I had a really difficult time working with the images of the chakra system. I felt like it was a little overwhelming to present the system. I guess a lot of the work we've been doing was developed over time, and that we only dipped our toes into it, and we did the same with the Chakra System. I have a different relationship, that I've come to develop and be intimate with, and what Louis presented in class didn't particullary go hand in hand with what I use from the system. I have a difficult time, for example, being comfortable trying on another culture's shoes. I do feel like this way of relating to health is beneficial to bring into our understanding. I do not view reality in a hierarchy of body and spirit/intellect, which is how I felt the chakra system was presented. I don't believe that their is a higher order of reality, I think it exists here, too. And, from my knowledge of Auryveda, it was created by men living within a particular Hindu caste system. I see the society they are from reflected in how they metaphor and use their body in relationship with the world around them. When we began making sounds, I felt very overwhelmed by what I was receiving from the group. Making sounds is a very sensitive thing, and I want to respect that it is a different process for everyone. I felt rather bombarded with the concept that my sound had to be playful, or crazy, or loud, or ecstatic. I wasn't in that space. I appreciate making sound a lot, and it is something traditionally left out of American dance. I've always found it to be healing and useful, and definately wish we could have encouraged making sound more throughout the whole quarter. I understand that other people had a pleasurable experience with the sounds on Thursday. I hope folks understand a bit more, like I do, about how powerful making noise is.
ReplyDeletealice