In September I had the opportunity to co-curated a “living room salon” style event known as ShapeLeaper, with Eric Archer Dahlberg at the Lifebridge Sanctuary in Rosendale, NY. Together we brought in a group of artists to share their practice with varying degrees of formality, including a film-maker, an aerial theater director, musicians, and of course movers.
The unifying concept that I brought to the group was the idea of Comparison.
I introduced the idea to the audience at the top of the evening by speaking while gently moving with some pedestrian gesture. I taught them that their body is already seeking kinesthetic empathy - their mirror neurons are also scanning my body for difference. I invited them to act on those impulses. If they see a twist of the wrist that looks like it feels delicious, to go ahead and take it, engage in it physically. This invitation lead to the whole room being much more full of movement all the way through the evening! How fun!
I will leave the details of the evening as a shared, fleeting experience for those who were present, but share a bit more on the unifying concept:
The word comparison shares prefixes; Co and com, meaning with as well as suffix: Par, meaning equal. Put simply (and perhaps poetically), it is to hold things with each other and notice the way in which they are not equal. To notice difference.
So, in one way comparison is a tool for learning, a tool for knowing, a tool for noticing the difference between two things. It has relationship embedded within it, you cannot compare anything without an implicit relationship.
The moment that we add a value system to that difference (which by the way, lives on various scales of perceived and “real”…), then we are also adding judgement into the mix. But, it’s not there initially. Comparison is far more utilitarian than we let it be!
More on these musings soon, I’m sure. Thanks to all who attended and shared!