3E. Performance Score: Two Up/Two Down

• Two people sit in the chairs facing the audience, and two other people stand up behind them. The two people sitting on the chairs will initiate material. The two people standing up will echo.

• One seated person will start by saying a line, a short sentence or phrase. The other three will then repeat that line and play with it musically. The line has to be repeated with exactly the same intonation and intention as given, but the music builds with timing and delivery. Then, another line is offered by either one of the initiators. Each one of these lines must be radically different from one another: the voice quality, volume, pitch, speed, content. The initiators may each say up to three lines.

• The people standing above can only echo the lines that they've heard.The initiators can echo each other's line, as well as, their own.

• All of you collaborate on the sound composition. Listen to each other. In a sense, you're talking to each other. Hear the lines in relation to each other, both the sound and content. Play with it.

• Reverse roles. The two sitting, stand. The two standing, sit.

Here students focus on the sound patterns of their language. No fancy technique is needed. No perfected voice. No years of train­ing. They have all the equipment they need: ears, mouths, and willing­ness. They interact like jazz musicians composing a score from the sounds of everyday language.

When we were children, we changed our minds on a dime. We were experts on change and great shifters. We'd cry one minute and laugh the next. We'd take seriously what was or wasn't serious. We "listened" because there wasn't anything else on our minds. We believed in what we were doing, and we dropped it without a thought if something else took our attention. That's what shift is all about.

Day Four

Composition

4A. Lay/Sit/Stand

4B. Walk on Whispered "Ah"

4C. Focus In /Eyes Out

4D. Mirroring

4E. Accumulation, One Leader

4F. Performance Score: Accumulation, All Leaders

She was moving very slowly. I could barely see any movement at all. Yet, from time to time, as I glanced at her, I saw her in slightly different postures. Then, she was crying. Later, she said it was because she was moving so slowly. She said she saw no images, no story, and was aware of only slowness and breath. Her mind was quiet for the first time.

We begin the fourth day by slowing down and allowing our atten­tion to rest on hardly anything. The first task offers an opportu­nity to notice the activity of the mind.

4A. Lay/Sit/Stand

• Everyone, either lie down, sit, or stand and be very still. Focus on your breath. Watch the air as it comes in and bounces out. Watch the pause that follows each exhale. Feel that experience. Continue focusing on your breath while I describe the opening exercise.

• In the next few moments, begin moving as slowly and smoothly as possi ble. No pauses, jolts or jerks. As you move, pass through the simple postures of lying down, sitting, standing, and walking in any order. Move very, very slowly. Walking, sitting, lying down and standing. Ask yourself to move more slowly, and even slower than that. Pay attention to where you are. You have no place to go other than where you are. Move so slowly that you note every sensation coming into your awareness. Nothing evades your attention.

• As you're moving through these constantly changing postures, different states of mind may arise. Allow these states of mind, feelings, emotions to affect what you're doing: the energy in your body, expression on your face, and gaze of your eyes. Continue moving as slowly as you possibly can.

• From time to time, speed up a small section of the lying down, sitting, standing and walking action. Very fast. Percussive. Don't plan it. Pretend that someone else is directing you, someone else is making it happen. These fast movements are erratic, irregular: sometimes, a series of rapid movements: sometimes, a long period of slow movement before another rapid one appears.

• Gradually increase the amount of fast movements, and decrease the amount of slow ones. So, you will be either moving as fast as you possibly can or as slowly.

• Now begin to associate with someone in the room—a partner, someone near you—and continue to move in relation to one another. Respond to what they're doing, how they're doing it, their rate of speed, the shape they're making, the attitude or spirit they're expressing.

• Eliminate the slow movement. Now, you're either moving very fast, or you're still. You're directly communicating with each other. Lying down, sitting, standing and walking is your language. Only lying down, sitting, standing or walking. Nothing else.

• Don't try to be creative. No plans or choreography. Nothing fancy.

Creativity

"Being creative" is not something beyond us, nor do we have to become it. "Creative" is an idea that compartmentalizes and limits our experi­ence. When we start thinking about being creative, we break from the present. Our bodies are in one place (present) and our minds are in another (future).

Another way to look at creativity is to say that it's not about being creative, but simply about being. "Being creative" implies being other than who you are, when actually creativity is being more of who you are.

We can find this by quieting down, relaxing, letting go of the future and simplifying our actions. What's the least you need to do to commu­nicate exactly what you mean? Clear, spontaneous expression is not the result of how much you do, but rather, the quality of attention you give. Thus we ask the student to intentionally do very little and discover full­ness in that smallness. Slow down their mind and pay attention to each moment of change. Adding more action won't compensate for lack of attention. Simplify. Bare the bone. Don't build with more action, build with more attention. Then, you'll be "creative."

Communication relies on intention and skill. I may want to com­municate something to you but I don't have the skills for it. For exam­ple: I want you to know that I'm feeling sad, but I don't have the language or expression to transmit that information. Or, I get so wrapped up in my experience that I forget to notice whether you're listening and under­standing what I'm saying. A lift of an eyebrow can be a powerful com­munication if one intends it to be so.

The quality of attention, of relaxed awareness, determines one's rela­tionship to the changing aspects of experience. Whether performing improvisationally, playing a musical instrument, cooking, changing a dia­per, or running a board meeting, creativity comes with attention.

Suppose attention can be measured in units, and altogether you have 100 of these units to work with. And suppose action can also be measured and you intend to perform 100 units of action. Units of action require units of attention in order to be clear and complete. The less individual actions you do, the more attention you can give to those actions. You have 100 actions to complete and only 100 units of attention to work with. How many units of attention per action? Well, obviously, you spread out the 100 units of attention evenly among the 100 actions. Every action then gets equal attention. But, suppose you have only one action to perform. You would apply your 100 units of attention to your one action. That's focus!

An example of redirecting attention is shown in Walk on Whispered "Ah." Students practice the "ah" sound focusing attention on the exe­cution: listening, controlling and hearing the resonance of this most unin-cumbered sound.