11B. Fast Track

1. Sound and Movement Mirror

• Everyone, stand in two lines, facing each other with about 8 feet between you. One line will be the Leaders and the other will be the Followers. The first two people in each line, run toward each other. When they reach the center, the Leader does a short sound and movement action. The Follower mirrors it immediately, almost simultaneously. When they're finished, they run back to their places in line while the next two people run forward toward each other. This repeats until every couple in the line has had a turn. Then the progression comes back up the line.

• Switch roles and repeat this sequence. Remember that the leading and the following happen simultaneously.

Dialogue:

"I need time to get what my partner's doing."

"What do you do in that time?"

"I try to understand."

"What are you doing to understand?"

"I'm thinking about what the action means."

"Don't understand, do!"

We don't think feeling. Feeling doesn't come into us that way and it doesn't come into us from the outside either. We don't need to understand another's feeling in order to empathize with them. Knowing another's feelings happens without mental interference. We know by intuition. We can feel what the other feels because we know all feelings. Feelings are in us already. We only need to intend to feel what the other feels.

In this case, the Follower either "gets it," or doesn't "get it," and that's irrelevant anyway. There's nothing to understand. There's only some­thing to copy.

Often, doing triggers being. When students "put on" their partner s action, they may experience the being of it just by relaxing, by allowing the action to overtake them. The action, then, does them.

2. Sound and Movement Response

• • Here, the basic structure remains the same: Two people run toward each other. This time however, one does a sound and movement action and freezes in the final shape of that action. The other person performs a response that's different in form and content. You're no longer mirroring. As they return to their place in line, the next pair runs forward, the Leader initiating a new sound and movement.

Dialogue

"If I don't understand the meaning of the act, what am I responding to?"

"What are you doing when you respond?"

"I'm trying to figure out what I see coming from my partner and then I'm thinking about how I should respond appropri­ately. "

"There's no time for that. The action and the response happen immediately in sequence, on one release of energy: both actions, sequentially, ride the same wave."

A and B run in.

A does an action.

B sees that action and allows herself to feel it.

B responds to what she feels by doing a different action.

For a moment, B lets A in. B receives A's feelings, state of mind, energy no matter what it is. B takes it on, sensing what that particular state is like, energetically, kinetically and in feeling. B now "knows" A's action as a bodily experience and responds impulsively, reflexively. No thought. No time. No understanding. No "B," in a sense. The response does itself. The more open B's imagination, the more territory is available for responding.