14B. Circle Transformation

FIRST FORM:

• Let's get into a large circle. We're going to work with sound and movement. One of you, A, begins by standing in front of another, B, and repeating a sound and movement gesture with a clear beginning and end. At the end of the gesture, before you start it again, there's a slight pause. You almost return to neutral but not entirely. You hold a bit of the feeling, then repeat the gesture. After a few cycles, you'll set up a pulsing rhythm. We'll maintain this pulsing rhythm throughout this exercise.

• A continues to repeat the sound and movement phrase until B picks it up, mirrors it. Then B, while rhythmically repeating the gesture, travels into the center of the circle. As B travels, s/he, step by step, increment by increment, transforms the sound and movement simultaneously until both the form and content are different than what s/he began with. Then, B travels over to another person standing in the circle, C, and stands in front of C, repeating the newly transformed gesture until C picks it up and begins to travel into the circle transforming it. (B takes C's place in the circle.) The process continues until everyone has had several turns.

SECOND FORM:

• Let's break up into small circles, four or five people in each one. Continue this process. If any of you sees one of your partners slipping out of the transformation flow—either by adding something to the action that was not inherent in the previous one or repeating the action rather than changing it incrementally—stop him and let him begin again.

THIRD FORM:

Break into twos. Stand about five feet apart. A gives a sound and movement to B. B transforms it and gives the new action to A. A transforms that and gives his or her new action to B. They continue transforming, giving each other actions back and forth.

Remember those little flip books. You'd quickly flick through the pages and the cartoon man inside would step by step, increment by increment, perform some kind, of act. There would usually be a surprise at the end. If we settled on a page, any page, and just looked at it, it would be a unique drawing, only ever so slightly different from the one before it and the one after it. The shape of the man's body would be a little different and so would his state of mind. Page by page. If we looked at the first page and then flipped right to the last, we'd probably see a "shift," two unrelated actions, each having different form and content. All of the inside pages show us how the little man got from the first page to the last. Step by step.

Transformation works very much like a flip book. Each individual pulse of sound and movement corresponds to a page, the shape and quality of the action slightly changes, as does the shape and quality of the sound. The inner condition, state of mind, or feeling shifts slightly from pulse to pulse, too. The expression on the face, indicating the state of mind, changes incrementally move by move, page by page. Each action is the child of the action before it and the parent of the one following. Everything in the present action is inherent or suggested in the preceding action.

Transformation differs from a flip book because the images in the flip book are static poses. Once we begin a transformation, we never stop. Our actions of transformation move rhythmically, pulsing, always almost returning to neutral, but not quite.

This technique may be the most challenging in the training. It insists that the thinking mind be quiet, that sensation, feeling, and action integrate into a loop of experience. A three-headed horse bolting into one new reality after another. The mind must pay attention to all the details involved. What's going on in one action cues the next action. The performer should not be hatching ideas, thinking, planning, or identifying. When a student pulses through sound and movement actions, the jump out of the incremental flow is a jolt. Everyone watching feels the shock in their own bodies. It's as if a page were torn out of the flip book. All of a sudden, with no warning.

An action or sound appears from out of nowhere, unconnected to the one before.

The performer sinks into a repetition, the same action over and over again.

The performer speeds up or slows down, but the skeletal form doesn't change.

The performer enlarges or shrinks the action, but content doesn't change.

Or just the sound transforms.

Or just the movement.

Or just the feeling.

When any of the above happens, the student should back up a move, or two, and go at it again. A moment of thought interfered with the student's attention to internal experience.

Transformation leads to wildness. Given the wheel, the body (sensation-feeling-action) will drive itself off the normal road, down embankments into raging, or sublime feeling, through dark tunnels of demons and resurrections, and end up on top of ecstatic mountains peaks. Only hesitation, doubt, or a lack of willingness puts on the brakes.

We're continuing with transformation. However, now we go faster.