19A. No Pillows

• Everyone, place yourself somewhere on the floor and stand in a neutral posture.

• Some of you will be Sounders and some of your will be Movers. When you're a Mover, you're silent and when you're a Sounder, you're still. Everyone is collaborating, the Movers with one another, the Sounders with other Sounders, and the Movers and Sounders with each other. You are collaborating on how you design the space in the room with shapes, clusters, lines. You will collaborate on time patterns, whether you're moving or sounding. You're collaborating on the development of the content. Everything relates to everything else and you're always in the scene together.

• You can shift the two roles of Sounder and Mover at any time. If you're moving and you decide to become a Sounder, don't return to neutral. Instead, sound from a posture and location that's relevant to that moment. Movement leads to sound and sound leads to movement. There need be no gaps.

After twenty minutes or so, I'll give you a two-minute cue. Within that time, find an ending together.

Everyone stands still. A low hum arises. It goes on for a long time. Within it, ethereal shadings and harmonies appear. The hum stops. There's a pause. Someone walks to the wall. Another a pause. Someone sways and falls to the floor. Someone else walks to the wall and delicately touches it. The hum, fuller now, resumes, and, out of the hum, a single wail emerges and then gradually it is joined by a myriad of echoes, wailing, wailing. More people fall, roll, get up, go to the wall or fall again. The wail continues on, now dragging its own rhythm. They become silent and in silence the wailers sway and lunge. Then they wail on. Another pause. Everything stops. Some moments go by. Tension mounts. Suddenly a small band of hunched-over people scurry back and forth taking small and light, spritely steps. They huddle together and move as if their bodies are joined. Occasionally one stretches up, spreads his fingers, face and mouth wide open, then becomes still voicing sharp and cutting, high-pitched sounds. Everyone else is moving extraordinarily slowly, sliding their hands over themselves, and each other...

Students move from Sounder to Mover with flexibility and speed. They express actions comprised of both sound and movement, intricately intermeshed units. Everyone is both sounder and mover all the time. They pause in one role in order to execute the other, but still hold both roles inside. A continuous line of listening runs underneath the sounds and movements connecting them in time and content.

The ensemble builds a dream-like event. No one could possible explain what it's about. Yet, they seem to understand, and resonate with the content as it unfolds. The images of the participants may be archetypal, symbolic, and seem to refer to an ancient intelligence. Or they may be silly or mundane. Whatever the nature of the actions are, they come from a heightened awareness. The form s peculiar demands insist on it.

Imagination is an expanded perception of reality accessible through skills.

Skills are needed to use tools.

The voice, the body, and language are all tools.

If our voice can cover many octaves, and we have control over our breath, we have more options to investigate, combine, and transform. If our mind is always aware of our body, we will experience more possibilities to recast, redirect, and reorganize physical experience and movements. We train ourselves to hear the sound of our speech and sense language shaping inside our mouths. Thus, we can hear ourselves from the outside.

Once we really listen to ourselves, we can become aware of our habitual shticks: what they are, where they are, when they show up. If we tune into the inside moments of each word, we won't be blinded by our schticks. Once we tune in, we can play.

Let's retool body awareness.