I asked the class to follow my barefoot feet upstairs to a naturally lit corner on the fourth floor of McWethy. There I had set up a pile of leaves and asked the class to sit in a circle around them. I then walked into the middle of the circle atop the small pile of leaves and began crunching my toes together and breathing in and out. I then began doing yoga, my regular routine. First sun salutations, then on to warrior poses and backbends, then resting poses on the ground. I breathed hard and loud; heavy compared to my normal breathing.
I didn't plan it out or practice it. I only knew that the sound of breathing while practicing yoga is a consistent one and the sound of crunching, dry leaves is an interesting one.
Feedback from the class included feelings of relaxation, beauty and flexibility, balance and peacefulness, a sense of unity with the ground. Someone said I looked like a puddle when I laid down. Some people said they would have preferred that I had more leaves; it would have made more interesting noises and perhaps fallen off my body more often.
I didn't want a lot of leaves.
In the winter I feel disconnected from nature because everything is dead and cold; I want to be warm inside. The small pile represented my small relationship with nature during this season. I also feel that few people have small or any relationship with nature in our increasingly technological and IT focused society. As spring brings new life, I hope my relationship with nature will regrow, and I hope that some of my art and interests may inspire people to reconnect with nature.
Your piece definitely looked and sounded like you were putting a lot of effort into your poses. And I liked the leaves, because that was all that was needed to create the idea that you were doing this outside.
ReplyDeleteThere's a layer of meaning there that would have been lost if you had actually done this outside -- the leaves, as a symbol, are thus more important to the piece than what they represent.
Keep up the good work.
I really enjoyed the nature and body combination. I agree that it would have been a very different performance outside. It would have kept the calming feeling that we got from watching you, but because of the space and how we were included in that space, it emphasized the human body interaction with the little bit of nature you had brought in. I would liked to have seen more leaves just for more sound, but I understand the choice to not bring in as many. Overall good experience watching you :).
ReplyDeleteI really connected with your performance because I also love being outside and doing yoga. At first, I thought that doing the performance outside would have been a better choice because there would have been a lot more noises, such as more leaves crunching, the wind blowing, birds chirping, etc. You would have been more connected to nature. However, there would also have been more "unnatural" noises, like cars (I imagined you doing it right outside Mcwethy), which may have taken away from the performance. So, then I thought that your choice to do it indoors was a good one. Also, when you explain your disconnectedness to nature in the winter, it makes a lot more sense to do it indoors with the leaves because it portrays your yearning for nature that isn't as pleasant in winter. I also connected to this because I also get really depressed in the winter for this reason, especially in Iowa (I'm used to Colorado sunshine all year!).
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