cellular
choreography
andthe development of ritual actions
ON ADVANCING WORK IN THIS PARATHEATRE MEDIUM
by Antero Alli
cellular
choreography
and
the development of ritual actions
ON ADVANCING WORK IN THIS PARATHEATRE MEDIUM
by Antero Alli
True initiation does not require ritual to occur; it is a spiritual event.
At best a ritual can act as a device or a tool to assist the expression
and integration of genuine initiation -- that which has never occurred
to one before and for which one can never truly be prepared.
The first initiation is Self-initiation -- the exposure of oneself to oneself.
This means to leave the self-conscious watcher behind and enter the
circle of participation. Words...images...explanations all belong to
the watcher. To the participant -- experience is everything.
SELF-INITIATION
Self-inititiation in this paratheatre process starts with an immersion in a highly subjective experience, exposure and expression of the subconscious internal landscape. This initiatory stage is by necessity regressive, chaotic and dispersive. Nothing of much apparent value is articulated or communicated outwardly beyond the utterances, sounds and motions of spontaneously convulsive expressions. Yet this immersion stage can prove invaluable for authenticating and deepening access to the internal landscape and its vertical sources of energy; energy streaming from above, within and below the body itself, emanating from the earth below and from the sky above us.
VERTICALITY
Through persistence of practice and applied effort, we break through the upper crust of social conditioning that buffers us from direct experience of this verticality and the forces governing existence: the archetypes. Passing through this portal requires that vanity be thrown to the winds in nothing less than a total act of surrender to one's own vertical sources. Once this door has been opened we begin the journey towards our innate spiritual and visceral responses, a journey that takes a steep uphill turn when we are ready to develop the necessary skills for articulating these highly subjective internal impressions in externally recognizable motifs, precise gestures, words, characterizations and actions. This marks an important transition in advanced paratheatre work and a bridging of self-expression towards communication.
PATTERN RECOGNITION
Once such Self-initiation is set into motion, the stream of impulses can flow more freely from subconscious depths into the daylight circle of physical expression and vocalization. It is at this juncture that we can learn to detect and serve the innate directions of the energy itself -- the stream of impulses -- rather than imposing control over them. Here, we begin detecting in the raw primordial internal source material certain innate shapes and patterns of motion. These patterns are not mental constructs or conceptual overlays but autonomous impulses expressing their own organic rhythms, cycles and tensions if allowed to unfold or, pour forth as in a fountain.
While tending to these patterns of motion, a sustained care is needed to serve their expression into a more precise gestures, specific actions and sensitive interactions. Care here is defined by an active respect for the spirit of the living impulses, rhythms and cycles while clarifying their expression into more precise forms. Too much precision kills the spirit, just as not enough precision makes for a muddled soup effect. A certain stamina is required for extending the duration of this fusion of precision and spontaneity over time. The stamina for maintaining such a dynamic balance requires an equally dynamic dexterity of surrender and control.
Cellular choreography and ritual actions demand an ongoing
tending to the dynamic tension between precision and spontaneity
in their periodic fusions of concise expressions of living impulses.
These processes convey three stages of paratheatre work:
The first stage involves cultivatating enough internal receptivity -- via a deepening of the No-Form experience -- to energy sources in the body itself and then, to give these forces direct expression without imposing any preconceived outcome or "look". This first phase is devoted to Self-initiation, to accessing and expressing the internal landscape with minimal manipulation, and tends to be chaotic, loud, convulsive and "messy".
The second stage requires pattern recognition of the energies accessed and expressed. The aim is to distinguish and express -- in gesture, voice, action -- the innate patterns, shapes and "forms" emerging from these spontaneous eruptions. In the second stage we learn to serve the forms within the energy itself. Energy dictates form. By virtue of its experimental spirit this phase tends to be fraught with frustration, boredom and breakthroughs.
The third stage requires a sustaining care for tempering spontaneity with increasing precision. Too much spontaneity turns the work into self-indulgent soup; too much imposed structure kills its life. A balance must be struck. This stage requires a certain kind of stamina and attention -- a second attention not linked to thinking but to presence -- to serve a more conscientious convulsion. By its very conscientiousness this phase tends to be clear, economical and simple.
further notes...
IDENTITY SHIFT
In the initial exploratory stages of Self-initiation a certain identification with the energies becomes necessary. We become the sources to experience the sources. Before we can distill from these sources their innate cellular choreography and their expression into ritual actions, a certain identity shift must occur. As we pay closer attention, we eventually come to realize that whatever the forces or energies are that move through us, they are not the ego. We are not that energy but a vessel for its expression; we are not creators but translators of creation.
This identity shift is implemented by deliberate disidentification with the forces themselves, allowing for the self-detachment necessary to play the forces, rather than to be or to become them. Playing the forces is not unlike playing a musical instrument; you let the forces express through themselves through you. Let them play through you. We are the instrument and the forces play us. If we are not these energies that move through us, then who are we ? This question, "who am I ?", may be best served as an ongoing inquiry, rather than as any attempt to finalize, create or settle for some pat or finite answer that can only inhibit access to the very mystery we are attempting to experience, embody and express.
To be cont.
-- Antero Alli
updated 2/13/2008
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