Stay Hydrated: The Expressive Movement
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Overview
“Thin description”. Only the information is that absolutely necessary for someone to get a sense of what this is about – how it might look and feel to inhabit/embody it.
 
Minimum participants: 2
Approximate duration: 45 minutes (up to 90 minutes)
Set-up: no clock in space (if possible), clear/neutral space (all bags, etc. in one space), no frontality (360 minutes), good sounds system (the music is very important), closed-off from the world (close curtains and mirror if possible) - but also, work with what is in the space.
The more external input (clock, passerbyers) is more difficult to tune-into. The feeling of safety is important.
 
Exercise structure:
 
Notes:
An initial formulation of principles in terms of crucial guidelines and conditions – modes of facilitation, use of language, of time, etc.

An improvisational practice based on the practitioner's own experience - to begin with. Not a group thing. Throughout the exercise you can decide to open up to the others, which usually happens in the performance setting. A different kind of listening between practice and performance. 
The performance score itself or the way of accessing the field.
The main preparatory exercise for Stay Hydrated, alongside Club Med Dancing. 
 
 
Description (tags)

Facilitated Set: 45 minutes. I will guide you with voice and music through an improvisational practice. Explain home repetition. (That's it)

Goal/Field: Find yourself moving in strange and unexpected ways. The moment of fractality, different spaces and times: here in movement, but also with passing thoughts (what will I have for lunch?), with yourself, with others.
    
The facilitator serves as a guide. Gradual rising of energy which is conducted by the music and the facilitator. The facilitator conducts. The facilitator can jump in, lessen the seriousness, flatten the hierarchy.

The facilitator chooses a home, a repetitive movement which everyone will perform. In silence, no music or voice or whatever. (7-10 minutes)
The speed of the repetition is up to you, otherwise minimal variations. You stay within the form, no spacing. Viewpoints: Time. 
The chosen movement must be very simple, not difficult to perform/enact, nothing tricky in terms of coordination or flexibility, nothing demanding much effort - it will be repeated a lot, and the goal isn't to be physically exhausted by it. 
The home has a semblence of a resting positon, something resting about it (very nice later on when you feel the need to lean on home)

The facilitator witnesses what is happening, then, when the space is ready says something like: 
"Now, you can listen to those inner changes that you want to make and follow them intuitively".
"If you're standing, listen to the shifts of weight that happen organically, your relation with the floor/ground".
"If you're touching (yourself, objects, people), focus on the touch - what does it want to do?"
"Gradually open your eyes, your awareness to the space and external inputs".
- Once you've found yourself, you can open up to more inputs (senses, music, prompts, other practitioners, space, and so on). Being honest in your reaction to those inputs - 

Listening to the sensorial aspect of the action, then facilitator giving a gentle push into this attention / letting go.
Stay with the repetition more than is comfortable, a bit longer, be bored by it. What are the impulses that come from the body (embodied reactions) and not the mind (cognitive response/anticipation). A gentle meditation.
If people start to go wild too quickly, it disturbs the field, the capacity to tap into one's own body and the collective body. Give the control-of-the-mind time to fade out, letting the human-unrest a moment to rest.
Just by the facilitator giving the usual inputs, they create a shared space and narrows the practitioner's focus onto themselves.

A gradual transition from home to variability. 

The facilitator can choose to play the first song/soundscape, with a slow fade-in. Music: something acoustic, no clear rhythm (avoiding to introduce time frames). This creates a big shift for the practitioners. Less of an abstract movement practice, as a more emotional charge is evoked. 
Liberated from the prison-home-form, the gates are open.
We don't want the practitioners to be overly aware of time / duration.

The facilitator can introduce a sense of listening to your emotions. "If you're bored, you're bored". As opposed to "leave your trouble outside", you can dig into the feelings if you'd like. Letting in the melancholies. "Remember a moment of strong emotionality, an impact on your emotional state" (not an input that comes from nothing, or opposes the energy of the space, rather supporting it - no to facilitating change for change's sake).
Having the space to "dig in" in a communal, external context to be annoyed and bothered, negative, can make the emotions feel lighter. It is your truth, you're still in it in how you choose to be in it. 
It's the guide's job to be empathic with the individuals in the group.

Threshold:
Rhythm has been introduced, 
emotionality has been introduced,
agency is introduced
freedom of range and expression is established

The facilitator chooses music that is coherent in the beginning, and can then "surprise" the practitioners. Can also serve to remind the group that this isn't so serious. Don't over exert the music, silence is meaningful, you can take 2-3 minutes between songs. Silence is an opportunity for the practitioners to tune. 

If someone is really in it, you can approach them and postivily encourage them to go further.
If someone is overwhelmed, you can reassure them, remind them that they can go home. Maybe go home first before "tapping out" of the space. Going back home is going to simply movement, rather than the emotional charge. 

Finishing: Choose a last song, call the last song. The song finishes, and the activity can gradually unwind. Be honest, are you really finished?

A state of emotionality that is "manic" is uncommon and not the goal. People get disappointed when that is placed as a goal. Expressed emotions are welcome and encouraged. 


Attempts for shared-facilitation have been made.


What it brings to Stay Hydrated:
Now, we're ready to work together. A draining situation: more calm and perhaps a bit exhausted. The body is prepared for plasticity, a fluency of impulse (no filter, just do, honest creation, you think it-it happens). 
Drain the ego away: You've been interesting for yourself - good. Now make something that is interesting to watch.

Impulse-manipulation
Live-editing during a performance (Elias): if the actions comes fluently/honestly, I can judge and manipulate/alter them more intuitively. 
Go for it and then adjust (Simon), a more fluid negotiation of timing between the performers. 


« The expressive movement » is an improvisational practice that I developed through my own thoughts and by being inspired by other improvisational practices that I experienced in the past. 

the self judgmental thought, let go of the tension in their body and mind, and juts follow the flow of their movement and imagination. Everything is allowed as long as the performer believes in what they do. Everything IS amazing. 

By doing those long improvisations ( about 45 min ) my goal is to
allow the performers to break their patterns and forms in order to find new ones , that truly belong to them. 


I believe that a simple idea is all we need to start. An idea that will give us enough space to discover ourselves trough this practice. 

I think that innovation lies in our brain, our capacity to transform these ideas, to smash them in million pieces and to find new ways to execute them. We need to put our souls into it, to feel our engagement. The expressive movement is a way of creating and interpreting those ideas, the movement must come form ourselves, it must be personal, something that is ours and ours only. Letting go of self judgmental thoughts is crucial, we need to be honest with ourselves by allowing failure and disappointment to be part of the process. There is no right or wrong shapes. If we believe that what we do is great then it is. It’s a state of mind that will allow anything to happened as long as we are ready to accept it. 

The role of the guide is very important. She/He is the one choosing the starting point. She/He also lead the journey by putting musics that will affect the universe of the improvisation. She/He can talk to the performers to
reassure them that what they do is ok and also to give them informations about the time, that they can transition into their end in a fluid way. 

I use this practice to make myself and the performers ready to create. Our minds are lighter, we are more focus and connected to each others.

Inner-impulses and desires, micro-decisions. Being honest with oneself, if there's nothing there's nothing. The hard truth of your now.
Not a physical practice, not to get in shape. A mental state which uses the body. A meditation. 
 
Form-design analysis: (helpful to touch on principles first)
 
 
 
 

 
Principles:
 
What are the goals of this practice?
Which experience does it provide?
Which ideologies does it resonate with? 
Which fields or fields, body or bodies, does it evoke?
How are these goals achieved through and embedded in it – structurally, discursively, conceptually?
What does the field afford? Which further pathways and techniques can you imagine?
 
(It is helpful to attend to how mythology, as in those invisible common principles, appears.)

What happens to these principles in other practice contexts, the practice of everyday life?
 
Honesty? Letting go?
What do these constituting elements of the field (principles) affording?

Go for whatever comes to mind, trust the impulse. 
What comes out you do, so it doesn't haunt you - a tool for being presence. Blocking the input and output. 

To achieve an adventurer/explorer brain. Genuine curiousity and present in what is there right now. You want to dig into it. Being like a dog, say yes to everything that is proposed you. 
(Chrysa Practice as Eco-System Questionnaire)

Body-Mind division
Let the body move, let the mind flow 
Thoughts can exist while moving 
Creating a provisional division, and an interface/connection that is more or less permeable
Where do emotions happen in this model? Emotional states would appear in the body, rather than the mind, as in remembering a narrative. How does the emotion feel? How is the breath, form, and so on. Remebering the embodied "recipe" of the emotion, its invocation, and to try and re-cook it in the moment. 

Continguity of Emotional Memory, emotions through memory and narrative, as well as a set of "big emotions"
Technique. Here, emotion is treated more as an atmosphere. From "I'm moving my right leg and left leg" to opening the possibility for analogics: memories, colors, memories, fantasies. 

What is it clearly not? Which things/moments do not work?

Witnessing cerebral-choices of what a good/cool scenario would be, seeing people attempting to "reach" a situation that could be, and skipping the situation that is, skipping the steps to geth there.
From inside, the feeling of being-ahead, of attempting to predict others, reacting to what you think they will do. To perform it for the future, trying to make an image (as opposed to just being and making an image). 
Elias

Trying to connect to others right in the beginning.
-Simon


Impulse-manipulation

 
Instances
 
Where does this practice originate – in which contexts and situations?
When was this practice enacted in this way (specific times, places, and people)?
Has this practice been enacted differently in other contexts? If so, which?

https://vimeo.com/847131220?share=copy


Matrixes
 
Which other voices and techniques are present in this exercise and practice?
Which are the other components of this practice’s ecosystem, and how do they relate to it?

Elina Pirinen (feministic practice)
Milla Koistinen

Contiguity: Authentic Movement

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