I went to my mother's dance group for the first time in awhile. My mother's group does Barbara Mettler-based Creative Dance, which utilizes the three components of force/forcelessness, time, and space.

Well, tonight we were working on a component of "organic form" -- or, one movement arises, develops, evolves out of another, and, as there were some new people to the group, we started out with the "Creative Pause." The "Creative Pause" is that span of time between movements, the pause where the body, not the mind, decides where it is to go next. In essence, the body, or the instrument is motivated by it's kinesthetic force.

By the pause, instead of just letting one movement just slime into another, one does one movement at a time, letting that movement come to a complete stop, and then, letting the BODY/instrument decide when and what the next movement shall be.

So, we all worked on this, all eight of us. Listening to our bodies, listening to our kinesthetic senses, listening to the development of movement in dance.

Then, we worked on this as pairs. And it was difficult. I was working with the leader of the exercise, who sometimes was quite up front about leading, when, with the creative pause between two, no one should lead and no one should follow -- everything needs to be tied together.

The leader made very sure and very clear that I wasn't leading, and so we evolved, slowly, carefully, one movement into the next, building this dance between the two of us. There was a span of four minutes when I KNEW I was in perfect sync with him. There were times when we were one soul in two bodies, feeling the dance just happen.

It was a great thing to experience. It was SO good that I thought the next step would logically be for us to take what we learned and apply it in a group setting. And yes, we did a group dance. And suddenly, everyone was trying to lead. And, everyone was forcing. There was no connection, there was hardly any listening to eachother's kinesthetic sense. It was more like activity/passivity. Some group dance! Three people were all trying to move in different directions, and trying to carry the group with them.

I had to get out. I had put myself into that space where the Creative Pause was dominant, and personally, I wasn't ready to just junk all that work, and let everything go to pot, so I could be shoved around.

We had one novice, who, when the the line bumped up against her, started up some Israeli dancing, not really the right thing in there, but, okay. It's a movement.

Apparently, it's TOO difficult to continue expansion of the creative pause in organic form to the entire group. I think I would have gone for it, because I think it can be done. People just have to listen to eachother, but if there is a will, many things can be accomplished.

It was just so frustrating and depressing for the group to regress and sink back into a typical, domination-style group dance. Which, in MY mind, is NOT a group dance. A group dance is one where the lead evolves out of the group, from the entire group kinesthetic entity. Not where one person gives a nudge to another, indicating, "We're moving THAT way." It just felt so WRONG.

Anyway, rant over.**ARGH**

Shadow.