Michael says …
This is some writing from Michael Schumaker (direct from an email – with his permission):
I found your blog entry about Stillness and Absence interesting. I have also encountered a ‘default state’ in my my presence when processing new information. This is actually what lead me to a more rigorous study and understanding of our senses and sensory perception. In general, I’ve found that we dancers acquire what I call a ‘thinking face’ when moving and rationalizing our sensory input. You probably know that face. I’m not sure, but I think it is akin to the state which you describe as the ‘default movements’ that we fall back on when ‘new listening’ occurs. I sometimes refer to that movement as ‘the vamp’. As in music, we sometimes revert to a somewhat simple, repetitive sequence of movements while our brain is processing other information, new and old. The only place where I might differ from you is when you mention that this state occurs when you are involved with ‘new listening’. I actually think it occurs, not when we are listening with all of our senses, but rather when we are processing information in a rational way. In my workshops, I’ve been playing with exercises that focus on separating the left and right brain activities while moving and I’ve found that the ‘thinking face’ appears most often when we are analyzing and rationalizing our sensory input, rather than allowing ourselves to simply experience that information. I believe this is what you are describing in the following passage.
‘To treat the ’settling’ as an opportunity to be fully still. To fill the stillness with purpose, and not conflate it with what was about to happen (or what the possibilties were). It was a chance to pull back from the future, to dance in stillness with my internal gaze, whilst not ‘loading’ it with importance or meaningfulness.”
Or?
Of course, the real challenge comes when we want to create something more complex than a through composed composition. In other words, when we chose to analyze the information that we are experiencing to bring out its deeper meanings, associations, and patterns, we need to balance the right/left brain activity. Like everything demanding, this take a lot of practice. But I’ve found that it is a possible and quite enjoyable journey when it begins to flow. I have less fear of dancing in stillness.