Earlier this week, I was delighted when Carol Levin’s poem was published online at String Poet - String Poet, Volume III, Issue 2 Winter 2013. I reprint it here with Carol’s permission
Robert Davidson, Trapeze Dancer
2013 String Poet Prize 3rd Place
You fly and I am you.
Your right hand
locks on your trapeze
mine curls
tight in my pocket.
Like heart beats
from stage right
drums and flutes. You fly
buoyed in blue air
I know how it feels to die.
Stagelight strobes your eyes
flashing cellophane stars
extruding a limb of light
to me. I look out
through your eyes.
Magnetized I am you.
We are a jaguar
swooping. We
levitate silently
from prehistoric tarpits
of ordinary life to dance
a pas-de-deux
and I am you
until you smile
in the bow light
embracing applause.
My hands sting,
widow of feats
of association.
What delights me is that it beautifully describes what happens in the performer/audience relationship. It is a phenomenon also described by science writers Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee:
In The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee summarize some recent studies that begin to supply scientific answers to this phenomenon. They begin the book with a discussion of “this invisible volume of space around your body out to arm’s length - what neuroscientist call peripersonal space---is part of you.” (2007, p.3) and go on to say:
“Through a special mapping procedure, your brain annexes this space to your limbs and body, clothing you in it like an extended, ghostly skin. The maps that encode your physical body are connected directly, immediately, personally to a map of every point in that space and also map out your potential to perform actions in that space. Your self does not end where your flesh ends, but suffuses and blends with the world, including other beings.” (Blakeslee and Blakeslee 2007, p.3)
When they go on to describe this phenomenon in performance, the example they give is a concert:
“And have you ever gone to a reggae or rock concert where thousands of people move in unison to the music? If you stand back and watch the crowd, you may get a vivid sense of One Big Body Map.” (2007, p. 137)
(Quotations from The Body Has a Mind of Its Own published by Random House).
As a performance coach, the desire to maximize the potential for this in-sync-ness, is why the Alexander Technique is such an essential tool in my toolkit. It is much more work, and sometimes nearly impossible, for this in –sync-ness to be artistically uplifting if the performers are out of coordination. I have been very frustrated as an audience member when I see someone who clearly has good ideas and commitment to the work – and is tightening to do it. Their tightening interrupts the flow of their work and then they need to try and get back in the flow and with all those “bumps” in process, their good work doesn’t have the reward it promises. It is so much easier for an audience to participate with the performer if the performer is modeling freedom of self in action.
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And, while the realm of the performer reveals the power of coordination in artistic communication, conscious coordination is a sweet tool to have when you are talking to your family, your friends, your colleagues-in-life.
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