Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 00:45:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Karinne M Keithley <kmkF92-AT-hamp.hampshire.edu>
Subject: Re: fall/flow


have been only reading so far, but finding the discussion in my area of 
work (dance) i feel like dropping in....

responding to this idea/opposition of fall and flow set up in Karen 
Ocana's post. Particulary the notion that flow flows in any direction 
indifferently, and that fall is directional whereas flow is not.

as this discussion of fall arises in reference to dance, i would offer 
some notions of fall and flow derived experientially, from work in the 
actual medium, rather than work theorizing about the medium.

the most literal dance example that comes to mind(body) is contact 
improvisation.  Contact is a duet form based on the giving and taking of 
weight, operating on a set of bodywork principles that make the body 
available to taking weight and distributing it, following momentum rather 
that stopping it up... The shared weight and surface between partners is 
the focal point: the dance arises out of a continual attention to the 
_between_, and a continual shift between taking and giving (weight, 
impetus, support etc.).

This idea of flow seems particularly relevent to Contact, because 
essentially Contact is all about going with the flow: not trying to 
anticipate what happens, not trying to attain certain positions, 
maneuvers etc.  The dance is all about continuing, not arriving.  Within 
all this continuation there are different balances of moving and 
stopping- occasionally you come to a place of balance and the dance slows 
to an almost-stop.  But one exhale is enough to disrupt that state of 
balance and send you into motion again.  Within this state of flow there 
are many different movement ideas, one of which is Fall.  In this sense i 
would object to the positing of Flow and Fall as opposites.  Fall is 
always accompanied by the movement back up, some sort of dispersion of 
the fall: when i am balancing on my partner's back and i start to fall, i 
go with that fall til i make contact with something else, most often the 
floor, at which point i begin to follow the momentum of the fall out 
along the floor by rolling, circling horizontally etc.  So the Fall 
always comes out of and continues into the FLow.
 
If fall has direction, so does flow.  Taking this idea of flow as the 
action of a Contact Improv duet, I find a continual set of directional 
choices to be made.  The flow of the dance, rather than an amorphous 
following of momentum, is actually a continuous set of choices.  At every 
point i have the option of directing the flow differently (and in 
directing i mean steering: in what way will i engage myself in Flow- what 
body parts, etc.).  So by inhabiting flow, i find myself 
constantly identifying direction.  

The idea that flow is _indifferent_ to direction... well again this is 
in the context of actually working in the Contact medium, but i would 
make a polar shift from indifference to extreme attention in my 
definition of flow.  The way to really screw up in Contact is to have a 
lack of attention to the flow.  It requires a huge openness to actaully 
successfuly follow the dance that's going on- and by openness i mean a 
really simple state of attentiveness- completely paying attention to the 
movement between you and your partner.  Indifference would result in an 
abrupt end to the dance.  If the dance is in between, you can't be 
indifferent to it and expect it to go on...

Even in a less literal context than contact improv, directionality and 
flow meet up.  All of my recent choreography and teaching has been tied 
up in these questions about space and directionality. One thing i find in 
working directionally- that is describing a movement phrase not in terms 
of visual shapes but in terms of directional goals- is that i am opened 
up to Flow _through_ these directional choices.  For example,if i decide 
to move my tailbone toward the back corner, i will find my whole body 
(which obviously cannot separate from the tailbone) moving efficiently 
along with my tailbone.  If you could mark a dot in space of where my 
tailbone is before sending it backwards, and another dot where it is when i 
have gone backwards, and if you were to connect those dots, you'd have a 
line in space, a directional suggestion.  That line is the movement i am 
making, and in following that line, my whole body is much more likely to 
simply connect itself  efficiently (Flow) that if a 
approached the movement in a measured, visual way.

Well that went on a bit...blab blab...
Very excited to find discussion about dance...it is a 
medium so directly available to deleuzian ideas, yet rarely 
discussed...

that's all for me

-Karinne Keithley

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