I have
always loved seeing anyone perform. As a kid I would watch the local weekly
talent show, the Lawrence Welk Show or the Ted Mack Geritol Hour to see real
people playing music or whatever. As a musician I do love American Idol and
will even watch the inferior spin-offs for the occasional moment of brilliance.
The big surprise is That So You Think You Can Dance is the show that makes me
cry. I can't watch more than one minute of Dancing With the Stars but SYTYCD
has given me new vistas to explore conscious movement and focus my Tai Chi
work.
People
claim that Tai Chi should be empty and ego-less, that it is limited to
prescribed traditional methods and that it is not related to dance. I believe
that Tai Chi is a multi-faceted Performance Art rooted in Martial Art but also
ancillary to it. I am an adult who has spent a large amount of my time
practicing and studying Tai Chi for years and America is (at least for the time
being) a free country so if I want to improvise, move freely, choreograph
modern dance in a Tai Chi style with a narrative story and an emotional rise
and fall then I am entitled to do so. Likewise if I believe that partner work
can encompass contact improv, energy work and sensitivity training to the
exclusion of fighting then again I have earned the right to that approach. It
is certainly anyone’s right to declare that this is not Tai Chi as it is also for
them to decide what Art is. For me that is a discussion that I no longer am
interested in actively pursuing.
The
feelings, consciousness, quality of movement, emotional release, creative
nuance, artistic expression and audience connection are so deep with the angle
of dance and generally not available in the straight ahead Tai Chi environment.
The fact that Tai Chi players are unaware or dismissive about this angle is in
no way a deterrent for me. I realize that people often only have consideration
for what they do. They are not Masters over life, consciousness, ego or the
evolution of Tai Chi. Certainly if one does not have interest, after studying
intently for 20 years, in finding new methodologies, finding their own paths
and evolving the art past where they found it then there is something still
missing in my opinion.
It is
within improvisational movement, choreographing original routines and
improvising within the context of existing routines that we can find levels of
emotional release and emotional content.
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