Monday, July 29, 2013

Emotional Content



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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