Patterns & Process
Crease, pleat, or drape,
the fold calls us into relationship between surface & depth.
Dancers: Clémentine Télesfort, Irina Baldini,Belinda Rapavasiliou, Glenna Batson. Image: Susan Sentler, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance 2013
The kare-sansui (dry landscape)
zen garden at Ryōan-ji, Kyoto
Crease, pleat, or drape,
the fold calls us into relationship between surface & depth.
Dancers: Clémentine Télesfort, Irina Baldini,Belinda Rapavasiliou, Glenna Batson. Image: Susan Sentler, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance 2013
The kare-sansui (dry landscape)
zen garden at Ryōan-ji, Kyoto
Susan Sentler
The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding
Abstract:
Bodily folding, which includes enfolding and unfolding as points of en-trance and departure or pathways that change spatial navigation through and with a particular material, matter or substance, could be seen as the baseline state of being within the continuum of action. Biologically, enfolding nurtures the self. It is a form of nest building, a fractal development of an internal structure, a deepening with the self. Unfolding, on the other hand, opens to the world. Unfolding is readi-ness, structural stability and creative mobility. It’s movement beyond the self. In this interview, Susan Sentler, dancer, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist, discusses folding as a cellular, bodily and geological practice as well as a form of somatic intelligibility.
Natasha Lushetich:
You’ve been using what you refer to as “folding” in dance improvisation and choreography for some time now. For G.W. Leibniz, the “fold” is not only the matter but also the grammar of the universe. It’s how the universe moves. Planes and surfaces that were once unimaginably distant in space and time are folded and re-folded together, until they come to form dense territorial, temporal and material configurations we refer to as “the world.” Writing three centuries later, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari rearticulate the fold as an exis-tential refrain. 1 With its obvious reference to music as a form of temporal and af-fective organization, an existential refrain is an emplacement, an investment of energy, and a patterning.
In the instructions for the folding sessions you do with Glenna Batson we read:
Looking at the sheet draped over the chair
Lying on the back
Noticing the landscape underneath, folding and reverse folding of the landscape of your own being meeting the floor, the positive space of the contact, the negative space and the continuity of what is behind – what touches and what sequences from the touch to its reverse [...]. Noticing the river across the top of the foot, the flow into the depth of th eye so that each eye finds a deep inner curvature in which to rest the retina, taking the inner self, the part of the brain that sees the world, back into itself, into the gyri of th floating brain, soft, full of deep clefts and inner folding.
....................
1 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, trans. Brian Massumi, (London: Continuum, 2004): 343.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634952-007
The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding
Abstract:
Bodily folding, which includes enfolding and unfolding as points of en-trance and departure or pathways that change spatial navigation through and with a particular material, matter or substance, could be seen as the baseline state of being within the continuum of action. Biologically, enfolding nurtures the self. It is a form of nest building, a fractal development of an internal structure, a deepening with the self. Unfolding, on the other hand, opens to the world. Unfolding is readi-ness, structural stability and creative mobility. It’s movement beyond the self. In this interview, Susan Sentler, dancer, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist, discusses folding as a cellular, bodily and geological practice as well as a form of somatic intelligibility.
Natasha Lushetich:
You’ve been using what you refer to as “folding” in dance improvisation and choreography for some time now. For G.W. Leibniz, the “fold” is not only the matter but also the grammar of the universe. It’s how the universe moves. Planes and surfaces that were once unimaginably distant in space and time are folded and re-folded together, until they come to form dense territorial, temporal and material configurations we refer to as “the world.” Writing three centuries later, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari rearticulate the fold as an exis-tential refrain. 1 With its obvious reference to music as a form of temporal and af-fective organization, an existential refrain is an emplacement, an investment of energy, and a patterning.
In the instructions for the folding sessions you do with Glenna Batson we read:
Looking at the sheet draped over the chair
Lying on the back
Noticing the landscape underneath, folding and reverse folding of the landscape of your own being meeting the floor, the positive space of the contact, the negative space and the continuity of what is behind – what touches and what sequences from the touch to its reverse [...]. Noticing the river across the top of the foot, the flow into the depth of th eye so that each eye finds a deep inner curvature in which to rest the retina, taking the inner self, the part of the brain that sees the world, back into itself, into the gyri of th floating brain, soft, full of deep clefts and inner folding.
....................
1 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, trans. Brian Massumi, (London: Continuum, 2004): 343.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634952-007
Enter...
Choose a place in your room – and dim any light or turn away from direct light sources (computers or other backlit digitalia)
Sit somewhere quietly and comfortably….or, lie down.
With eyes open, observe your situation, context, predicament. Slow down your gaze…
Allow the eyes to drift. You are not looking at or for anything – awash in the moves of eye, room, shadows, objects.
Take 30 seconds to slowly close your eyes – a full thirty seconds…or longer.
Notice…but more…sense the meeting of your eye lashes, the skin of your lids, the water matrix, what’s behind…bathe in the qualities of eye closure
Stay with this a good 10 minutes.
Now open your eyes again quickly and immediately shut them – a flash from darkness to light and back to darkness.
A reverse blink
Take note.
Repeat, this time leaving eyes open a fraction longer.
Repeat until you finally reach the tipping point where your eyes can stay open comfortably.
Take notes…automatic writing, drawing, pondering inner-to-outer shifts in embodiment.
Choose a place in your room – and dim any light or turn away from direct light sources (computers or other backlit digitalia)
Sit somewhere quietly and comfortably….or, lie down.
With eyes open, observe your situation, context, predicament. Slow down your gaze…
Allow the eyes to drift. You are not looking at or for anything – awash in the moves of eye, room, shadows, objects.
Take 30 seconds to slowly close your eyes – a full thirty seconds…or longer.
Notice…but more…sense the meeting of your eye lashes, the skin of your lids, the water matrix, what’s behind…bathe in the qualities of eye closure
Stay with this a good 10 minutes.
Now open your eyes again quickly and immediately shut them – a flash from darkness to light and back to darkness.
A reverse blink
Take note.
Repeat, this time leaving eyes open a fraction longer.
Repeat until you finally reach the tipping point where your eyes can stay open comfortably.
Take notes…automatic writing, drawing, pondering inner-to-outer shifts in embodiment.
An-meaning of decay
I'm wanting to share a document with you that arose out of writing, experiencing, processing. I find it very much pointing to this weekend already.
Many thoughts and associations are sneaking in, thinking about the component of time. What it does to the material, and how time is reminding that there is no fixed meaning or role.
" I am writing this in order to empty
I am writing out of an emptiness
I am writing in order to let it then be
I am writing because I did not do so before
I am writing and I am not."
Have a lovely day!
your traces are with me dayli, thank you for that!
Paula
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
I'm wanting to share a document with you that arose out of writing, experiencing, processing. I find it very much pointing to this weekend already.
Many thoughts and associations are sneaking in, thinking about the component of time. What it does to the material, and how time is reminding that there is no fixed meaning or role.
" I am writing this in order to empty
I am writing out of an emptiness
I am writing in order to let it then be
I am writing because I did not do so before
I am writing and I am not."
Have a lovely day!
your traces are with me dayli, thank you for that!
Paula
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.
The meaning of winter being fall, summer and spring.
The meaning of fall being summer, spring and winter.
The meaning of summer being spring, winter and fall.
The meaning of spring being winter, fall and summer.