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SPLR

Mi cuerpo es sitio de resistencia

11/9/2018

 
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Inspirada por conversaciones y comentarios acerca del experimento de mi blog, quiero compartir mis reflexiones acerca del uso del cuerpo en mis procesos de investigación.
​Inspired by conversations and comments about the experiment of my blog, I want to share my reflections about the use of the body in my research processes.

​Memoria corporal y memoria en el espacio

Uno de los temas que me interesa abordar en mis investigaciones es algo que llamo en inglés embodied memory— que se puede traducir como memoria corporal. Esta es una sensación viva que se encuentra en nuestros tejidos, en nuestras células, y que a través de prácticas somáticas y de consciencia (mindful practices) se despiertan.

Esta memoria interactúa con la memoria en el espacio— la energía que habita en cada espacio físico— la cual reverbera y cambia cuando nos movemos a través de este. Esta energía es creada colectivamente por todos los seres que han habitado y habitan actualmente un área, y si estamos abiertas a escucharlas, este contexto evoca memorias en el momento de hacer una acción o movimiento.

Esta interacción (entre memorial corporal y memoria en el espacio) despierta una memoria ancestral donde puedo reconocer la interconectividad de mi ser con todos los otros seres del universo presente, pasado y futuro.

Embodied memory and memory in place

One of the topics that I want to address in my research is something I call embodied memory. This is a living sensation that is found in our tissues, in our cells, and that is awakened through somatic and
mindful practices.

This memory interacts with memory in place— the energy that inhabits every physical space— which reverberates and changes as we move through it. This energy is created collectively by all the beings that have inhabited and currently inhabit an area, and if we are open to listen to them, the context evokes memories at the moment of making an action or movement.

This interaction (between embodied memory and memory in place) awakens an ancestral memory where I can recognize the interconnectivity of my being with all other beings in the universe present, past and future.

La danza como actividad ​

Las danzas que comparto con ustedes a través de este blog no son trabajos “completos" o “finalizados." Lo que busco, tal vez, es crear un espacio donde pueda a través del cuerpo cuestionar cómo me relaciono con los temas que estoy explorando y descubrir en el proceso como la emocionalidad de cada tema me impacta corporalmente.
​
Este proceso es un juego en donde interactúo con objetos, elementos, ideas e imágenes sin ningún propósito en mente. Para explicar mi razonamiento un poco más a fondo, invito la voz de mi amigo y mentor Dan Friedman quien nos recuerda en su ensayo Teatro para Nada (Theater for Nothing) que esta postura es importante porque "si el teatro y las otras artes están sometidas a fines pragmáticos particulares, perdemos lo que estas tienen de especial: su capacidad para explorar, transgredir, transformar. Si sabemos que fin estamos buscando cuando comenzamos, lo más probable es que sea ese fin el que encontremos cuando terminemos. Otras posibilidades no podrán surgir.” En sus más de 30 años de trabajo en el teatro Castillo en la ciudad de Nueva York, donde trabajan constantemente produciendo obras con jóvenes y adultos de diversos estratos sociales, han descubierto que “la actividad misma de escribir, diseñar, ensayar, realizar, producir, ver y hablar sobre las producciones es lo que produce crecimiento, no su contenido o lección en sí.”

De esta forma mis danzas y mi cuerpo se vuelven sitios de cuestionamiento, de crecimiento, de transgresión. Un espacio liminal no refinado para la creación de nuevas ideas, nuevas emociones y nuevas posibilidades.

Dance as activity

The dances that I share with you through this blog are not "complete" or "finished" works. What I am looking for, perhaps, is to create a space where I can question, through my body, how I relate to the topics I am exploring and discover in the process how the emotionality of each theme impacts me corporally.

This is a playful process where I interact with objects, elements, ideas and images without any purpose in mind. To explain my reasoning more thoroughly, I invite the voice of my friend and mentor Dan Friedman who reminds us in his paper Theater for Nothing that this position is important because
 "if theatre and the other arts are subjugated to particular pragmatic ends, we lose what is special about them—their ability to explore, transgress, transform. If you know the end you’re looking for when you start, most likely that’s the end you’ll find when you finish. Other possibilities can’t emerge." In his more than 30 years of work at the Castillo Theater in New York City, where they constantly produce works with young people and adults of various backgrounds, they have found that "the very activity of writing/devising, rehearsing, performing, producing, viewing and talking about the productions is what's growthful, not the content or the lesson per se."

In this way my dances and my body become sites of questioning, of growth, of transgression. An unrefined liminal space for the creation of new ideas, new emotions and new possibilities.

Reclamando agencia sobre mi cuerpo

Mujer. Latinoamericana. Queer.
Abordo mi corporalidad como mujer latinoamericana que se niega a estar enmarcada dentro de una polarización mítica de representación de género, orientación sexual, nacionalidad y etnia. Por las construcciones sociales y nuestros actos diarios que las refuerzan, nuestros cuerpos tienen un contenido particular. Se ven, se sienten y se imaginan de acuerdo con las formulaciones colectivas anidadas en años de colonización.
​

Ahora, el hecho de que este cuerpo, mi cuerpo, se mueva, se sacuda y baile tiene otras prescripciones sociales y culturales que crean una serie de expectativas.

El romper con las expectativas de cómo mi cuerpo se tiene que mover y en qué espacios debe hacerlo, me permite reclamar agencia y me da la oportunidad de descolonizar y decomodificar el uso de mi cuerpo, constantemente reimaginando que se puede hacer con él.

Reclaiming agency over my body

Woman. Latinoamericana. Queer.
I approach my corporeality as a Latin American woman who refuses to be framed within a mythical polarization of gender representation, sexual orientation, nationality and ethnicity. Due to the social constructions and our daily acts that reinforce them, our bodies are imbued with particular content. They look, feel and are imagined according to our collective formulations nested in years of colonization.
 
Now, the fact that this body, my body, moves, shakes and dances has other social and cultural prescriptions that create a series of expectations.

Breaking with the expectations of how my body has to move and in what spaces it should, allows me to claim agency and gives me the opportunity to decolonize and decommodify the use of my body, constantly reimagining what can be done with it.

La danza como parte íntegra de la investigación

Estas danzas son parte integral de mi proceso de investigación en el cual combino prácticas corporales, escritos, lecturas y conversaciones. Por ende, las vivencio como una dialéctica, lo cual las hace inseparables del resto de este contexto.

Esta es otra oportunidad de descolonizar mi práctica. La investigación en nuestra sociedad occidental anglo-eurocéntrica, se enmarca como algo “cerebral” ajeno a nuestra corporalidad y emocionalidad. Por esto, fundamento mis investigaciones en el cuerpo.
​

Mi cuerpo es sitio de resistencia.

Dance as integral part of research

These dances are an integral part of my research process in which I combine body practices, writings, readings and conversations. Therefore, I experience them as a dialectic, which makes them inseparable from the rest of this context.

This is another opportunity to decolonize my practice. Research in our Western Eurocentric society is framed as something "cerebral" alien to our corporality and emotionality. For this reason, I base my investigations on the body.

My body is a site of resistance.
Suzy McCalley link
11/9/2018 06:10:02 pm

Sandra Paola,

Do you have any readings you can recommend around this “This interaction (between embodied memory and memory in place) awakens an ancestral memory where I can recognize the interconnectivity of my being with all other beings in the universe present, past and future”.

My experiences with creative movement and energy healing tell me this is true and I’d like to learn more.

I cried when I read this because of how much I relate to every single word in the section “reclaiming agency over my body”.

I danced and sang for hundreds of people last night in a fundraising event and as the choreographers taught us the group dance they said “now, no inappropriate moves or hip thrusts here” and I thought about you and about our workshop of embodying resistance and about how violent oppresseive and racist (without of course knowing it) this sweet little white Southern American Ladies words were in that moment. I shook my hips wildly in response.

Sandra Paola
11/13/2018 07:47:21 am

Hi Suzy,

I don't have sources that speak directly to this interaction. Nonetheless, there are several authors that intersect ecology and spirituality. I recommend Robin Wall Kimmerer, specifically. I also just recently came across this magazine (and its podcast) and have found great stuff there: https://emergencemagazine.org/.

There are also several practitioners that connect to the land through embodied practices, I can think of Andrea Olsen right now.

You may also want to check dancing earth: http://www.dancingearth.org/

In my own experience, I have trusted myself in the discovery of this connection and learned through my practices of vipassana meditation and improvisation to be open to notice what is already present. As I reconnect to my erased indigenous heritage I continue to learn how to heal my relationship to land and how to reconnect with my ancestors and their wisdom.

Hope that is helpful!


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  • Home
  • About
    • Bio
    • Artist Statement
  • embodied research
    • solo work >
      • Bachué
      • redmoonwhitemoonbluemoon
      • Cattleya
    • Collaborations >
      • KOAN
    • site-specific investigations
  • Social Practice
    • cultural organizing
    • dance/performance >
      • transfronteriza
      • Braiding Borders
      • fall/fallen/falling
  • Contact