Developing a toolbox based on three levels of spatial understanding
In the development of the toolbox, the vocabulary and the medium are keys. Pictoric (drawing) actions inform the performer about the nature and quality of the actions he/she is engaging. I found inspiration in the vocabulary proposed by Wayne Mc Gregor (2013) in his Choreographic Thinking Tools about the visualization of the space, sound and sensations.
Being a ballet teacher, it comes naturally to me the tendency to organize concepts and movement from the simplest to the most complex. I think about the exploration of these tools as I would do it with a person without dance experience, starting with the idea of thinking about themselves as a point on the space and specific directions displaying around them (see diagrams presented in the context section).
Theoretic & reflective introduction to the concept harmony and choreographic composition
This second Cycle was a heuristic process of reconnecting with my personal and artistic roots, re-embracing my rational and spiritual interests about the topic of harmony, identifying the cosmological connection between the principles that shape my intuitive process, and refining certain tools and interests in my creativity.
It is important to emphasize that the objective of this research is focused on gaining a deeper understanding of the term and in the development of movement generation tools. It is not yet about a compositional process. I describe briefly my approach to choreography only because it is also based on organizational principles, for now, let's keep the focus on the toolbox.
A spatial understanding of the term harmony
The mass of experiential knowledge accumulated in me comes from two different sources, one is the rational (the culturally imposed or scientific knowledge that I am aware of) and the other, a deeper intuitive and intangible knowledge rooted in my DNA heritage, the blending and clashing of different cultures and cosmovision are in the same vessel. A European religious imposed cosmovision based on relationships of power and domination, cause and effect, deed and punishment mindset fomented in Mexico while being a Spanish colony and a hidden, prosecuted and almost forbidden indigenous cosmovision rooted in the contemplation and interpretation of nature and the cosmos aiming for balance, appreciation, and harmony with the universe. I realize that the last fostered awareness of self-determination, value, and freedom, it was a threat to the imperialistic interest of the moment.
For inexplicable reasons, some information and knowledge of our ancestors permeate and resonates within us even when we have not been directly exposed to that information. In silence, in contemplative-intuitive states that information unfolds itself; I was able to articulate it until an external stimulus, an image, a sound, a text in the right moment helped me realized it, serendipity.
In my case, I started this process of transforming my cosmovision through my interest in science and the physical rules that shape the universe. A need for understanding and search for a purpose.
After my insightful failure in Cycle 1, the only reference that was clear to me was that one related to the visual-spatial representation of harmony I created based on the Greek etymology of the term.
It was clear that the understanding of the term was based on a spatial reference.
I decided to go back to the very beginning of the project I created to apply for the Master's. It was about duality and the way it manifested through geometry and the possibilities to coexist in the same space and time. I traced back my steps and the order of how the understanding of the space unfolded through my life, arriving at a first basic cardinal understanding of my body in relationship with space: vertical (up and down) and horizontal (front, back, left, and right).
In the chapter dedicated to the development of my tools box, I share more in detail the modern references that I consciously chose and inspired me to develop a more complex understanding of space. In the next paragraphs, I will share meaningful information that resonates with my idea of harmony and the personal relevance of this research. This (I assume) might be the unconscious root of my understanding of harmony in spatial terms.
After a conversation with Katherine Stimson, I remembered the way how spatial references and geographical orientation has been always present in my life, so closed and quotidian that I overlooked them. From the way how the structure of the cities in my region was planned, to the numerical and cardinal names that we give to the streets to ensure a quick and concrete sense of orientation, as to the awareness of time and space based on the observation of the sky. I engaged in a literature search aiming for concrete references and I found it in the text La filosofía Náhuatl Estudiada en sus Fuentes (Nahuatl philosophy Studied in its sources) by Mexican historian Miguel León-Portilla (2019).
This scheme is a personal interpretation of the dual Nahuatl image of the universe described by León-Portilla (2019)
This approximates the way I instinctively organize the study and exploration of space, in a horizontal and vertical plane.
This fosters a dual interpretation of everything that happens and exists in the space. The following scheme is an evolution and personal interpretation of the 4 rumbos Nahuas horizontal plane that, according to the Nahual philosophy, shapes, organizes and allows the continuity of the universe.
In our perspective, harmony resides in the balance between the opposing forces of the universe, and it is situated in the center of the space. Later in the toolbox section, you can observe how this idea of a central point leads the way I approach Laban's kinesphere.
I embrace harmony not only as a subject of study but as a compass and an ideal state for my creative process. I decided to embody the principles of harmony and integrate them to the way I approach the research and the development of the tools and investigative methods. I reflect on integration, unity and balance between opposites of duality as the key elements.
In my context, everything tends to chaos without an active intervention. I choose to focus on the structure to provide a counter energy that makes balance (harmony) possible.
This tool is inspired by the action of drawing lines on space, connecting specific points with different trajectories.
It develops in two levels: guided drawing of lines and translation metaphors into lines.
