Allow for at least 30 minutes. You will need an indoor or outdoor place that has designated boundaries – such as a room or specific garden area. Choose an environment where the place is dynamic and suggests the personal (not a black box theatre or dance studio) with other objects/materials already inside. Begin in comfortable clothes to move in and bring a heavy coat.
This Somatic Act can be done as a solo, duet or group.
Choose a place to begin
in your environment
Standing
with coat
Draped over one shoulder
Eyes closed.
Be clear on your location.
Where your body and coat
want to be.
Follow coat and your body
as a guide.
Sensing weight of coat
pouring into body
downwards through
feet and into floor.
The coat is touching you
And you are touching the coat.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing any tension to unravel.
Sensing the weight of the coat
and the weight of body
in relationship to each other.
In stillness.
Allowing time…
And then slowly
inviting a little movement
through the body
by shifting the weight
of the feet
from one foot
to another
side to side and
forward to back
gently rocking and
guiding the movement
Like how water pours
drop by drop
the small increments
of weight
travelling through
your body
supported by
the feet.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing any tension to unravel
Finding many moments to pause…
Allowing time…
Gradually, allowing the eyes
to begin to open
as the movement grows
just a little
with your simple weight shifts
of the feet
Allowing the weight
to move, pour, drape,
over and along your body.
Allowing time…
And then with eyes
still open,
allowing the weight shifts
of the feet to
slowly transform
into a gentle walk
As if you are on a micro-journey through
your environment.
Pausing along the way – sensing the place
and the many things you are passing
not through the eyes
but sensing their substance
your substance
as you walk.
Sensing each foot contacting the floor
as an invitation for the
weight to arrive
into your substance and being.
Allowing the support of gravity
to walk you
and the weight to travel through the feet
to connect you to the earth.
The walk is slow and consistent – like a steady beat
repeated again and again.
Allowing time…
Until you come to a location
where you want to ´place´
your coat
Placing your coat in your environment
as if returning it to a place of rest
for a moment.
Allowing time…
Then, continue on your gravity, weighted walk journey
sensing substance, feet touching the floor,
following a steady, slow, constant beat.
Sensing the place
you are in
and the many things you are passing
not through your eyes
but sensing their substance
your substance, your weight
as you walk.
Noticing the breath…
Allowing time…
Continue walking
until you arrive at a location
where you want to ´place´
your body– yourself
placing yourself – in your chosen environment
as if returning to a place of rest
for a moment.
Allowing your body to
relax, arrive.
Sensing your body
touching and meeting the environment.
Noticing the places you are in contact with
the floor, your own body, objects, plants, materials, and more…
Sensing this arrival into ´place´ in
stillness.
You are touching the place
and the place is touching you.
Allowing any tension to soften.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing time…
And then, staying within this place
you have chosen,
explore, with the support of gravity,
the sense of the moving, pouring, draping weight
of the body.
Discovering unusual and surprising
positions
to rest in
as the weight pours
in increments - through the bones, tissues, cells, organs.
Moments of movement
Moments of stillness.
In a subtle dance of weight and place
You are touching the place
and the place is touching you
Allowing any tension to soften and unravel.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing time…
As you sense the touch of weight and place
in movement and stillness
And as you follow the shifts of weight
pouring through your bones, tissues, organs, cells
Perhaps noticing the moments
of hanging, swinging,
but also
buoyancy and suspension
that arrives
from the weight pouring downwards,
something springs upward.
Allowing time…
As you are ready,
finding a journey
following the weight of your body
and the touch of place
to arrive at your coat.
Allowing time…
As you arrive at your coat,
noticing the first moment
of contact.
You are touching your coat
your coat is touching you
Gradually, beginning a gentle pouring weight dance
together
into dressing
sensing the weight of your body
in relationship to the weight
of the coat
through touch
through movement
through stillness.
Allowing time…
Once dressed in your coat
begin a journey,
travelling and moving
through the environment together
Sensing the weight of your body
in relation to the weight of the coat.
Moments of movement
Moments of stillness.
Allowing the weight
to move, pour, drape
through your body
Sensing your substance
the breath
and also the substance
of place.
Arriving now and then
in more unusual and surprising
positions
with your body.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing time..
Finding a place to arrive at in stillness
sensing the support of gravity
the relationship of weight
with body and coat.
And slowly, undressing in the coat
following the touch
of weight and place.
Moments of movement
Moments of stillness.
In the stillness, releasing any hidden tension
allowing gravity to invite the pouring, draping of weight
and the quality of rising suspension and buoyancy.
Allowing time…
When you are finished undressing
place the coat, once again, over your shoulder
and
returning your coat and then your body
to the place of rest
you chose before.
Then, continue on your gravity, weighted walk journey
sensing substance, feet touching the floor,
following a steady, slow, constant beat.
Allowing time…
Once coat and your body
return to their places,
closing your eyes.
Allowing your body to rest into weight and place.
Noticing your breath…
Allowing any tension to unravel
as the journey continues
to resonate
in your tissues, bones, organs, cells.
The place is touching you
And you are touching the place.
Allowing time…