It took me a while to understand that Fraleigh was never going to talk about muscle tension in chapter five. After I realized there would be no talk of muscles, I was confused as to what she meant by the tension of opposites within the lived body. To understand this I had to first understand the way Fraleigh believed the Universe to be comprised. “Early Greek cosmology posits a simple view of the unity of the cosmos through oscillation of opposites.” (page 78). With this quote, I begin to understand the use of the word tension as a way of describing the pull of the cosmos inward so that they may revolve around each other to create unity. In the section before the previous quote, (page 78), Fraleigh writes that she sees the lived body as a “Microcosm” which holds in itself the same kind of oppositional tension. Unlike the cosmos, the body does not hold nearly as many structural or physical oppositional tensions as the cosmos, but there exists “creative tensions -- Cosmic and phenomenal, historic, aesthetic and mythic.” These exist in me as a dancer and choreographer and are displayed in everything I create.
This then led me to look at my dance in search of the creative tensions that brought life to the movement. The most apparent to me within the rough draft of my piece is the tension between emotional creativity and sophisticated creativity. I have want to create work that is emotionally evocative and sophisticated as well as I feel that I work emotionally and sophisticated in the studio. I notice the emotional creativity in my concept and in the contact I have choreographed with my dancers both physical and focal. The sophistication is not showing as well as I would like it to show at this moment, but I know it is there in my intentions with the movements. I have tried to give the dancers movement that fits the concept as well as movement that is well received in their bodies. In doing this I hope that the audience will objectively receive the movement well so that they may feel the movement.
My concept of water eddies comes from another kind of tension. I am having a difficult time naming this tension because it is natural and spiritual, but not necessarily religious although there is a degree of worship that comes with it. I feel that nature is a beautiful gift and so I am very spiritually connected to images of rivers, lakes, trees, and flowers. I feel that the most appropriate name, while still not perfect, would be Natural Creativity. If I held inside myself a solar system, Natural Creativity would be next-axis-neighbor to emotional creativity.
“...grace may possess some constants, such as centeredness in action, movement from a gravitational center, and absence of self-consciousness, which Heinrich von Kleist portrays as its essential qualities. “
The previous quote comes from page 99 of chapter six and resonated deeply with me as grace is such a monumental portion of my life in general. Of course Fraleigh (and Heinrich von Kleist) are describing grace in terms of dance, however I cannot help but to relate every aspect of this section titled “Grace and Change” to all aspects of my life. A general theme of this section is that grace is seen as “ease of motion”. In the studio this could mean approaching movement with a calm mind so that I may easily execute a movement to my fullest range of motion. In my life outside of the studio this means that I carry out my actions with a calm and centered mind so that I may execute each intention...intentionally. For example: I have to interact with my roommate, Chase, every day. We share our groceries as well as our appliances and almost everything else. When I wake up in the morning to eat breakfast I go into the kitchen where Chase has usually made a pot of coffee. When I open the refrigerator I grab some fruit and other items. Grace comes into play in this act of taking food from the refrigerator. I must look at what we have collectively, and select a FAIR amount of each of our groceries. Being fair is graceful. If I was to take a large amount of his fruit then he might come into the kitchen later wanting the things that he bought upon this time we might have a conflict between us. This simple daily task must be carried out gracefully so that my apartment and my relationship with my dear friend may have better harmony. No matter what the situation in life or the quality of movement in the studio; grace is “the achievement of spontaneity and fulfillment of intention when movement attains surety of purpose.” (page 99).
Shelley Cushman always ALWAYS talks to us about intention in Performance Theory. “Where does the movement come from and where is it going” -SC. She never lets us get away with cutting the movement short and she tells us things like “NO! STOP! Go back to (some point in the movement) and REALLY GO THERE before you move on.” This is very relative to the way Fraleigh describes grace. I feel that intention in movement is something I do very well, but no matter how good I am now, I can always be better. We can always take the movement farther and further. Farther into, through, out of, and around the space, and further out of our bodies from the inside through our intentions.
