Some thoughts about the importance of combining FLOW and FORM in Contact Improv. I must compare CI to Martial Arts for this discussion. Martial arts is necessarily, profoundly improvisational. This is because if an enemy is trying to kill you, they will not adhere to any given set of moves or predictable attacks. In fact the more skilled the enemy, the less predictable they will be. Certainly any pattern they sense in you they will take advantage of and you will surely die. So spontaneous flow, with no intention, planning or forethought is essential for survival. At the same time, in order for me to be effective and safe in my spontaneous flow it is deeply beneficial for me to have as wide and comprehensive a vocabulary as possible. Movement vocab, reaction vocab, thought and feeling vocab. The more of a foundation I develop, the freer I can actually be when the moment for action arises. I find that the more I drive home the basics of structure, movement, connection and flow, the easier it is to let go of any patterns in the moment. When I witness newer, less experienced martial artists try and be spontaneous its easy to see their patterns, for their vocab is small. Also because they have not specifically developed this foundation with the mindset of being in a free flow. In fact there are many martial arts that do not intentionally emphasize the flow aspect. There are also martial arts that ONLY emphasize the flow and do not work on form of any kind. I find that the effective merging of these two, seemingly opposite concepts, flow and form, allow for the greatest freedom of expression and effectiveness. I do think it is important to be clear about which of these were studying and practicing at any given moment. Separating them and working on the individually allows us to develop greater skill in each. This work is done with the intent of combining them into an undifferentiated whole. Where flow and form become indistinguishable from each other. The black and white separations in the yinyang disappear and only unity remains. Would love to hear your thoughts on this! :)
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:29:03 +0000
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