27 April

Here is newer version, it was based on some improvisations that I did before, but now with multiple bodies, I was trying to look for the opposition between two bodies, also, one body with group.
I wonder what feeling was shown for the beginning duet? And how does the energy approach speaks to you?
the second video is another duet that I based on the idea of lock and unlock. I wish this has a strong sense of violence.

Grad. Crit. showing

I tried to put some of those ideas together in wed's crit. class.
my question related to this video would be our emotion and intention. Within all my previous improvisation, i never intented to insert any kind of emotional factors, but it ends up with many feedbacks that were emotional related. This is really intriguing me,  i suddently recalled that how i felt when i looked at some of those abstract art works that i saw in museums or galleries. how i can easily related an object to my history or memory. and now, when two living bodies are dancing in the studio, even the concept is abstract, but it would never be too abstract. So, i am curious about how this would be read.

some writing

"Co-exist of opposition" which is a funny phrase to me, I do not want it to call Yin Yang even it might be the same thing afterall, I feel like the it would have too strong sense of pre-conception culturally which is not the issue I am dealing with.

What is "co-exist of opposition"? Why am I interested in this topic?

Maybe I should try to start with my experience of learning TaiChi. I leart both Yeung's and Chan's style Taichi, I learnt Yeung's Taichi like most people, learning the form, very detail about every little thing, without knowing why but just remember, try very hard to remember. Until I learnt Chan's style Taichi, my sifu flipped my world around about martial arts. Taichi is about possiblity, also, it is about 順(:shun, means along)/逆(:yik, means against). These two Chinese words means a lot, in terms of body movement in Taichi, it refers to the outward rotation and inward rotation. Generally, people use them to describe life, such as life goes smooth and good or difficult. Refering it back to martial arts, Taichi fights when we goes smooth as well as in difficult, a punch can strike along or against. In this point of view, the whole Taichi routine is a practice of 順shun逆yik, moreover, gather and expanse, open and close, lift and sank and etc, it's seems to me, eventually, it is about the co-exist of opposition.

Like a simple right punch, you would need your left hand go backward, it's like a balance or co-ordination.



Tao De Ching, Chapter 2:
天下皆知美之为美，斯恶已；皆知善之为善，斯不善已。
It is because every one under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty,that the idea of ugliness exists. And equally if every one recognized virtue as virtue, this would merely create fresh conceptions of wickedness......
(http://www.cycnet.com/cms/2004/englishcorner/translation/200704/t20070402_529882.htm)

At this point, if we take away the value of judgement, not talking about good or evil (Tao De Ching also suggest the idea of value is only given by human, nature does not has any judgement on good or evil), but the concept of opposition. Fighting would be about pushing these two edges, and the routine of Taichi is about the space in between, but still knowing the possibilty of reaching to both ends.

I found that this opposition also exist in the form itself. In many martial arts, the most important displine is learning not to be a violent person. It is like learn the skills of violent but meanwhile not to be violent.


With this lens of opposition, I found that I can perceive the world with this single idea. Even in terms of our dancing bodies. It is very interesting to me that how a idea can be re-located in different perspectives.

In last fall term, while I was in Hollins, and praticipated in the martial arts club. We were practicing the Brazilian Jiu jitsu, I also found the idea of co-exist of opposition in this form. It is different from the usual standing martial arts form, it was designed to fight on ground, instead of fight in a distance, it encourages pratitioner to get as close as you can without losing the contact point. I would say, this is also a extreme violence form of martial art, but in certain sense, you need to be very close/intamate. The name Jiu jitsu, Jiu in original Japanese means soft or tender, jitsu means skills. How interesting that a form that looks so violent came from the skills of soft/tender.

task 1

This is a edited video of my improvisation. There are several tasks.
1. Opposition of external(hard or stiff) and internal(soft and float)
2.&3. A invisiable opponent, travel version and centered version.
4. Duo based on the theme of manipulation (ideally, it was about locking and unlocking, but it somehow shift 5. during the process, I might try to stick to the original idea which is locking and unlocking of body parts, it should be more about how to find or look for space from the locked joint/body part.)
6. The last section is based on push hand but the purpose was shifted from attack to touch our faces.

Introduction

This blog would serve as a platform for my artisitic advisor Michele Miller and my thesis mentor Jesse Zaritt to look at my thesis progress.

I would like to post my rehearsal clips and my question or thoughts here as a record and a place for feedback.
Thanks again, Jesse and Michele.

The title of my thesis is touch to the bone, so as this blog.

It is going to be a little concludion of my double identity as a dance artist and a martial artist.
It is going to be a investigation about coexist of opposition.
It is going to be about touching and connecting/disconnecting.
......