Moving with You
( through the screen )
The practice of moving (and being) with someone (through the screen) emerged during the pandemic, in response to my role as a school teacher and having to teach art lessons to young children through the screen.
A girl told me after our lesson had ended that she wanted to stay longer online with me. When I asked her why, she said that she just wanted to be with someone. It made me think about what is missing in some people’s lives during the times of social distancing and evoked questions of “How can we hold and take care of each other when we can only meet through the screen?” and “How can we cultivate the kind of care, attention, openness, and compassion that we need as humans towards each other?”
During this time, I met with fellow dance artist Franziska Böhm regularly online. We moved together through seeing each other on the screen, and explored together what is was like Moving with You.
We rest together
we speak, we listen
we move, and we sing
There is so much joy in the being with
we giggle sometimes
and we rest deeply
Seeing moves us
I see her while she sees me
that seeing holds us
like an invisible thread
we are held by the seeing and being seen
Thank you for holding me with your presence
Thank you for being with me
Thank you for letting me see you
and through that I see myself
- Moving with Franzi, 7 July 2021
Mirroring
Bodies mirror each other when feeling connected, it is intuitive in us, not only through the screen but it is something we have all experienced in person. In the practice, we follow our curiosities and intuition, we let the movements of mirroring each other unfold, we attend to that unfolding consciously. It is an improvisation, a continuous dance between two people.
Being in our own kinesthetic space while being present for others
There is a sense of playfulness. While being present for someone, we have our own space to rest, expand and move. Sometimes, our gaze moves away to see our own space, to feel what is happening within our body and to attend to our own needs, but there is still the awareness of the other person being there and present.
Movements of care
The movements emerge between a constant back and forth of caring for oneself and caring for another. In the practice, it manifests as someone leading and the other following and the roles can switch at any moment.
Movements come, not because of the desire to perform, but because of the moving awareness and attention to each other, even if that means exploring an unfamiliar physical form or resting together in stillness.
This movement practice would not have been born without my student in the school or my friend and fellow movement artist, Franziska Böhm, who practised with me with immense kindness, openness, curiosity and care.