Only bubbly white wine
that comes from the region of
Champagne, France
is given the name
champagne.
Contact Improvisation, some people maintain, is more than just a physical practice. It is a political movement, a way of life, a way to interact with our fellow humans and the world. Some might even go as far as to say CI is a social modality that can change the world.
Contact Improvisation was not created in a vacuum. It arose in the United States during a time of great flux and change. It was a time of great social and political upheaval. Therefore, the environment in which CI arose is inherent in the form.
If CI is a political/social/gender/economic etc. movement then to truly understand CI one has to come from the same soil that birthed CI.
Therefore, I postulate, only Americans who were born in the '70s or later are fully capable of understanding CI.
Therefore, I postulate, only we, denizens of the United States of America, are able to fully understand what true self determination in the moment is and how to manifest it corporeally.
(it could also be that all the concomitant -isms that people attribute to the physical form of CI have nothing to with it, that it is purely the physical practice and form. Yes, CI can be a tool for creating those -isms, but it is not those -isms. A hammer can be used to build a house, but it is not a house.)
Don't practices constitute cultures? If so then the practice of CI in any culture or time constitutes "true CI." The meaning of "true CI" will shift through the context of history and culture, but it will always be ture if grounded in the physical practice.
ReplyDeleteDo tasks and doings have essential natures although shifting contexts affect the meanings of those doings? Isn't it distinctive for a woman to know herself as one who can lift the body weight of a larger man, whether in the US, in Germany, in Russia, in South Africa, for example?
Anyone with a body can understand CI, even if they understand it in the context of their own culture/history.
yes.
ReplyDeleteso it seems you are being facetious here ...and what you really want to say is in the parenthesis...?
ReplyDeletethat is not like you, Andrew, to speak inside parenthesis.
I am currently figuring out how to deal with the ax I keep grinding and the chip on my shoulder. Thought I would give parenthesis a try.
ReplyDeleteWe are very grateful to you Andrew for bringing your authentic contact knowledge and cultural wisdom to the European continent. Dancing with you is like drinking an elixir after that cheap nasty imitation bubbly...
ReplyDelete