[-empyre-] 'deceleration' and dark matters

Tue Nov 1 23:34:57 EST 2011

Thanks Michele, and thanks for your questions Johannes:
what would such a cultural pre-movement / effort be, "pre-movement' as
discussed by Hubert Godard, "which is not under the control of the
conscious subject and combines the cultural as well as the individual"?
what notion of affects or forces is posited here, Dee?  I am curious what
Godard's writings are on "pre-movement," since Michèle Danjoux had earlier
invoked Erin Manning on "pre-acceleration,"  and I had not come across the
notion of pre-movement in a soma/cultural context before;
and it seems that Godard's somatic studies are connected to developmental
psychology and emotion studies?  or am I wrong?  is Godard a
neurophysiologist  working in cancer research or a rolfer ?

Hubert Godard is indeed a Rolfer, also a kinesiologist, dancer and
researcher - he does work with cancer patients - he has a little profile on
http://www.rolfing.org/index.php?id=188
his influences are quite diverse and his writings quite dispersed - lots of
articles in different places. He uses a concept of 'corporeity' derived
from Michel Bernard, which sees the body in terms of how it organises
intensity and intentionality - here the relationship to gravity is crucial,
which is formed through individual histories but also collective histories,
and is open to change. He says 'certain gravitational variations can modify
the course of a history, just as they never stop modifying the history of
dance'. Everything depends on how the body is 'managed' and the founding
moment for this is pre-movement, or what Godard calls 'gestural anacrusis'.
(These quotes are from an interview with Laurence Louppe in *Writings on
Dance: The French Issue* 15, Winter 1996)
This also opens up an area of communication between subjects, notably in
contact improvisation where one can enter the gravitational system of
another, leading to 'singular and moving geographies, comprised of and in
flux' (same interview).
There is much more of course - and this clearly has implications for how
shared kinesthesia can be a driver for empathy
I find this very suggestive in terms of the implications and repercussions
of how we manage what Laban called Impuls (approximately translated as
effort) through singular and collective 'economies'. The emphasis on the
singular means that there is no question of universalism or totality - this
is in answer to the last part of your question
'to what extent is a "theory" of energetics  (unconscious / uncontrolled)
liable to be misunderstood, if we think back/recollect again, through our
collective trauma corpus, the fascist and totalitarian collectivizing
movements of the 20th century?  a very bad dream time.'
The way I see it, the pre-movement, the unconscious 'economy' which gives
the impetus to our actions and interactions is specific to given situations
and 'balances of power'. It is open to being worked on, to being modified -
it is not a blind force which drives us (unless we allow that to be the
case) - change is possible through how we work on our 'corporeities', and
change is always both specific and provisional . . .
best
Dee

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:00 AM, Michele Danjoux <mdanjoux at dmu.ac.uk> wrote:

> Sondra's previous postings (some contemplating death) and her comments
> here on life and not missing life, together with the mind blowing
> discussions on science and potential alternate or simultaneous existences
> or realities (Akram [hope I've understood correctly]) and the emphasis on
> the therapeutic, healing, re-wiring and experiential affects of the dance
> (Sondra, Elisita, Scott), made me think of fiction writers such as Kazuo
> Ishiguro and his novel 'Never Let Me Go' (and also the film made after the
> novel and released in 2010). Below is a video link of Ishiguro discussing
> the main themes of his book. His focus is on the natural lifespan of human
> beings and compression of this.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SmuYqKeTTs
>
> And here are a couple more links should you wish to read more:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/29/never-let-me-go-kazuo-ishiguro
>
> http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/never_let_me_go/
>
> In terms of this month's Empyre: These are wonderful and stimulating
> discussions, I appreciate having this opportunity to read you all and your
> postings.
>
>
> Michele
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Sondra Fraleigh
> Sent: Mon 10/31/2011 11:17 PM
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] 'deceleration' and dark matters
>
> I would like to pick up just one thread that has entered into our
> conversation about "movement towards life," a term that entered through a
> reference to Anna Halprin's work - movement toward life, or moving toward
> life. Anyway, the movement/life connection.
>
> We have already said in many ways that movement is not outside of life.
> How could it possibly be?  Wouldn't it be more to the point of our
> conversations if we saw "movement inside life," or "movement in life,"  or
> "movement as life"? I just think there is a better way to say what we are
> talking about in this matter - it could be put in several ways in fact that
> are less dualistic. Are we indeed moving toward life?
>
> Maxine Sheets Johnstone wrote a long book to show from many studied points
> of view that movement is primary in life - The Primacy of Movement.
>
> To put it in a phenomenological description and in terms of self-evidence:
> I am not moving toward life. I don't see life out there as anything I can
> move toward. I'm in the flow of life now. I feel its halts and abrasions,
> its releases and orgasms. Its panorama is in me, moves through me, and
> sometimes just beyond. I don't want to miss out on life by moving toward it.
>
> Best to all, Sondra
> On Oct 31, 2011, at 2:56 PM, Johannes Birringer wrote:
>
> >
> > Dee,
> > what would such a cultural pre-movement / effort be, "pre-movement' as
> discussed by Hubert Godard, "which is not under the control of the
> conscious subject and combines the cultural as well as the individual"?
> > what notion of affects or forces is posited here, Dee?  I am curious
> what Godard's writings are on "pre-movement," since Michèle Danjoux had
> earlier invoked Erin Manning on "pre-acceleration,"  and I had not come
> across the notion of pre-movement in a soma/cultural context before;
> > and it seems that Godard's somatic studies are connected to
> developmental psychology and emotion studies?  or am I wrong?  is Godard a
> neurophysiologist  working in cancer research or a rolfer ?   and to what
> extent is a "theory" of energetics  (unconscious / uncontrolled) liable to
> be misunderstood, if we think back/recollect again, through our collective
> trauma corpus, the fascist and totalitarian collectivizing movements of the
> 20th century?  a very bad dream time.
> >
> >
> >>> Dee schreibt:
> > I'd like to pick up on Elisita's earlier point about combining the
> political and the aesthetic/meditational sense in a sensible 'movement
> towards life' - I think it is worthwhile reflecting more here on the
> possibility of  a 'politics of effort' , which also relates to the
> pre-effort, pre-acceleration or 'pre-movement' as discussed by Hubert
> Godard, which is not under the control of the conscious subject and
> combines the cultural as well as the individual. If we think of (pre)
> movement as a corporeal textuality, a weaving of energies where the
> cultural and pre-conscious are inseparably intertwined, then interventions
> in this economy are going to have repercussions which 'affect' both the
> individual and culture, which to my mind is the most far-reaching form of
> political intervention, and does affect the 'balance' of power.
> >>>
> >
> >
> > regards
> > Johannes
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>

-- 

Dee Reynolds

Dee.Reynolds at manchester.ac.uk
http://www.watchingdance.org/
http://watchingdance.ning.com/

School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
University of Manchester
M13 9PL
UK
tel: +44(0)161 275 3212
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