Jerwood Bank 2008 – Siobhan Davies Dance

The lectures, for me, were like provocations, in the best sense. Very stimulating bodies of knowledge were shared and we were able to draw parallels or links, as we liked and in our own way. We didn’t formally relate the information to our practices but did make connections in quite open-ended discussions with the practitioners. It was interesting to simply let that information be there and to allow connections to occur without forcing them.

I was most struck by the idea of ‘zen-like oblivion’ that Jonathan Cole referred to, which I relate to something akin to the notion of a fully realised dancing state. (I wonder if this is something we can ever ‘achieve’? Or just something we sense and catch glimpses of?).

Jonathan described how when we experience pain, it become the whole focus of our consciousness. We identify entirely with the pain: we are the pain. He went onto describe the moments in physical activity when the thought process and the physical act can conjoin into a similar state where we and the activity become one thing – such as in long distance running. He referred to this state as the ‘zen-like oblivion’. This really excited me as the process in which we were engaged included a lot of thinking and questioning of our movement that for me can at times take me out of my physical expression. However, this idea allowed me to see a possible plateau in the process where the clarity of thought and intention and the physical expression can become interdependent and perhaps even integrated.

In other words, I found it helpful to use this idea to conceptualise a potential culmination point in my process where thought and action where integrated (but not necessarily merged).

 Tags: 6. Week six/ Artist talks/ Joe Moran