This past week I
had the opportunity to interview Hilary Lake, who works at Earthdance in
Plainfield, Massachusetts. Earthdance is a dance retreat center that has a
strong focus on improvisation, and in particular in a dance form called contact
improvisation.[1]
This past January I had the chance to attend a contact improvisation class and
jam session in one of the beautiful Earthdance studios; it was a wonderful and entirely
new experience for me. At the time I didn’t have the chance to talk in-depth
with any of the Earthdance volunteers or employees, but I was fascinated by the
idea of a dance retreat center focused on environmental sustainability—what a
perfect fit for me!
For more
information about Earthdance, events, and retreats, please explore the website:
The Earthdance website
states “Earthdance cultivates dance and the art of improvisation. Through
experiential learning and creative exchange, we strengthen connections between
people, communities, and the earth.” [2]On
the same page ten core values of Earthdance are listed: dance, improvisation,
contact improvisation, community, embodied intelligence, ecology, artist-run,
cultural exchange, access, local community, and social justice.
Hilary has been
working as Office Manager for Earthdance almost a year. When I asked Hilary how
she would define Earthdance to someone who had never heard of the organization
before, she stated:
“It’s a retreat
center for experimentation with improvisation that focuses [primarily on]
dance. Or maybe saying somatic practices,
rather than dance, is a good way to put it. Earthdance also is really committed
to being a steward of the natural environment, and helping people to cultivate
their relationship with the natural world… by going deeper into ones own body
one is then becoming more connected and aware of ones relationship with the
natural environment.”
I am interested
in investigating the Earth part of Earthdance; how do those working and
living at Earthdance see dance and the environment as connected? Because I know
that Earthdance focuses on contact improvisation, I asked Hilary to elaborate
about her personal experiences regarding how contact improvisation might be
connected to environmental issues, which she was more than happy to share with
me:
“My own personal
experience of doing contact improvisation allows me to be more in touch… to
literally not have a separation between my inner experience and my outer
experience so my body and mind are really acting as one… There are not really
boundaries about what is accepted and what is not accepted, or how you interact
with a person, or how you’re supposed to do the dance. Yet there is still a
sense of technique… You are really allowing yourself just to react in an
authentic way, without judging it without stopping yourself or redirecting it
for any particular reason.
That
then is allowing one to be more in touch with the kind of animalistic natures
that we have that has helped us to survive but that we don’t often need anymore
in our society, we end up pushing down because their really not acceptable. As
a result there’s all the energy that we’re not using that’s being used against
us. In order to access it we actually have to allow it to move through us in
some way, whether that’s by expressing emotions in an extreme way, or its by
dancing wildly, which can be an emotional release… and I think meditation also allows
one to focus more intense energies.
Once
you can have that kind of release, then you can have more subtle awareness of
your own experience and relationship with either other people or with the
environment around you. Dance isn’t just about me and me being in a
relationship: when I dance I don’t feel like there’s a separation between the
natural environment and myself. And that includes the people that are in the
room, and somehow I feel like I am not just expressing for myself but I’m
expressing for the place that I’m dancing in.”
I love that
Hilary pointed out how dance can be used as a tool for self-understanding and
how connecting to ones own emotions in an embodied way is often an enlightening
experience. As I mentioned before in previous entries, it is my personal
opinion that most of our society is living in their heads and could greatly
benefit from more daily embodied experiences. After all, our bodies and our
minds are inseparable! I look forward to talking to others from the Earthdance
community and I hope I’ll have a chance to attend another contact improvisation
workshop at Earthdance again soon.
[1] For more information on the definition
and history of contact improvisation:
http://www.contactquarterly.com/contact-improvisation/about/
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