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Space shapes the body, and the body shapes space. Just as an ocean contours an island, an island affects the movement of the ocean. You are in constant co-creation with the places you inhabit. Stretch your arms into space, and you displace molecules all the way to a ceiling or wall in dynamic interaction. Where you are located in an environment affects choice making in composing. Why here? Why not over there? Where you dance is part of what you make. From a dancer’s perspective, space becomes place when you inhabit it with attention.1 Place, in this view, refers to all aspects of the inner or outer environments. Body and Earth are known (and interpreted) through direct experience. Within the body, you can initiate movement from your liver, hip joint, or jaw. Outside the body, you can dance in relation to a forest , street corner, or theater. Body serves as a laboratory for understanding this interaction; it is the medium through which you know yourself and the world. As you explore new places in the body, you broaden your body maps. As you investigate new landscapes and cultural contexts, you can guide others into unfamiliar terrain. Mapping The body maps space and place. Within arm’s length is a globe that neuroscientists have named the peripersonal space and dancers call the kinesphere . Anything within this area is mapped in your brain as part of your body. This includes objects or extensions, like clothing, tap shoes, or a partner . They become part of your mapped sense of self. Eyes affect the volume and dimensionality of your kinesphere. You can stretch an arm, but keep your vision withdrawn, and the space remains small. When someone enters or leaves your kinesphere, the body notices and responds. Past experience shapes the ways you inhabit spatial boundaries. Sometimes, problems with movement or with technique are problems with space. Holes or areas of avoidance in your kinesphere may need attention.2 The body invests in knowing where you are. The immediate environment provides life-enhancing information, critical to survival. Place neurons in the brain map your current location. A leap in space relies on prior knowledge of surface, ceiling, and walls. Place neurons are context sensitive , allowing you to navigate effectively through a particular space and memorize where you are (walking through a restaurant). These place neurons communicate with more recently investigated grid neurons, which are context independent. Their map is based on the body’s knowledge of itself , allowing you to navigate effectively from internal orientation (dancing Space and Place The place where your foot touches the ground has everything to do with where and how you move. —Rich Wolfson, The Dance of Physics class Day 15 Day 15: Space and Place • 113 Honoring: Learning from Japan Sculptor Herb Ferris brings a reflecting pool, elegant wooden hoops, and a tokonoma ( ) to shape the space for my evening-length solo, Farmstories. In Japan, a tokonoma is an altar where you pause before entering (toko means floor or bed, and ma means space or room.) We place the tokonoma in the entranceway alcove, creating a shift of awareness from outside the theater to inside. Afterward, we leave the tokonoma in place for future performances , honoring transition. ≈ Dancing in Wales, we practice “making ma,” opening space between the bones of the feet to allow Earth energies to move up and through the body. As we begin slowwalking down the long, stone-covered path to the forest, some explorations erupt into lively dancing, while others pause in river-like flow. Who knows how energy will move when invited? As we make “ma” in our lives and in our dancing, we open to surprise. ≈ Performing in Japan, I use a chair in my solo. In the studio, a kind woman spends hours polishing and preparing it. After the concert I sit in the chair, wrapped in a shawl, and am offered a cup of tea as the audience waits. Then after questions, a smaller group moves upstairs to share a meal and continue talking about the work. They are teaching me about performance as ritual—preparing, enacting, honoring. 114 • making with your eyes closed). Place and grid neurons match the actual place you are dancing with your internal compass, effortlessly linking memory and the imaginative world you are creating.3 Place has interior and exterior dimensions. Most dancers have a place inside themselves where they go to reach a particular state of awareness, permeability, and receptivity for...

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