Exertion/Recuperation
I am again in Salt Lake City, assisting at the Integrated Movement Studies certification program. For background, this is a certification program in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, and I completed the program two summers ago. This is my second full week back at the program assisting the group after mine. They are three weeks from the end, and are getting nice and stressed. By this point, though, they seriously know their shit. Not a lot of teaching going on. They're in testing mode now.
They aren't what I wanted to talk about, though. I wanted to talk about the rhythms of exertion and recuperation. One of the overarching themes of the IMS program, and especially of Irmgard Bartenieff's work, is that of Exertion and Recuperation being a valuable lens for examining movement, and by extension, a lens for examining most anything.
The core of the theme of Exertion and Recuperation is that there are many kinds of exertions, which wear on the thing doing the exerting. To recover energy, a recuperation is called for. This seems pretty darn obvious, and yeah, in the simplest form, it is. The trick is understanding what is the exertion and what is the recuperation. For example, running is a pretty substantial physical exertion. The recuperation happens when you stop running, and stretch, rest, rehydrate, and perhaps don't run for another day or more. This is an example of the Exertion/Recuperation rhythm. However, for me, sitting in my office chair all day is a substantial exertion, both mentally and physically. Going for a run is a powerful recuperation from that, and often just what I need to get back to work productively. The recuperation from one exercise is an exertion in a different way.
So, here I am in Salt Lake. I am taken out of my everyday life. There is a substantial exertion required to take time off from work, fly here, live in a hostel for a week, and spend my time helping students in the studio. It is very physical, very tiring, and very intellectually demanding. I have a lot of emotional energy invested in this place, and when I return, feelings come flooding back. In short, it is hard being here. However, in another way it is a recuperation from the exertion of my life. I've not sat in an office chair for days. Having minorly injured myself last week, I find that movement and physicality are a welcome change from being locked in an immobile (for me, nothing that serious) state for a week. I am reminding myself what I learned and what I know. I am reconnecting with a different side of me. Yes, this is a recuperation. It is a vacation. It is recentering.
There are many things that I feel I need a recuperation from, occasionally. Take music, for instance. I am very focused on music. I listen to music for the majority of every day. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, making it, categorizing it, sorting it, djing it, talking about it, and so forth. Some times I just need a break from it, so I can come back to it refreshed, with new understanding and excitement. I intend to take a total break from music for some short time so as to refocus. Probably a week. Certainly not this week. One recuperation at a time. These things are exhausting.
Exertion and Recuperation are broad topics, and with an open mind, apply to all manner of things. I am glad that I am here in Salt Lake, exerting and recuperating. I am glad that I am far away from all of you, because I get to miss you. Even the ones I don't often see. I miss you differently here, because I'm not missing you from my life, I'm missing you from my heart - that part of my home that comes with me everywhere.
What are your rhythms of exertion and recuperation? What things do you work really hard at as a break from working really hard in a different way?
They aren't what I wanted to talk about, though. I wanted to talk about the rhythms of exertion and recuperation. One of the overarching themes of the IMS program, and especially of Irmgard Bartenieff's work, is that of Exertion and Recuperation being a valuable lens for examining movement, and by extension, a lens for examining most anything.
The core of the theme of Exertion and Recuperation is that there are many kinds of exertions, which wear on the thing doing the exerting. To recover energy, a recuperation is called for. This seems pretty darn obvious, and yeah, in the simplest form, it is. The trick is understanding what is the exertion and what is the recuperation. For example, running is a pretty substantial physical exertion. The recuperation happens when you stop running, and stretch, rest, rehydrate, and perhaps don't run for another day or more. This is an example of the Exertion/Recuperation rhythm. However, for me, sitting in my office chair all day is a substantial exertion, both mentally and physically. Going for a run is a powerful recuperation from that, and often just what I need to get back to work productively. The recuperation from one exercise is an exertion in a different way.
So, here I am in Salt Lake. I am taken out of my everyday life. There is a substantial exertion required to take time off from work, fly here, live in a hostel for a week, and spend my time helping students in the studio. It is very physical, very tiring, and very intellectually demanding. I have a lot of emotional energy invested in this place, and when I return, feelings come flooding back. In short, it is hard being here. However, in another way it is a recuperation from the exertion of my life. I've not sat in an office chair for days. Having minorly injured myself last week, I find that movement and physicality are a welcome change from being locked in an immobile (for me, nothing that serious) state for a week. I am reminding myself what I learned and what I know. I am reconnecting with a different side of me. Yes, this is a recuperation. It is a vacation. It is recentering.
There are many things that I feel I need a recuperation from, occasionally. Take music, for instance. I am very focused on music. I listen to music for the majority of every day. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, making it, categorizing it, sorting it, djing it, talking about it, and so forth. Some times I just need a break from it, so I can come back to it refreshed, with new understanding and excitement. I intend to take a total break from music for some short time so as to refocus. Probably a week. Certainly not this week. One recuperation at a time. These things are exhausting.
Exertion and Recuperation are broad topics, and with an open mind, apply to all manner of things. I am glad that I am here in Salt Lake, exerting and recuperating. I am glad that I am far away from all of you, because I get to miss you. Even the ones I don't often see. I miss you differently here, because I'm not missing you from my life, I'm missing you from my heart - that part of my home that comes with me everywhere.
What are your rhythms of exertion and recuperation? What things do you work really hard at as a break from working really hard in a different way?