We spend five days in a big space, women and men separately and then together. The complex topic and the length of the workshop invited a complex installation. The installation partly reflects the stories that we carry about each other, and that often makes us too blind to really see each other. These stories appeared as texts: mirrored imprints of poems and song lyrics on stones and hand-made papers. I drew couples in different situations with dark red ink on these papers with texts. Tímea N. Tóth, a talented textile artist, created a patchwork image of a tree from textiles and papers with a woman and a man on it that I drew. This was the invocation of the workshop on the first day.
When there were only us women in the space, there was an image of that year’s moon phases forming a spiral mirrored on the ground by a spiral of white stones on black soil. A tiny antique figurine couple was standing on the soil, guarding us. On the last day, the cranes’ sprayed imprints also appeared in the space on a big piece of paper, this time with no text, inviting the possibility of starting a new chapter on blank paper.
Us
Five days’ immersion in the dance between men and women. It’s easy to be consumed by the chaos, not knowing what others want or how to communicate. We are riddled with pains and injustices. Some of it righteously so, and a lot of it – simply stories. It’s too easy to get attached to being right and pointing fingers across the divide. Instead, we danced deep into the bones, blood and breath of our experience. To willingly and vulnerably embody all we are. To see and hear each other’s differences, to celebrate our shared humanity.
Texts also appeared on papers from which I (with the help of a few kind volunteers) folded cranes before the workshop. Participants were also invited to bring cranes folded from papers onto which they had written stories they wanted to let go and liberate. There were almost 1000 cranes in the space hanging on big branches. They were also to celebrate Adam’s journey because this was his last 5rhythms workshop before launching his movement practice called ZeroOne.
