Expanding possibilities

I recently spent 6 days with Javanese teacher - Suprapto. This was a profound and delicious experience which is hard to put into words. As the week progressed, I found myself sinking deeper into my body, heart and being. At the same time, I connected at a deeper level with the people I moved with and the environment, including trees, the ground and some very ordinary chairs!

Part of my learning that I am consciously aware of was to connect with the impulse to move and move from that. Another part, was to connect (in many ways and at many levels) with the people and things around me.

Connecting

One of the big realisations for me was how much more connection is available to me - with others, things and the environment, simply by first dropping down and connecting with myself, tuning into others and the environment and allowing a true response and connection to naturally arise. When this happens, it is deeply satisfying. Part of us longs for this kind of connection or, rather, dislikes the unnatural separation that is for most of us, even while we superficially connect with others, a safe or lazy choice or habit.

Deep transformation

A great deal more happened unconsciously. While we moved, Suprapto sent energy where it was needed in the form of sound and tuned the common field. He also moved with us.

In between sessions, although my mind and my body were still, some part of me, a part I had not been aware of before, continued to move, even while I slept. This continued for a couple of days after the course

Dropping down into timelessness

Last summer I improvised a dance (based on American tribal style belly dance) for a very supportive audience for 3 minutes. That 3 minutes seemed too long. On the last evening with Suprapto, we gave 5 minute ‘performances’. That 5 minutes passed in ‘no time’.

In both performances, I moved for the joy of moving but in the first I felt separate from the audience and self-conscious. In the second, the movement originated from much deeper within me and, even though it was much more personal to me (rather than learnt) and I was not especially aware of feeling connected to the the audience, I did not feel self conscious.

Each group of participants’ improvised ‘performances’ was very different and, in their own way, beautiful. The common theme was the depth of connection that informed every move and every pause. In the presence of Suprapto and the common field he had harmonised for us, the audience dropped down into their own beings.

Suprapto teaches surprisingly small groups in Europe and USA in the summer and Java in the winter. Click here for details. Click here for a video of Suprapto. I’ll be moving with him again in late August.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 6:41 pm and is filed under connecting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.