Dance Techniques 2010

Lance Gries — Release and Alignment Oriented Techniques
271
Is there, then, something like accomplishment
in the work? Yesterday we discussed and worked
with some Release principles in our bodies and then we
did a small, somewhat open improvisation with those
ideas. I could feel and see very clearly that people were
operating in a very nice way: they were full and supported
by the people around them, by the energy in the
group, in the class, and by the information. I feel personal
accomplishment in those moments when I sense that
everybody is taking responsibility for their experience,
and it is clear that their bodies and ways of being have
changed. And, when somebody articulates an experience—
and is articulating it in a way that is very profound
for themselves—it is something that will inform their future
research. That is particularly satisfying to me.
What qualifications does a teacher need?
Number one, I want to see in the teacher’s body, in their
embodiment, what they are working on. And I want
to see it alive. And secondly, that the others in the room
are able to feel it in their bodies. If a student is not
feeling what we are working on, then the student must
say something so that I, as a teacher, can come and
work with my hands. I want the student to have the physical
sensation. Some things arrive slowly, but I think
it is important to be able to transfer—and I use my hands
a lot for guiding the body in experience. The philosophy
or the kind of touch that a teacher is working with
can vary a lot; this has a lot to do with the quality or the
interior work of the techniques. In this work, a teacher
cannot be too pushy, one has to be a little more—we use
words like allowing, or granting permission—it is not,
say, to push the pelvis one way and it is better. And a
teacher has to be careful when touching that he or she is
not just manipulating. I don’t even like to use the
word correcting or repairing; I am guiding towards another
possibility. In my class, students do a lot of
touching of other students, so they are also practicing the
quality of transmitting information.
Are there new influences on your work?
I am very interested in theoretical physics. There is a
discussion between physics and Eastern philosophies—
disciplines that look so opposite—and thinking about
how our consciousness does or does not affect the
material world. I hope that conversation gets more connected.
We, as dancers, are dealing with those two
things: how the consciousness or the inhabitation of the
consciousness works in the body. Body–mind / mind–
body, we are back to that. Today nobody could defend
the idea of body–mind duality. We, as dancers, are
not just training the muscle, we need a little bit more of
this philosophical discussion.
How and where do you see the future of
this work? As a practice or as a group of ideas,
Release is aimed at clarifying the body. I have felt that
as my functioning body becomes more simple—or
less confused—that I am more aware of other parts of
myself. There is a level of working with the self, or
with awareness, that means one is also very much learning
how to work with oneself as a teacher, as a guide.
And I am very excited to see that, hopefully, this work
has the potential to be a bit of a connection to other
disciplines, that we are getting closer to the research in
Eastern philosophies, in metaphysics, in neurology,
or in theoretical physics about consciousness. This work
is moving in those directions; it is incorporating ideas.
I work a lot with certain Buddhist ideas. It is fascinating,
what is happening in the field of neurology, in studying
consciousness.
For sure, this work will continue to be used for the
stage because it continues to support the aesthetic
that is on the stage. Flexibility is built into the work. In
some ways I don’t see the future of the work necessarily
having its high point as a stage product. I see there is
more potential for the research to be reaching out to these
other disciplines—or bringing them to us! Twelve,
fifteen years ago there was much more of a process of
cleaning out, of breaking down or simplifying or taking
away habits, especially for super–trained dancers.
A lot of the process then was: We go back to zero. Today
people are much more informed, and they are pretty
free young people. They still have things to work on, but
it is not about breaking down. They are open and rich
and flexible in their brains, in their bodies.
What do you want to deliver to them?
This is the challenge. Sometimes you wonder, ‘what can
I deliver to them?’ Because students seemingly have
so much richness already, and freedom—they are, as we
say in English—so well adjusted. What this work and
this tradition of work gives them is like: Hey, this is not
the end of the story, there are more things to discover.
In some ways I feel—and this is the reason I want to stop
for a period—my work has been a lot about bringing
people information from the past to make sure that they
have all their information more or less up–to–date.
And when I look back at some of the people from
twelve, fifteen years ago, I see that through teaching
this kind of work they just turned out to be really good
human beings. They are very good dancers, but they
are also mothers and fathers, they are community people,
they have a nice humanity. This is also an outcome:
Living a good human life with other human beings.