Learning through the Honesty of Season
For each and every dance there is; Spiderflower's practice looks closely to the dynamics at play within creation throughout the wheel of the year.
The natural world is seen as a mirror to the life-cycles we move through as human beings, and thus, teaches an ever deepening relationship with creation itself. As creators - that relationship is the bedrock to all we do and it is important it is both fluid and strong.
Being Human: (Or the Vulnerable Magician) 2018 has been placed quite consciously as we head into the darkest quarter of the year. Here, the momentum creates a natural gravity, slowly winding into dissolution, decay and the unknown territory that lay beyond.
Rain falls. Leaves tumble through a myriad of green, gold, russet and crimson. Letting go. The smell of wet earth, musty and dank. It grows colder. Nights draw in. Mud. Darkness comes. We contract. Go inward. The seed is laid bare on soil.
Flowering has come, has reached its zenith - and gone. That time is done and will never be again. We transit from abundance to catch the last glimmers of those offerings. In those moments, when something is nearly gone - it is the most precious.
As leaf lays to earth, its gnarled form contorts. Ready to return from where it came; skeletal, vulnerable, fragile, perfect - transparent.
They fall upon soil made of thousands of lives and thousands of cycles lived before. Upon this we walk; the broken bones of other-selves dreaming. Although life forms move into dissolution, we never do end where our skin stops and their ability to support new life – never goes away.
In this place we are to do our work.
In dialogue with the fabric from which we are made.
Here there are specific rhythms at play.
We enter slow time.
There is space here.
Space enough to move.
Connect and re-connect.
To listen and observe the ultimate connection between divinity, dirt - and all it is to be human.
This is the work of Being Human.
A natural and necessary dance. It is key to study in the greatest detail. This dark time in the year is one that can be overlooked or even rebuked - considered grotesque. But, if we look closely - if we truly consider what is happening here, yes it may be so - but there is an essential magic at work.
As a mirror reflection. This is about stripping away and being in the soil of the self. In the flesh of the body. No matter how many times we forget in a day we do not live forever - this place reminds us that our moments will come to an end, and so the offerings we make in a life time - are gifts worth giving.
In the dance, we must not be afraid to learn by the reflection of this simple leaf.
The honesty of this season is a great teacher.
Photography: (R to L) Leaf Skeleton by Mark Longair 2010 / Leaf in the Dirt by Yashima 2005 / Hydrangea by Clint Budd 2015 / Vanilla Leaf Skeleton by Peter Stevens 2010 / Leaf Skeleton by Thomas Wood 2012 © Creativecommons
All text appearing on this site for Spiderflower: Contemporary Earth Dance Theatre are copyright of the author and artist Rowan Jacqueline, unless otherwise stated. © 2018. All rights reserved.