Chapter 74
2011. Providence, Rhode Island.
“Let’s start off by walking,” I say to my first class in Providence. “Every once and a while let’s each make sure to move through the center of the room.”
Like the chaos of a city street, we move. We walk.
Next, I add the following context: “We each have something that we really want to give to each other. How does this change your breath, your direction, the pace, how you are holding your body? Does it affect whether you make eye contact or not? How does it change your overall outlook?”
Next, I add this layer: “Now every person also has something that you want... So you want to give them something, but there is also something you want from them. Both things are happening at the same time. A kind of magnetic pulse of give and take with each new person you pass.”
“As you go, without analyzing, simply observe what dynamics seem to develop or repeat within each relationship you pass, saying ‘Interesting… when she does this, I do this. When I do this, she does that.’”
“Notice how with each new pairing, as contact is made, a unique relationship starts in that instant. A fluid thing, constantly in motion, with each person having an equal effect. A give and take. A rubber band of ideas that commences a push and pull that will go on forever. The space between the two is alive and dynamic, creating a complex third entity in the middle, the evolving relationship built and cared for by both people.”
This is the start of my first attempt to teach a semester of clown. Next we will try the same exercise with an object. With space. Then with an audience. Then an idea.
Everything is your partner. Give and take.
Everything is a relationship. Always evolving.
Not just in trigonometry.
We are in a continual relationship with everything.
