Marco Bonisimo
Unblocked = Free
"Let me start with something I knew long before we started. I really enjoyed the sessions. But it also is not so easy to understand how to go beyond.UnBlocked suggests that there is something blocked. In the sessions with Edan and Fransesca I realised again how terribly blocked I can be. That I tend to use a mask, not allowing me to explore and experience freedom.Off coarse we talked about LAMA. It gives you the possibillity to practice a great skill. The skill of being. I mean being in the sense of being available for your surrounding. All your senses should be ready to respond to sound, images and touch. Through the improvisation, you can try to connect with your surrounding and this is by starting with connecting to yourself.So far... so good. Or at least on track. But if we go to the field of contactimprovisation, where your surrounding also consists of other people, I realised that as a dancer (or mover) I hide behind a mask of responsability for others. As a juggler, I don't care so much about dropping a ball, but the risk of dropping someone is somehow blocking me. This is off coarse wonderful if you are teaching acrobatic skills, but in finding connection with yourself, you need to be able to explore. You cannot just be the caretaker.Then I suddenly realised atrap in the performingsituation. As an entertainer, I try to do my best to please people. But that is not what is making a connection in itself. I can juggle 27 balls, but if people are interested in my shows, they are interested in me. So they are available for making a connection. If I just guide them through, they might be pleased, but if I show them my availabillity, we might connect and get a conversation. And this is what I call IT. The magic moment of performing. In the end, it is not about the skills, they are just a tool to invite people to be available for the connection. How cool is that!At Groningen Dance Center are a couple of sayings on the wall. Many of them seem pretty hallow, but if you put them in perspective, they are surely touching.
How about: “In a place, where you can be anything, always be yourself”So in order to find IT, we need to create a safe space. In this space, it is not about the skills, but about the people. They can be succesful and they can fail in a certain task. But they can never fail in being. The beauty of showing your true you. The beauty of faillure and in the end even the embracement of faillure will lead to surprises and new possibilities. It makes you completely available and very interesting.As an experiment I tried to use what we practiced in the sessions during the skating competition from last week. I won the competition not because I was pleasing my audience, but because I somehow found a way to surprise myself. I knew my choreography very well, but I enjoyed every slide and every jump. I was not bothered by the music, that didn't start. I somehow found pleasure in that. I guess I connected to myself and that made me as one of the least experienced skaters, one of the most interesting participants to connect with. Mission accomplished. Even in competition IT happened. At least once."
I can see freedom in your eyes,
Your potential and your curiousityI
I sense that wonderful thrill
that is somehow hidden within YOU
And that is what makes me
Laugh
and Cry
I want to help you
find YOUR key
to unlock
s..l..o..w..l..y...
your heart
to UNBLOCK fully
and find
the definition of ART
(or that of beauty)