Head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes).

My second blog.
However, I have been urged to do this one for 'school'. I will be open about my reluctance prefacing this blog. Blogs are time consuming, your develop through the writing of them, you hold yourself accountable to your opinions in principle by publishing them (even if no-one reads it), you inquire, reflect and this evolving trail of awareness is endless. Extensive writing can give rise to a sense of participation in issues where actually you are cocooned, as sense of communication whereby only your senses of self are the only elements in discussion with each other and a sense of progress that cannot be without the key term 'action'. I fool myself easily that I am 'doing' and this makes me afraid as I believe deeply in the physical, in real movement and purposeful activity through which you open doors, engage with the worlds (plural) around you and with the present. I am afraid to lose myself in the writing and look up and find the world moved on without me.
I have undertaken a module with The OU titled 'Managing Systemic Change: inquiry, action and interaction'. There is that holy trinity that allays my fears; inquiry-action-interaction. The fig 8 shape that Marion North (former Director of LABAN) drew in the air one day earlier in my dance training shaping the transactions that flow from inner to outer, from you to me can apply to this course also. The module asks for us to map our own journeys, starting points, diversions and confluences. This is wonderful, it values the first person experience, it values the personal perspective. Unlike my first blog I will not be reporting on physical Parkour activities but instead on conceptual journeys. However, the participation, communication, and progress I seek, as other's do, will use this blog as vehicle to join the virtual community in this distance learning course. It will also involve technology....and the term cybernetics has popped up many times. I am exploring what would be unthinkable territory for me years ago.
My usual holy trinity is person - creator - performer.
Or perhaps Audience - Performer - Transformation.
All of my academia so far has used a physical act as the starting point and all of my processing has been via the body as site and source of our lives. I do not wish to dwell on Parkour as in physical measurable terms I am undeniably terribly at it!. Parkour is another systematic approach to movement, as was training dance with Cunningham Technique, Release Technique and the technique I now teach Graham Technique. Aikidio, Yoga, Meditation have all been systematic tools to engage with the world, understand fundamental truths and create transformation. It just so happens the previous blog was on that discipline but it could have been any of the above. I have always been reluctant to undertake study if I felt the transactional nature would be limited to a thesis being plucked off a dusty bookshelf. In all fairness I have utilised the thinking that emerged from my B.A and M.A almost everyday.
The hope in undertaking this MSc module is that I can find a language to draw together the learning derived from these physical processes. I hope to challenge myself to articulate links beyond the circumspect or tenuous that advocate the need and utility of arts practice and of physically educated, aware and expressive beings. I hope to be able to engage with a community beyond my usual scope of exposure or influence. I hope to one day be able to champion causes or policies that I believe in beyond the confines of the studios I teach in. These are not my only hopes but this is a good beginning.