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Ritual Madness: Liberty in Body-Language GrammarFacilitator: Elijah Lee
“Humans are Social Animals”. Much of what uniquely characterizes the human species is our ability to create complexity by operating collectively. To do so requires a common language of thought, speech, and action. Socialization and education provide the building blocks for a grammar of speech and behavior, used to speak and move comprehensibly within shared social spaces.
Socialization is a matter of Time; we learn how particular actions create future consequences and how present conditions are consequences of past events. Our socialization keeps us relatively close to a shared neutral state, mitigating risk to maintain social continuity for our own and others' protection. Drastic deviance from this shared neutral is the taboo territory of “madness”.
Unfortunately, what is gained in stability can come at the cost of behavioral innovation for the individual, whose infinite options are constrained to only those which create conceptually linear chronologies. In other words, you’re only allowed to act in ways that ‘make sense’, most of the time. The instrument of a socially unconstrained human being is capable of a much wider range.
What ‘makes sense’ to the body?
This class space provides a unique opportunity to relax the conscriptions on our social selves, and to play with ourselves as Instruments. We explore the wide range of our active, cognitive, and vocal capabilities and experiment with somatic syntax.
Elijah Lee (Sway!) is an improviser from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Elijah entered into the world of embodiment through the practices of traditional Yoga and Zen Buddhism, and ended up as a singing-dancing Fool, and professional Bodyworker. Elijah’s improv classes focus on body awareness, exploring movement which supports and harnesses the structural advantages of the human form.
A movement explorer for the last decades, Elijah has studied with many teachers including Ruth Zaporah and Sten Rudstrom of “Action Theater!”, Frey Faust and Kira Kirsch of the Axis Syllabus, Ray Chung, Mark Young, Nita Little, Karen Nelson and more. He led jams and taught classes as far afield as Dubai. Elijah Lee’s primary focus in dance is the development of close listening, of flexibility and fluidity in movement, of curiosity in exploration and self care.
Tuesday:
EVENING FLOW:
6:30pm - Doors Open
7pm - Workshop
8:20p - Dance begins
10:20p - Dance ends, closing circle
10:35p - Snacks & Socializing
11:30p - Doors close
Drop-in $20
Pass $90 (6 dances @ $15)
Cash or Venmo at door or prepay online at omculture.com
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
OmCulture, 2210 N Pacific St, Seattle, WA 98103-9127, United States,Seattle, Washington