Every evening of BMotion festival between 8 and 9 p.m. we would meet up with the EDN Carte Blanche participants to explore writing as an embodied and choreographic practice. We used writing as a way to create an intimate space between people, between our thinking and feeling, between the professional, the personal and the private.
The aim of the practice was twofold: it was a space in which we invited the participants as well as ourselves to reflect on the day’s theme and content as well as a space in which to practice concrete creative writing tools.
Conceptually, we played with the tension between free writing and censorship. What do we allow ourselves to express? What can we allow ourselves to express? And how can different creative strategies help us to develop our writing as well as explore different and unexpected corners of (whats in) our minds and hearts?
Besides inviting people to explore their own individual creative writing skills and potential, we also played with co-creation and collaborative writing. What does it mean to have your words reflected back at you by hearing someone else read your poem out loud? And what happens if your text becomes part of the collection of texts created by the group, all put together to create one long form poem? We have tried the latter in our last session and were amazed by the outcome. You can read it below. But first we would like to thank the participants for their dedication and attention and their willingness to share this co-created long form piece of poetry with the world.
Tyrone & Merel
Long form poetry
“I find myself underwater getting connected with something other than myself, something like the underwater world or another energy, another force, something huge that I cannot define. I meditate while moving and watching. The sun is entering the water, the visibility is good and bright. I take one breadth and I am lost. I move with the same “no effort” the fishes do. My movements are minimal. I let myself get lost in the underwater sound, a sound that is so mild that is almost silence. I experienced this feeling 15 years ago when I was 25 and I still do. Although now my underwater movements are freer and more confident. I enter the meditative channel more often. Will I in the future?”
“What is sacred to me? First on my mind trust of the people, friendship comes, like a bright lay of light showing the direction where to go.
Spiritual allows me to find the space/time/concentration for the time of thinking, reflection to take a healthy distance for it, in the silence which allows me to hear my inner voices.
The escape from materialism.
Spirituality is so much important to me for my creativity, giving another dimension to my movement, opening the space and possibilities.
What is sacred to me? First on my mind trust of the people, friendship comes, like a bright lay of light showing the direction where to go.
Spiritual allows me to find the space/time/concentration for the time of thinking, reflection to take a healthy distance for it, in the silence which allows me to hear my inner voices.
The escape from materialism”.
“I see their fields
fresh green crops, heavy air and wind rustling
nature building her set
on the first hop, my chest starts vibrating
a short melody leaving my lips
she is all ears.”
“What’s sacred to me…?
I don’t know…
Maybe
the memory of my grandmother…
her fresh smell, her warm hands, her fluttering fingers.Maybe her hug after the rain,
Maybe her candid hair…
Maybe her way to move.
without doubt, without regret.Maybe the way she used to knead the flour
The way she insisted to massage it vigorously
To make some soft and crispy bread.Maybe her creased skin
full of wrinkles but never tired…
What’s sacred to me?
It is she.
Invisible and vivid, silent and still living”.
“This world, where I close my eyes to “meditate” and see without sight. Choose to see nothing but black due to eyelids. This world, is indeed theraputic. Like sitting by the lake eating gelato. Therapy. This world, however makes me wonder which is realer. The vision I see without vision vs the vision with see with insight. A forward roll in between
both worlds to arrive flat on my back. Starfish. In this world, I see the stars.
One plus one equals 3
One plus one equals 3
It was never separate
One plus one. You, Me and …”
“My relationships with my friends are sacred to me”, is Kim thinking while sitting down at the table. She had just entered a noisy sports bar where she agreed to meet Heather and Fia. She had looked around but didn’t see her two friends yet, and chooses to wait for them at the table close to the windows. Hopefully they will see her there, since she is not very tall and it’s already dark outside.
“Thanks to my friends, I get to experience so much more”, she realizes, “I get to live so much larger.”
She acknowledges that she has never forgotten a friendship in her life. ‘And the ones I have at this moment, I worship them’, she thinks of happily.”
“Thunderstorm outside.
He exits in his striped t-shirt.
Breathes in, breathes out, melting in the whole, listening to the multiple voices resonating in his mind, echoes of ancient stories, on the traces of ancient feet standing on the same ground.
Movement: his hands covering his eyes, slowly falling next to the body and then opening into a silent welcoming, dissolving him in a hug of endless spaces, timeless moments.
I look from the window how he fades into the rainbow, losing himself without feeling lost.
We were, are, will be in the chant of the spirits surrounding us, free.
Sacred is the sound of laughter and cry.
Sacred is your face, looking at mine.
Sacred is to surrender to the ocean, to the sun, to the stillness of eternity,
in the echoes of humanity”.
“People don’t like it
When I say
That I love to hold hands
That I want to be held
They say I’m too young
But my body is ready, my body is openI jump around like crazy, needing to get all of this energy out of my system
At dawn, the only thing we see is shadows
On the riverside
Laying next to someone
Just that
Wouldn’t that be great?I would rub my thumb over the palm of his hand
We would listen to the water, the wind and feel the grass between our toesAnd then I would whisper:
I needed this”.
Evie Demetriou, Marketa Perroud, Philippe Kratz, Anna Trevisan, Tyrone Isaac Stuart, Evelien van de Sanden, Eva Zilio, Merel Heering
Tags: EDN, Merel Heering
