Notes, Correlations, and Experiments: Dance Improvisation and The Five Elements
Maré Hieronimus/The Body Archive
Over the course of this past year, I have been facilitating a workshop which explores the movement and experience of the forces of the Five Vedic Elements through dance improvisation. Below are some of the notes and basic correlations. This is an ongoing and active body of research, and is some of the foundational investigation for my current visual and performance project, Body into Sky.
ETHER- Akash
Ether manifests the idea of connection, allowing for interchange between all material mediums, communication and self-expression.
Sensory Potential: Sound
Sense Organ: Ear
Motor Organ: Mouth-expression
Chakra: Fifth Chakra- Vishuddha- Throat
Alchemy: The field, matrix and source from which everything flows. Space continuum, the mother of the final four elements, The birth and initiation.
Qualities - expansiveness, pervasiveness, soft, light, subtle, abundant.
Action - provides room, looseness, openness
Facilitates - sound and non-resistance
Body: space- both internal and external, one-ness of matrix, interconnection, formless.
LMA Correlations: SPACE MATRIX, SPACE HARMONY, Active Stillness
AIR- Vayu
Air manifests the idea of subtle movement, manifesting ideas of direction, velocity and change, and giving the basis for thought
Sensory Potential: Touch
Sense Organ: Skin
Motor Organ: Hand-grasping
Chakra: Fourth Chakra, Anahata, Heart.
Alchemy: The idea or thought or mental activity born from the ether of space. The idea moves into manifestation through the Agni/fire. Cosmic substratum, infinite, unbounded. A continuous medium.
Qualities - mobility, dynamics, movement unimpeded, key element for fire to burn. Existence without form.weightless, mobile, cool, dry, porous and subtle
Action - motion or movement, evaporation, dryness
Facilitates - touch and vibration.
Body: the breath/wind that moves that body, empty space inside body- specifically between the joints; the skeletal system
LMA Correlations: SPACE, Effort Quality: SPACE-Direct/indirect
FIRE- Tejas or Agni
Fire manifests the idea of light, allowing for perception and movement from place to place, therefore also transformation, transmutation, change.
Sensory Potential: Sight
Sense Organ: Eyes
Motor Organ: Feet-motion
Chakra: Third- Manipura- Navel/Solar Plexus
Alchemy: The spark, impulse, heat through which the air/idea is transformed. The idea is the seed, but cannot transform without the heat, which is the key to all alchemical transformation. The power to change solids to liquids or gas and back again. Digestive power. Impulses through the nervous system- the impetus.
Qualities – Radiance, hot, sharp, dry, subtle, weightless and rough
Action - radiation of heat and light
Facilitates - form, color and temperature
Body: the digestive organs and tract, the heat/Agni that is available for digestion; blood/circulatory system and heart related.
LMA Correlations: EFFORT, Effort Quality: TIME-quick/sustained
WATER- Jala or Apa
Water manifests the idea of liquidity or flowing motion, allowing for life.
Sensory Potential: Taste
Sense Organ: Tongue
Motor Organ: Urino-Genital- emission
Chakra: Second Chakra – Swadhishthana, Sacral
Alchemy: The flowing substance, which is heated by the spark (fire), initiated by the idea (air), born from the ether field. This is pre- solidified. The water is needed to assist the fire from burning itself out- so in this sense the water modulates the fire and creates a cooling environment through which the Agni can act without destruction. This is pre-FORM.
Qualities - moist, cool, soft, and sticky fluidity, change, flow, movement with weight. Guided or defined by earth, Cohesion
Attribute - cohesion, lubrication
Facilitates - fluidity and taste (via saliva)
Body: all fluids of the body (70 percent) including seat, tears, craniosacral, synovial, sexual, and the lymphatic system.
LMA Correlations: SHAPE, Effort Quality: FLOW- free/bound
EARTH- Prithvi
Earth manifests the idea of stability or solidity, giving resistance in action. Inertia
Sensory Potential: Smell
Sense Organs Nose
Motor Organ: Anus-elimination
Chakra: First- Muladhara, root of spine.
Alchemy: the solid form which is manifest through the thought, spark, fluidity, the last stage of bringing something into being and “physical completion”. The physical world is a manifestation of this last stage. This is FORM.
Qualities - stability, permanence, rigidity, density, heavy, rough, solid, stable, slow.
Attribute - resistance, densityFacilitates - fragrance, odor and shape
Body: The muscles, connective tissues and density of the body. Muscle, bones, teeth, tissues. As Air creates bones and fire creates blood and Water creates Lymph, all are manifest through the Earth, which brings the energy into matter.
LMA Correlations: BODY, Effort Quality: WEIGHT- light/strong, weight sensing
Every substance in the world is made up of these elements, with certain elements predominant.