A thought struck me this evening on the dance floor. A lot of what I’ve learned about attunement in my photography I’ve learned from dancing. By attunement I mean the ability to sense the energy in a situation or a person, and match that in myself, and from that matching comes the ability to start to see a photograph. In a contra dance line, I am in the presence of all this intense female energy (it’s a dance form where a new person of the opposite sex is thrust into your arms every 30 seconds or so). I instantly know a great deal about this person just by the kind of contact we can have (or not have). I match my partner’s energy and connection so that we can have a great time in motion together.
When I arrived at Folklife with Robin I was anything but attuned. We were snappy with each other, I was a little hungry, and I was overwhelmed with the cacophony of sounds and sights of thousands of people. After we sat and ate, I left to get grounded. Now Folklife is often the four most bliss filled days of the year for me. But it takes a little getting used to at first.
I gravitated to a free-form participatory drumming circle. If my senses were to be overwhelmed, I seemed to need to be in the ground zero of sensory overwhelm. I moved my body to the rhythm, and started seeing photographs.
I then went to the dance hall and contra danced for two hours straight. Then I saw the low sun coming through a window, and the dancers’ shadows against the floor. I peeled away and worked the image through a square dance where the same couple occupied the same patch of sun on a regular pattern.
Robin showed up for the waltz. "You’re back!" she said, looking in my eyes and seeing how I could now look deeply back. We waltzed together, she holding her salad in one hand, me in the other, as my free hand cradled the camera.
Wow, you sound really cool. I have only had a maybe two dance experiences in my life where I truly held in a powerful dance. Readind you blog made me want to dance. I just stumbled on your site while looking for a friends. Good read.
Posted by: Susanna | May 31, 2005 at 03:35 PM