Self space:

The generalized physical space that I take for granted, which is near enough to me to be mistaken for me or mine.  Self space is not a term of occupation, but imagination and spirit.  Where do I end?  How much do I encompass/encompasses me? 

Or

Where a person can take a time out.

Or

Where a person might collapse inward to feel the vastness of what is within; a wormhole into endless mystery. 

 

General space:

The space that I (incorrectly) consider not me, that I move in and perhaps take for granted as unremarkable or capable of being made remarkable only by my actions.  (As in, I must activate the space in order for it to be distinct.  Perhaps it only needs me to listen to it more carefully.)

Or

All that exists that supports me, with great love and abundance.

Or

Everything that has not been attended to and is cursed with an assumption of undifferentiated blandness. 

 

Proximity:

A measure of distance that organizes around the concept of nearness, as opposed to farness. 

Or

The distance I hold an object or idea in order for it to be maximally potent.  This might require drawing nearer to something or giving something distance.  What is the proximity of certain ideas that I regard as core to me, or the proximity of my daughter’s first drawing at any given moment? 

 

Solo practice:

An act of mental deception in which I pretend I am alone. 

Or

A spiritual practice of differentiation in which I prepare to walk alone into the abyss.

Or

A practice of aloneness that results in the recognition of and Great Feeling for everything that I cannot separate from. 

 

Rigor:

Disciplined practices of intensity engaged in regularly and regardless of desire. 

Or

The relentless, dogged approach to tasks that must be employed for a person to experience transcendence or extreme release into unknown bliss. 

 

Unison:

Many people giving up all their ego shit so as to become lock-step with others, perhaps resulting in a state of communitas.

Or

The state of being together in such deep harmony that we all become blurred and perhaps more like One than many. 

 

Audience:

Those who engage in deep witnessing of an event created by other people, and do so together, with complete strangers, close friends, lovers, frenemies, and acquaintances.

Or

Pleasure addicts who get their fix of bliss by witnessing acts of human creativity, the sublime, and the really unreal. 

 

Feedback:

The undercurrent of sensational and linguistic chatter in my brain and body that exists every moment of my life and founds the impulse to get wiser in general so as to upgrade the quality of chatter that’s bouncing around in me at any given hour.

 

Documentation:

The movements of a person’s body, the practices they make habitual, and the ideas they allow to recur and flow out of themselves, all of which form patterns that are indisputably present and evident.  This archival practice occurs regardless of whether a person is consciously enacting it. 

(Said at a whisper: Indelible imprints occurring all the time.)

And so

How can I become more aware of all that I have documented in my heart, my bones, my movements?  The actions keep slipping away before I can grasp them; I cannot become conscious enough to appreciate it all.  I am not yet wise enough, so onward I go! 

 

These definitions are documentation of my state of being and thinking in this moment… for now…

 

 

Leah Cox is Dean of the American Dance Festival, Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, and a dancer in Liz Lerman’s latest project, Wicked Bodies. In these unusual times, her house has turned into a nursery, preschool, and offsite satellite for higher education and remotely realized summer intensive learning experiences. She shelters-in-place with her husband, four-year-old daughter, and seven-month-old son. 

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