🤸 Notes on "Expressive Bodies"

Dear friends,

Today, I’m starting the final dress rehearsal of something I’ve had in the works for months: an email course about creativity! I’m running Tending the Fallow Field, a five-day course about nurturing creativity to ease through writer’s block, through my indie publisher Sword & Kettle Press.

Although registration for our final dress this week is now closed, I want to share a bit of the first day’s email with you here!

The title of the first email is Expressive Bodies.

Although I’m a writer and publisher by trade, most of my formal training as an artist is actually in theater. I’m starting Tending the Fallow Field the way I'd start a rehearsal: by asking us to move our bodies around.

I sometimes find myself thinking of creativity as something that exists only in my brain, and my brain as something that is separate from my physical body. But neither of those things are true; my brain is obviously a part of my body, and my creativity also exists in my hands, my movements, my voice. When I’m in the rehearsal studio with others, it’s easy to understand that everything is connected; when I’m sitting alone at my desk, it’s easy to forget.

The first exercise for Expressive Bodies comes from Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, a director, professor, and mentor of mine. I’ve put my own spin on the first thing he’d have us do in the studio every day.

Stand up, and shake yourself out a little. Then, walk around your space and let yourself do a big, loud yawn — a yawn with arms outstretched and mouth wide, an audible, visceral yawn. If you feel silly, that's okay — it means you’re moving in the right direction.

Do it again — and do it even bigger this time! Take in air and energy, and take up space. We want to be able to feel with our full selves, and not hide our natural processes and inclinations behind a veil of politeness.

Yawn one more time — the biggest, loudest yawn you can. Now, you’re ready to begin.

The first time I did this exercise, I expected yawning to make me feel sleepy, but I’ve actually found that it wakes me up. I just took a break from writing this newsletter to do it myself, and even though I’ve done this many times before, I’m always surprised by how refreshed I feel. Wherever you are when you’re reading this, I invite you to try it as well!

The second exercise for Expressive Bodies is an invitation to think about what would feel good in your body right now, and spend a little time finding movement or breathwork that leans into those needs.

Here are some movements I especially enjoy:

• Blasting “Life During Wartime” and trying to dance along
• Stretching out my wrists and hands in as many different ways as I can
• Doing Yoga with Adriene’s 10-minute yoga routine for neck, shoulders, and upper back
• The absence of movement: just laying down directly on the floor for a minute or two

I’m also reminded of one of my favorite exercises from another theater class: Viewpoints. Viewpoints, as described in Anne Bogart and Tina Landau’s The Viewpoints Book, is “a philosophy translated into a technique for training performers, building ensemble, and creating movement for the stage.”

This exercise is called Five Images, and is introduced early on in Viewpoints training. In that training, you would listen to your instructor or director speak these instructions aloud while you walked through the space:

1. Imagine a beautiful golden band around your head pulling gently upward.
2. Use soft focus; relax your eyes.
3. Loosen your arms and shoulders.
4. Imagine that your legs are strong and muscular and that your bare feet are accustomed to working in the soil. Feel the sense of descent into the ground.
5. Place your hands on your heart. Find the beating of the heart. Extend the arms outward and imagine working with an open heart.

We did this exercise, and variations on it, so many times in my training that imagining the golden band and strong legs and open heart can take me right back to that feeling of being ready to see what’s next, what my body can do.

I’ll end this journey through my creative foundations with two more sacred things from Viewpoints: a philosophy, and a song.

The philosophy: “listen, pay attention, be open, change, respond, surprise yourself, use accidents, and work with fearlessness and abandon and an open heart.”

The song, which somehow that makes me feel inspired to create every time I hear it:

I’d love to hear about your creative roots! What classes and ideas and bits and bobs have formed the foundations of your creative practice?

Thanks for joining me today! I’ll be back next month with a new essay & more news.