A Brief Recollection
Once again, this year´s Movalogue was a beautiful and joyful celebration of movement and dialogue. Our hybrid three day long journey in late August occurred in a nurturing holding space based on the framework of Theory U (Co-Sensing, Presencing and Co-Creation). Together we dove into a revealing exploration of this year's motto: Embracing the Unknown. We shared simple and profound social arts practices based on SPT and scribing, which guided our exploration through the expanded awareness of embodied Presence.
We'd like to share with you some of the reflections and wisdom that emerged starting with golden nuggets of Arawana´s beautiful introduction into knowing and not knowing.
video editing by Anne Wollrath
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
Since 2020 the Movalogue is an hybrid global event with people meeting in person in various places and online in multiple sessions. In 2022 in-person gatherings happened in Sintra/Portugal, Sao Paulo/Brazil, New York/US, Alfter/Germany, Auray/France and Rabenstein/Austria.
During the online part besides a 3-day main program - which will be summarized more in detail below - a lot of additional online sessions were offered by beautiful people from different continents.
Below slideshow of the visual scribes Geisa created while participating in some of those additional sessions.
A brief summary of the main online sessions
DAY 1:
We sensed into the known and the unknown through the wisdom of our bodies, did some journaling on these insightful questions and shared the impact of the practice:…
When connecting to the knowledge of knowing, what impact are you sensing on your personal and social life?
Remember specific moments in life where knowing supported you?
Remember moments in life where you felt restricted/limited by knowing. How did it show up?
When connecting to the unknown, what impact are you sensing on your personal and social life?
Remember a significant moment in life where not knowing supported you.
Remember moments in life where you felt restricted/limited by the unknown. How did it show up?
Voices from the field
"It was interesting to move from the known to the unknown spaces… Instead of inhabiting space, space inhabited me… My breathing opened spaces in my body… It feels like a true move, when the space moves you" (Argentina)
“This unknown space had a soft, undulating quality…I was flowing, moving like a river…” (India)
“Our mental framing of the unknown and the known makes such a difference. Is the unknown something frightening, or a door to the mysterious? Is going into the unknown like opening Pandora's box, or is it like unwrapping a delicious chocolate egg with a toy inside?” (USA)
“When the world is falling apart all we have is each other - but each other spans the world” (Canada)
“In the known space I realized the support, love and care… and also what's restricting me... but in the unknown my movements began to open, I started to spread my wings, ready to fly and suddenly felt like a fish swimming deep in the ocean... I was just flowing and felt the beautiful world around me and gratitude for the mother earth” (India)
“All of us also sensed that the unknown was vast, and the known was limited” (USA)
Scribing of Day 1: What do we see, sense, feel?
DAY 2:
We began with a wonderful video of Earth from Space, sensing into the breathtaking beauty of our planet from the vastness of space:
With a grounding meditation we connected Earth and Space through our spine and breathed into the elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether). We then moved into a short version of the 20 Minute Dance practice.
Sensing into the qualities of our own places around the world, we began to explore our “Collective Connectivity” through a Village Dance based on the SPT practice "village" and inspired by this earth-in-space image.
The first half of the Village Dance invited us to sense deeply into what was moving through and around us, expressing it with movement and words. The earth-in-space image covered the screen. Below, some voices from the field:
“I feel my feet in the soil, our soil…Softening with love, as love… The air I breathe connects me to all life through all time… Expanding the visual field into wholeness… I feel the connection to the Earth and the Cosmos, the Oneness, as sacred…I feel the collective grief and the desire to heal in my body… Water softly cleansing, caressing… Water flowing from this abundant source… Letting go of old grief…”
The last half of the dance opened up for visual contact. We were invited to stepping back, holding the space, allowing for the unknown to emerge. As antennae of our collective connectivity, we continued sharing movement and words:
“We're learning how to step back… Many hearts, one pulse, the gift of life… Stepping back, not knowing what's behind me and trusting… Stepping back for a wider view of the whole… Feeling part of this collective soil. What will it give birth to?... I feel the energy flowing through us, whispering wise songs… I feel something light from the back. Strength, knowing I am held… Quiet confidence… Dancing in to vitality and potentiality in the unknown…Feeling light, sense of flow, I feel a safe space where I can be myself… Feeling supported and heavy, safety…Feeling the blessing of gravity…The power of doing nothing and being everything…Feeling grounded, present to what is… Uncertainty, curiosity, wonder…”
The Village Dance was followed by Journaling and a Generative Conversation:
How did I feel exploring our collective connectivity?
What shifted in my awareness when we saw each other during the dance?
Where do I resist the flow of life? How do I notice it in my daily life?
What do I need to let go of to embrace the unknown?
What am I inspired to cultivate going into the future?
“I experienced liberation from the normal boundaries of existence…we´re doing this across continents, over the world, yet intimately connected,… even more deeply connected to the planet, to life…” (Argentina)
“It feels like being in a safe space to be: in solitude within a community” (Philippines)
“Yes, and it is different to be in solitude within a community than to feel isolated in a group of people” (USA)
“I felt the sense of oneness, love and gratitude connecting the Cosmos and the Earth. I felt flowing like a river, I could feel the love connecting us as one from different zones, deeply rooted to Mother Earth. I felt the magnetic field, energy and connectivity as I danced...”
“I was feeling very connected to everyone even though I remained still… I'm going into surgery in a few days and I will need to be still… I felt my body was showing me that I´m always connected, even when I´m still”
“It took some time to drop into the dance. It was helpful to step back, to make the unknown visible, feeling its vitality and potentiality… We´re expressing what wants to emerge from the field but we´re not separate from it. We´re expressing and co-creating it at the same time… I feel so much vastness and intimacy at the same time, and gratitude for the possibilities of that”
“This dance helped me understand that we all move together. I had to resist questioning myself about what was happening and what I was doing. This is sometimes what happens: I cannot just be, I have to find a reason to be. Seeing everyone doing the same, just being, is like a network of support. I want to cultivate this: not question so much what I am doing because I don't know what happens next,…simply do it, follow the movement without stopping, and later be able to step back and see what's going on with perspective…”
“I often think that communities create practices, and this was an experience of how practice creates a sense of community. That inspires me to bring it into my life”
“What surprised me is that I'm finding myself unusually non eloquent. I discovered that eloquence is non verbal… How can I honor that unspoken, non verbal space of connection? What comes up as an image is a pool or soil in which we´re all sinking our feet and of which we are channels or antennae, we´re all accessing from it. It´s that pulse, this non verbal pulse.”
“As people were speaking I noticed there was a rhythm, not the words, but how they were coming out in rhythms, and it would increase or slow down. I feel it´s that shared source coming through us”
“Speaking of rhythm, it was a bit like a pulse for me too….The front of my body felt vulnerable and open, my right side felt strong and protected, and during the dance there were moments when I felt held and embraced, and other moments when I felt exposed…Totally yin and yang going on at the same time; there was trust, uncertainty, all these things flowing through me. I felt more self-absorbed than connected.”
“What shifted when I saw others is that I went from a knowing space of my body to the unknowing social body. I felt lightness, confusion, not knowing, not sure, less connected to body consciousness... The question is: how to be safe in that space? If I can come back to my body (the known) and be curious, that's ok…then I can sense into the social field…maybe just sitting, sensing…”
“Maybe this online network we´re using now is just a reflection of the real network that is already connecting us…”
“When I connected to my body I felt very tired. It was interesting to accept the tiredness and simply be there, not imposing myself to do anything. In stillness I realized there were thirty or more people connecting to a common purpose…I felt I was part of a contemporary tribe, I felt supported. Like in nature, I could allow myself to stop doing and naturally flow with the tribal movement”
“What am I going to bring back to my daily life beyond this community? How can I bring embodied practice to the corporate world?... This is a commitment for me. Practicing together strengthens my own confidence to bring this out to the world”
“We all had a knowing of when to take turns to speak, there was this effortless and organic flow. I´m going to hold that possibility of more of the spacious trust in the unknown and the unfolding in the organizations I work with”
“We´re always in our bodies,…we´re always antennae of our social fields,…we´re all part of different social bodies. So SPT is an everyday practice… it becomes contagious. Something happens through us when we´re aware of the field, we trust the experience and let it flow…”
Scribing of Day 2: What do we see, sense, feel?
DAY 3:
We began by sensing into the scribings of previous days:
“I sense that in facing the unknown we have each other in a state of dance…We saw dragons…I saw a dance emerging, from our bodies hearts, from the space of uncertainty, curiosity and wonder…The dance that I envision is black holes spinning into each other, a dance of death and energy redistribution… Basic trust…Reaching hands to dance in the unknown…I see two lovers dancing in the sea of love, sharing the same fire... I see roots that are blooming… Our hearts, The Heart, held in one, wide, warm ocean… I see our separate spheres intersecting beneath our feet and in the air around us… I saw us becoming and forming as one interconnected whole, I felt peaceful, I sense into my tummy, my lower spine, where all is undivided… I sense glowing connection; I see curiosity of wonder, I feel harmony… I sense togetherness of movements, I see acting from the heart with love…Unknown waters, unknown (outer) space, the familiarity of words, flowing imagery, flowing bodies, flowing fire, light and darkness…Connection with oneness, calmness and curiosity…I sense the stillness, in all the turbulence… I see and feel light...Out of the darkness of unknown come so many words, dancing and forming a dance with each other…From a nurtured soil to an ocean of free and true movement… A sense of stillness, and peace within and around…I see fire coming from Hara, I sense warm and connection…I feel gratitude and connection to humans all around the globe…I feel hopeful…SPT is a way to embrace the unknown and bring sensibility to our way of being beyond the intellectual "knows" which hide powerful and true things for a better world…I see a beautiful blue world to dance in…I feel connected to Life as a whole…Abundance of love flowing like a river and i feel like dancing to the rhythm of that natural flow…I felt completely embodied and through my body connected with the Earth and with everybody in this space…I see dancing and flying people on space, I sense peace... genuine connection. I feel spaciousness in the mid-space of the body. I sense re-organization inside and out… Inquires emerge: What is this “mid-space”? What is the “Body”? Who are WE really?...I feel connection…I see mermaids and love's enchantment…I see movement. I feel the currents. I sense the knowingness of love…”
Integration Practice: After a grounding meditation, in a standing or sitting position, we lovingly connected to Earth, feeling we were “drawing” the infinity symbol from the base of our spine, swaying softly sideways, coming and going in a natural flow. We then breathed the infinity symbol from our hearts, connecting the Open Space above us and the Earth below us, feeling the space “in between''. We became more aware of our spine, gently “pressing it” against a wall, a chair, the floor, another back…From that space we explored our “inner landscape”, our body systems, our living microcosm…
The following Journaling practice led to a rich and nutritious sharing:
As you connected to your inner landscape and your body systems moving in space, what element felt more present?
What challenged/surprised you?
Was there a color or shape?
What happened as we moved from inside out while connected to the Earth body and the space in-between?
Voices from the field:
What element felt more present? “Water…Earth…Energy of the body…Water and earth…Space… Air…Water…Air and light (not sure that is an element)…Earth…Earth connecting to thousands of generations of ancestors…Ether…Energy field of the body, air and water… Wind: air in movement…”
What challenged/surprised you? “The erotic pleasure of making figure 8 from the seat of the body…Containing my body in a moving shape 8…It felt more intense to connect back to back to physical Body while being in the same space…You don't heal with carelessness… Surprised that fluid mobility in one direction felt unfamiliar in the other…The interconnection between Earth Body and spine…A shift in my relationship with the word “pressure”: noticed a softening with “pressure”…I felt soothed by the infinity movement, I could finally relax in being, by feeling supported by our contact spine to spine…Spine to spine is magic… What challenges us is the pressure of past and relationship, but felt is eased off and became softer
Was there a color or shape? “Blue and red became a kind of green leaf color… vibrant sunset yellow wings…”
What happened as we moved from inside out while connected to the Earth body and the space in-between? “Potential for softness…A shouting energy happened as moving in/out… A longing, tender and warm…The “pushing" sense of wanting to be (into space) shifted to “pulling" into becoming accepted and enveloped by space. Resting in and as space the way I rest in the ground….I felt a quality of suppleness in between each vertebrae... feeling of possibility of change from the inside out… Healing and complete protection as I moved inside out. A sparkling energy field around and within every cell of my body…High potential for creativity, open to what flows…The feeling of radiating from my spine, it has always been radiating from the heart 360° in some practices, but the power of the back was amazing…What surprised me is the fluidity of my body and the 8 helped me to feel the connection within and the unknown…
Body sculpture: We closed the practice taking a shape that mirrors our co-evolving emergence, our collective connectivity. What did we see, sense, feel? Where did we feel it in our body?
“I felt comfort…I felt like a tree, harnessing light, wind, air water and soil…Playful…My gesture shows that I am ready to open up and be vulnerable but I still need to take care of myself…Felt like flying in the air and swimming deep into the ocean: connection between both, relaxing…Play…Holding and forming…Trust, appreciation, and a weaving together of myself in this moment. Beautiful…I felt it in my heart and hands…A progression: holding close to the heart, to offering/sharing intimately, to channeling the unknown and letting it run through me and flow out of me…I feel we are close, we are one…Further opening and feeling my heart awake…I felt it in my heart, hands and feet…Ready to let it come, be aware of openness, curiosity…I feel I am relaxing in and with the unfolding…At home in my body and heart I encounter the unknown with courage, curiosity & love…I also feel opening up and embracing…I feel no words… Sense of calmness and balance within…A flowing heart connection from myself to you all, flowing back and forth, a moving flow in motion, like a dance, like a river that is flowing warmly through me and beyond...I felt gentle pressure behind the heart, giving the heart permission to soften…Individual heart and collective heart softly smiling…With one arm, expressing the pathways carved by shared practice, new and soothing. With the other arm the connection, holding space together. Softness. The whole body moving, engaged. I felt soft and supported. Childlike playfulness. Dance, water, earth…I am here to engage and co-create. I feel the connection a big YES…Reaching up, reaching down, generations past and future through the continuum of the heart…Shyness, interest, trusting while feeling insecure, commitment to shared values….trusting a universal sense of belonging…Trust coming from the immediate physical experience, even when we don't know one another over a long time…Moving from breakout to main session is like a tidal rhythm, from the small tide pool to the vast ocean…I am still in the flow, feeling the music and rhythm within and around…The screen is only there to synchronize our attention… This big light of love we all spread around and share around the globe…”
Day 3 Scribing: What do we see, sense, feel?
We ended Day 3 with a dancing celebration of our joint exploration.
Below slideshow of Geisa beautifully reflect what happened during all three days.
Next steps:
Movalogue´s core team, (we call ourselves Firekeepers) is sensing that Movalogue is evolving as its own being nourishing all of us in a surprising way. After years of seeding and continuous caring it a stable trunk has grown and first fruits hang on the branches. Now tapping into a regenerative (autumn/winter) phase we are collectively enjoying the fruits, resting a bit, sharing stories around the fire and softly sensing into the question: What is further wanting to emerge through Movalogue?
We are practically doing this by meeting in our monthly Open Movalogue Calls, which became a beautiful and nurturing holding space where the richness of practicing together surprised us every time. It strengthened our capacity to cultivate our expanded awareness, to flow from Presence in our daily lives, trusting the emerging wisdom, weaving the interconnected web of life we´re all apart of. We discovered that Movalogue is less about our individual intentions and needs, but about tapping into the collective WE which includes the individual, social and earth body, which we feel very attuned to Otto Scharmer´s article about Protecting the Flame.
You are very welcome to join us in this co-creative phase we´re diving into by joining our monthly open calls, which take place every 3rd Tuesday.
Hope to see you there!
Your Movalogue Firekeepers
Summarized and assembled from the Movalogue '22 chats by Patricia Scott
with support of Judy Voruz, Jennifer Cheng, Lakshminarayanan and Dirk Bräuninger
enriched by the poetic abundance of Allie Middleton
visualized by the artistic beauty of Movalogue's resident scribes Geisa Paganini de Mio, Denise Cunha Sobrinho and Petra Borgmann Durrie
inspired by the many contributions as part of Movalogue's love in action initiative in English, Spanish and Portuguese and finally
with great gratitude for all the beautiful people joining and co-creating such a diverse field of emergence
Allie’s poem from the chat after meditation
Firing up the universal sound with silence and space.
Day 1
Lands and languages interpreting stillness and movement,
welcoming the known
and
the unknown.
From the space of infinity we explore silence
from the time of color and elements
we dance into the spaces,
inside and out.
Linking, Landing and Locating,
a certain basic something appears,
each moment embodying
the eternal yet present,
Now.
Movements in life,
each personal yet social,
now gathering through beauty
together and locally,
globally here, now.
…And a voice emerges…
“It’s interesting to move in life
even while inhabited
by the unknown!”
…while another voice, “it is practice that creates community!”
we wonder as we wander,
What is this inside and outside space,
breathing in and out, opening within and without,
among and between the all and everything?
As the world falls we all fall
into each other and
each other spans
the world.
Knowing space, being space
realizing the support of the spine,
love and care spread. Water water everywhere!
Day 2
Now flying with wings,
yet as fish swimming deep
into the ocean blue,
we flow and feel
the beautiful world
around us,
honoring with gratitude
our mother, the Earth.
Sensing in and dropping off,
we make marks with our bodies
our hearts and our hands
as language colors everything
and we sing and dance
the elements
as they flow in and through
and all around.
Firing up the universal sound with silence and space.
Renaming then as fire keepers all,
allowing and honoring each other,
bowing with gratitude toward something,
moving our sails into the wind,
welcoming learning and listening
loving and cultivating
more embodied voices.
Day 3
Energy and collective connectivity dancing together now.
Safely, spaciously in solitude within our community
emerging from the unknown, with the unknown, still the as yet unknown,
we sing and sit streaming,
ribbons of intention
coloring our deep,
simply starting with nothing.
Just waves, streams of embodied simplicity
connecting through silence and presence and movement,
arising in togetherness,
watching and sensing and resonating
as flames clear and clean us away.
With stillness as the foundation of it all!
A living experience going on in multiple channels,
translating with grace, having tea together
in person and virtually,
sipping in everyone and everything,
facing the unknown together
as we savor each other in a state of dance.
Fin
Resonating now with a relaxed stance
having each other’s backs,
the basic trust of hands reaching
and dancing into the unknown,
hearts held as one wide warm ocean,
music streams and forms an interconnected whole.
We hear peace, we see peace,
we see and feel and sense
our bodies as undivided.
As one.
Now a quality of water and
familiar fluidity of words
flowing with imagery as bodies
light the fire
in the darkness.
And out of the darkness
a spark of the unknown dances toward…
Nurturing us with free oceans of
true movement
and nurtured soil.
Peace and stillness
fire up the connection of gratitude
to humans
with hope streaming
all around the globe.
Reflecting the sound.
our sensibilities move
beyond the powerful knowing
toward wheels turning true and blue,
we reconnect to all living now and new.
Each moment simply a dark night
filled with bright stars,
our red hearts embracing
the beautiful planet earth, pumping
abundant love, flowing like a river
dancing dancing dancing
from infinity to beyond!
Yes, the interconnection of elements
through bodies and spines,
relaxed and activated
by contact and touch.
With felt pressure of sitting with potential,
the portals opening for softening
as pulling and healing breathe a space
sparking energy in our spines
as fields around the cells brighten
within and without,
new worlds of music fluidly emerging
as contact with shapes in space
express gestures from spheres
of collective connectivity.
Each one close now and each one separate
now as each offers and shares intimately, eternally
channeling into the unknown and back again.
No words
yet trusting the abundance
and play.
Shyness now moving toward interest
trusting the soil
as boundaries dissolve
and immediate lived physical experience
shares the big light of love
spread all around.
Death and dying now and living and laughing now
as one heart abounds, rebounding with emergence.