Quintessence of the Body is Experience . . .
Ken Gilbert
Pondering this last week of Nia and “Integrating Pilates” Classes, Pilates Sessions and the after-glow of DramaDogs’ staged reading of THE BOONDAWGLE ESTATE at the Santa Barbara PlayFest, I wonder about the work that I do . . .
“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties; in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?”
– William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
Inside the artist and creative processes, methods, and techniques of DramaDogs, from its inception as Slightly Askew Players, the practice and essence of the body is expression.
From the moment I chose to become a theatre artist, I believed that we live in a body of thoughts, feelings and actions that demonstrate our personal and fundamental “grace”. How we live in our body establishes how we feel about ourselves in our actions as we step into the world around us.
For me, experience is the epicenter of all that is, even in the mental and spirit realms of “higher consciousness” we live in a body of sensations and feelings; sinking and rising through any moment.
I choose to create experiences that will affect me; shaping my present moment and the moments that are to come. I am choosing to take risks in the unknown; to jump in with both feel and trust that I will land fully embodied – body, mind and spirit.
The quintessence of my body is my experience of thought, feeling and action – this is who I am – as a person and a somatic teacher.
Photo: Forte Fotos