(The glossary is a collection where we put together notes and terms from our work.)
Telepathic movement/moving together in different places
This strategy and form of regular practice (a form of joint training) has formed because of the impossibility of being physically together in one place. The more indeterminate the prospect of us getting to the same place has become, the greater the desire to find another form for moving together.
The inspiration of telepathic movement came from the Romanian choreographer Alexandra Pirici. During Pandemic (from March 2020 ) she offered a common time of movement in different places without the need to visualize each other in 2D. This was for all those who had read her Facebook-Post and felt like moving together with her and her friends to the previously shared playlist for half an hour. As Pirici writes on her Facebook-Profile:
"We want to discourage giving into the immediate, market-driven demand to sacrifice everything in order to continue without pausing, turning any art medium, form of encounter, learning, exchange or practice into a flat online experience. This attempt is about being together in isolation, or more precisely imagining/imagining togetherness."
MFK´s practise of telepathic movement is not about an "open event" (which would also be possible). We know who is moving to the particular playlist at the appointed time. Through music, we share the same rhythmic environment to which our bodies respond. In an act of trust that the others are also moving , an imaginary dancing-together is created. Through this imagination, my body responds not only to the rhythm but also to the projection of the other bodies.
Movement, Mobilization
What moves me, the three of us, our environment? Where is something moving? Is anything moving at all? Where should something actually move? How can we bring into motion what has become fixed ?
A political movement, choreographed movement, modern dance with youtube, sitting on the train, turning a page, being emotionally moved, feeling something, getting into a rage, imagining beating someone up, a wave of confessions, moving others, lifting my partner's arm, taking a direction, going home, to the market, following a hunch, a feeling, an idea, closing our eyes, the seasons, shaking off the unpleasant, a shudder, living next to the highway, keeping an eye on the clock, ...
Fever Dreams, Weirdness, Glitch
Something doesn't fit. An uncomfortable emotional state on a small or large stage of everyday life, we all know it. Stay in that uncomfortable thing, delay the moment, stretch it out, stay in that place of your body that hurts so uncomfortably but can also be the gateway into your fever dreams. For example: the face (accidentally) a grimace. The places with their respective consensus precede you. Resist the comfort of moving away. Staying inside unsuitability. It is about creating pleasure in confrontation with inadequacy. It's about the potential to take a turn into uncanny strangeness at this point and dive into it.
Lust, Sensation, Erotics, Knowledge
The following comes from Sara Ahmeds book Living a Feminist Life:
"The role of sensation in the process of knowledge creation (...)".
What role does sensation play in my knowing? First of all, consequently recognize that knowledge necessarily arises sensually. Without the ability of sensuality there is no perception at all. What place is assigned to sensual feeling, sensory sensations, apart from hegemonic cultural-scientific practices such as reading and writing, in the scientific matrix?
Somewhere outside the recognition zone, it passes no test!
The resistant in the pleasurable: Inefficiency, expenditure, surrender. Audre Lorde speaks in her essay Uses of the Erotic of eroticism as devotion, as "power" and "knowledge". To pay attention to one's own "deepest world of feeling" and to discover the "unintentional power against fear" in it. Such an Eros experience is an experience of knowing that it is possible to love someone or something, which Audre Lorde calls "deep understanding".
Muscles, Fighting
Simone de Beauvoir describes in "The Second Sex" how the ban on wrestling and fighting, on athletic activities at all, which is often pronounced for girls, can lead to a body feeling of passivity, but that confidence in oneself depends essentially on confidence in one's own body. Muscle building and brawling as an activating, empowering exercise: muscle, fighting experiences as support for the inner attitude of being challenged. Practicing initiative, encouraging (each other) in making one's own impact on the world. Strengthening myself by strengthening my body. Watching and enjoying the changes. The possibility of knocking someone down if I want to. Challenging each other in strength exercises, wanting to outdo and become stronger.
Public
Very simple, there is free public in public places. Public is an area of life (on/offline) that is accessible to everyone. According to the day of the week and the time of the day, in a public place there is sometimes more sometimes less public, which first of all anyone can look at, stay in and thus become part of. Visibility in the public then means to step out of its generality within the public. This exit can happen willingly or unwillingly, depending on the characteristics and self-understanding of generality. The knowledge about the parameters of the respective general often expresses itself on the level of feelings and is not general at all. (...)
Embarrassment, a little blast
Laughter, exuberance, exaggeration. Contagion among each other, challenging each other, rejoicing in what my partners are doing.
The desire to put on a show for others. To be surprised in vulnerable situations. Sometimes smooth, then bumpy. Being observed. Inviting spectators. The question of representable abilities does not lead far. I don't care what it looks like. Nevertheless, I am not free from the knowledge of the power of the gaze. Being seen in inadequacy. Embarrassment may have something to do with the painful feeling of insufficient mastery of a technique. Embarrassing moments, expandable to permanent states where the desire to do and present something incomplete, deficient is greater than adherence to rehearsed technique or sequence.
Uncoordinated, disorganized, uncontrolled activity. Ideally, you can let yourself go. Composure, control, loss.
It makes me uncomfortable. I fear the judgmental gaze of onlookers. Don't overplay emotional states. It's visible anyway.
Training, Rehearsal, Practice, Exercise
The term training is used preferably used for MFK meetings. Other possible names would be rehearsal, practice, or exercise. Training has the merit of sounding like a regular, strenuous, athletic, group dynamic thing. Training also always means preparation.
Practice on the ball field. We practice playing, rehearsing. Playing and rehearsing are both not serious, in this situation I can do something according to the rules of the game without knowing what it will have meant from later on. A trial of one's own possibilities.
We move in a model space of another reality brought forth by the power of imagination. Our training marks a practice space apart from rational-logical contexts. Training becomes practice when it is not about increase but about continuity. In training you want, among other things, to become better. Our bodies should become stronger, more precise in their movements.But first of all we train the communication between our bodies and our bodies and their sourrounding. Training a different way of dealing with each other, not talking to each other so much. Practice: It's part of my week now, my daily routines. Practice takes time. It comes with time and practice(s), the again and again and again.