INVITING IN MOVEMENT, WE TRY TO PHYSICALLY FLOCK TOGETHER, A DANCE IMPROVISATION US CO-FACILITATORS INTRODUCE WHICH RAISES EYEBROWS AND SEEMS TO CEMENT SOME DEEPER INTO DESKS.
found even fleeting pockets of head nodding relatability) noticeably helped shift the reception of us female guests in the room about whom the multiple authorities pres- ent made several reminders to respect and obey. For the majority of boys in the session who have to take heavy psychotropics daily at the center, the drumming appeared to create a kind of contagious mood that made it more possible to be present and at the least, stay awake. We leaned actively on the words of brown as we faced an unknown experience, seeking primarily to connect and support the groups of beautiful teens in front of us, whom we were warned “came from deeply troubled homes” and that were “very difficult.” brown’s “Less prep, more presence” guided us to “move at the speed of trust” as we explained that we came to talk about a book that we found personally helpful and wanted to share, and that we found personal joy and freedom through dance and music, so that was how we wanted to connect and play with them. We introduced ourselves, the text, and each activity amidst a near constant stream of jokes, between the teens, and also, distractingly, from the offi- cers in the room. On day 1, an officer joined our circle to support the music making and conversation, and the result was something gorgeously connective, but on day 2, several new officers lingered in the back and walked through the circle as they focused on their tasks (and teasing jokes). One joke eventually escalated as a teen took the bait an officer laid for him, grabbing a forbidden pen, invit- ing physical retribution that cascaded into a full fight as other officers and teens jumped in. Concern was high in the room because we were present throughout the prov- ocation, and the teens were visibly and verbally upset about the fairness of this experience. Leaving room for breath, we moved slowly as staff instructed us to con- tinue the lesson. Guided by brown to be present, and that “change is constant, be like water”, we shifted back to the text, which offered us a framework for what was unfolding in the room. “Trust the people and they become trustworthy.” This concept had played out pain- fully clear just moments before: a taunt became a fight that ended after the facility’s Captain came in to reassure the group that he understood what happened and was dealing with the offending officer. He brought the fighter back in and thanked him for his calmness after such an experience. The contrast between his respect shown to the Captain or the officers with rapport, prompted our group reflection on trust. brown helped us flip the
traditional script around “earning” trust with giving trust, and that seemed useful for us to explore and to establish some understanding. Most people in the room resonated with this idea, even though it went in the face of what some might have previously thought or said. Not only did we talk through how this could be true, we had witnessed it. The choice to work with brown’s text was an organic one between us co-facilitators as a kind of extension of other themes and source materials we have worked with in the past. Sessions together here during past vis- its engaged Robin G. Kelly’s Freedom Dreams , and Black feminist abolitionist anthems of “We keep us safe”. These were guiding texts for our own life and movement explorations, and they supported us in the invitation to “lead a dance workshop” at the youth detention center. The juxtaposition of themes around freedom, safety, and radical imagination seemed big and ambitious, but we and the youth found them to be a logical place to begin. What else could be more rele- vant in such a place? We like that brown calls us readers to create focus groups of all kinds, building/mapping/creating in all the ways we can imagine, and especially encourages us to underline the text and pass it to younger generations. 9 For teens sitting in jail as for the two of us, this capac- ity to continue imagining, continue “re-rooting” in the earth, in creativity, and in community… having visions that are longterm” as brown does seems especially important. 10 We could not “plan” for these workshops any more than we can plan for life in this world. We can only face it with the skills we have, like birds preparing to migrate. brown reminds us that birds do this incredi- ble feat without packing or maps, with simply a lifetime of learning and a legacy of experience built into our bodies. We remind ourselves and the youth of this [our] capacity as we spend a few hours with them, leading a “dance class.” We learn that these youth spend an average of twen- ty-one days at the center. There they take classes in Math, Language Arts, and Life Skills while waiting to meet with a judge to assess their case. Some are for- mally adjudicated, receiving probation, a mandatory diversion program, or a move to a residential program for evidence-based treatments. Others receive designa- tion as “adjudication withheld”, the judge absolving
flight: “Some of us can be the birds, some the bird watchers…” This lets out air and a small handful of us move into position, like brown writes, “staying separate not to crowd each other”, 5 following the one in front, modulating our speed to keep the group together. A cou- ple rounds in, through the false starts and giggles, we stop to ask the bird watchers what they notice. “Team- work” one says, “Sync” another says and heads nod. We take it back to the text. “Birds don’t make a plan to migrate, raising resources to fund their way, packing for scarce times, mapping out their pit stops.” We read and discuss each line. “They feel a call in their bodies that they must go, and they follow it, responding to each other, each bringing their adaptations”. 6 This inspires the next thought. I, Hannah, call back the goofy backbend I did in the first minutes of circling up, teasing-bragging-confessing I am turning 43 yrs old and still like to play. “Like more than ever before! The way I do it is my own thing, my own adaptation!” Eyes on me, I continue, “What do I know now at 43 yrs old? That I’d willingly negotiate a lot in my life, my contract, my schedule, my work-life balance, but not my uniqueness.” Yes, I add, this place insists on a certain kind of cohesion; same clothes, same food, same schedule, same everything, seemingly, and there is a logic to that too, a concept of consequences, a concept of structure., But this flocking art reminds that even and maybe especially here, we can find something in our sync that -- far from punishment -- is a kind of emergence, a kind of system that asks each of us to find our own way through. “Emergence is beyond what the sum of its parts could even imagine,” brown writes and we then discuss. After all, as she goes on, “ A group of caterpillars or nymphs might not see flight in their future, but it’s inevitable. It’s destiny.” 7
The session was the third in this month’s return to the youth detention center in our North Florida town. The earlier two sessions were with the boy’s group, about half of whom were present both days. With them, we spend the time exploring brown’s core principles in the study and practice of emergent strategy, copied here to ignite something in the reader, too:
Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.) Change is constant. (Be like water).
There is always enough time for the right work. There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it. Never a failure, always a lesson. Trust the People. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy). Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships. Less prep, more presence. What you pay attention to grows. 8 The rap-poem that emerged from group discussion then found its rhythmic accompaniment in the drumming call and response pounded on desks. The hollow middle of the bathroom door rattled a deep base type heart beat, while short pencils on metal table legs added a bell. Some used the meaty part of the hand to build the musical changes while others joined in with palm slaps for accents. Across the circle danced fast fingertips for a high-toned tap. Find- ing rhythm together seemed to make more room for active participation than discussion, and the cohesion of the group sound (a collective groove of polyrhythms that
9 brown, 9. She invites readers to “play with all of these observations and their own, add to it, discard what doesn’t serve, and keep innovating.” 10 ibid.
5 brown, 12. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.
8 brown, 27.
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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