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- My Body, The Buddhist
A premiere choreographer's compelling argument for the agency of the body in creative processes.
Through a series of imaginative approaches to movement and performance, choreographer Deborah Hay presents a profound reflection on the ephemeral nature of the self and the body as the locus of artistic consciousness. Using the same uniquely playful poetics of her revolutionary choreography, she delivers one of the most revealing accounts of what art creation entails and the ways in which the body, the center of our aesthetic knowledge of the world, can be regarded as our most informed teacher.
My Body, The Buddhist becomes a way into Hay's choreographic techniques, a gloss on her philosophy of the body (which shares much with Buddhism), and an extraordinary artist's primer. The book is composed of nineteen short chapters ("my body likes to rest," "my body finds energy in surrender," "my body is bored by answers"), each an example of what Susan Foster calls Hay's "daily attentiveness to the body's articulateness."
Foreword – Susan Leigh Foster
Acknowledgements
Introduction
My Body Benefits in Solitude
My Body Finds Energy in Surrender
My Body Enjoys Jokes, Riddles, and Games
My Body Engages in Work
My Body Commits to Practice
My Body Seeks Comfort But Not For Long
My Body is Limited by Physical Presence
My Body Knowingly Participates in its Appearances
My Body Likes Rest
My Body is Bored by Answers
My Body Seeks More Than One View of Itself
My Body Delights in Resourcefulness
My Body Trusts the Unknown
My Body Feels Weightless in the Presence of Paradox
My Body Equates Patience with Renewal
My Body Hears Many Voices, Not One Voice
My Body Relaxes When Thoughts Abate
My Body is Held in the Present
A Chronicle of Performance Practices by Deborah Hay
DEBORAH HAY's choreography, from exquisitely meditative solos to dances for large groups of untrained and trained dancers, explores the nature of experience, perception, and attention in dance, and has received numerous awards. Her previous books are Lamb at the Altar (1994) and Moving Through the Universe in Bare Feet (1975). SUSAN FOSTER is Professor of Dance History at UC-Riverside and author of Choreography and Narrative (1998) and Reading Dancing (1988).
"This book is a fascinating record of what it takes to find a dance. Ms. Hay writes frankly and intimately about looking and seeing; and noticing what many people who work in dance have learned to ignore. I am skeptical of magic, but somehow there is magic in the way she conjures her beautiful dances. A pleasure and a kind surprise."
~Mark Morris
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