Mariana Hilgert

It is nice to create action in the world! Welcome, new project!

[POEMA DE CORPO]

Uma oficina sobre práticas de corpo e ação no mundo.

Toda prática é um caminho.

Não em linha reta, mas costurado por desvios, onde se cruzam silêncio, repetição, pessoas, alegria, ritmo, frustração, concentração, repetição.

Toda prática é um caminho no mundo.

O que nos leva à prática é a curiosidade.
O que nos mantém na prática é a infinitude. Aprender é infinito.

Poema de corpo é uma oficina criada e dirigida por mim, Mariana. Nessa terceira edição, exploramos diferentes práticas de movimento e como, com elas, podemos agir no mundo.

Estudamos princípios que nos ajudem a explorar mundos.
Estudamos também o jardim de casa e a rua da frente.
Criamos um tempo com qualidades do mar.

Viramos verbo: faz força, sacode, equilibra, br**ca, silencia, descansa, tensiona, estica, dobra, dorme.

E pode ser que, no meio disso tudo, a gente esbarre, sem querer, na poesia que a gente já é.

Vamos conversar, pensar, agir. Alguns dos temas: auto-responsabilidade; movimento e o parque perto de casa; práticas e hábitos; como aprender melhor; repertório de movimento; articulação e amplitude de movimento (SROMP); princípios de trabalho com chão, força, equilíbrio e pessoas; a

O curso é aberto a todo mundo com interesse em práticas de movimento, com experiência ou não. A oficina tem duração de 6 horas, com intervalo de 1,5h. O valor da oficina é de R$150, e R$100 para alunos da escola.

Frames of a dance in an empty house. And emotions.

# Time
Sometimes I dream that I
am doing these crazy things. Recently I was climbing a wall with one finger. Many times I dreamed I was doing very high jumps.

On a level, an idea is also a dream. Something happening in our mind, in our bodies, but not yet in the world.

And just like dreams, an idea can stay in ourselves. Or it can touch the world.

I had one day this idea of dancing the experiences of time. The very slow. The very fast. Jonas agreed to support me and we took a morning to explore some textures. He got amazing shots. And from all the pictures, this is the one where I can sense the texture of time the most.

Jonas asked me to climb this white pole on an empty parking lot. Very confidently I did it, and once I had my both feet on it, I noticed it: I am scared.

And then: the presence.

Time is just… a presence.

My heart was beating fast.
My feet were moving very slowly.
I was breathing out longer than usually.
It took me a few minutes to stand up.

Fear makes us face this presence.

Time is never just time.
It is something you can decide to notice. Or not.

The silence between two people walking.
A hug.
Sitting next to a stranger in the train.
Caressing someone’s hair.

Time is there. This presence. Sometimes a whisper, sometimes a thunder.

Time does not live in a clock but in our experiences.

In the last 2 weeks Tara and spent hours tasting the water of each other’s practice.

We got introduced and introduced each other to principles of movement, coordinative patterns, games, ideas.

Our departure point was, we thought, so different — Tara coming from martial arts, me from dancing. But the more we met, the more clear it became that we were never really far. Because there was one thing, one specific thing that was to us and our practices very common: what we do is to us a source of joy.

And joy is a space. A space to be shared.

Sometimes we gotta go away to remind ourselves about what home really is.

The pictures show a few moments from our showing last Friday, 12th August, in front of the Bürgerhaus at Schlaatz, in Potsdam. They were taken by the very generous eyes of Jonas.

Thank you again for the beautiful opportunity.

10 days. Good days. Intense days. Making spaces turn into our inspiration, skin, joy. Friday, 12th August, at 5PM .iris and I will do a showing of our first research project “the sacred is space” at Bürger Haus im Schlaatz. Everyone is welcome to join!

day 5. maybe. exploring the world of rituals. another expedition together with .iris within our research .

“The sacred is space” is an island of mats. Day 1 of research at Bürgerhaus am Schlaatz.

In the upcoming week .iris and I start our residency in the frame of DIR - Dance in Residence Brandenburg, in Potsdam.

We will swim in the waters of dance and martial arts and bring shape, shade and movement to our research project “the sacred is space“. We will end our research with a viewing and a workshop for school students.

I will share a few snippets from the project in the upcoming weeks. Let the dialogue start.

The paths are everywhere. Fointainebleu 2022.

A few branches above the ground. Fontainebleu 2022.

A few years ago an old childhood friend of my came for a short visit to Berlin. She was doing a trip around the world by herself. Visiting places, encountering people, asking questions. Her trip was backed by a honest process of observing where the wind was taking her, evaluating and changing the direction of the boat. She stepped into the unknown with a backpack and the courage of those who don't know, but are willing to learn.

Back in the days we used to go to the same school. We were good friends, I remember, and had both a great joy in writing (we even put together a short book on worms on the 3rd grade. Yes, on worms). We were bound through the written word. And through an unfiltered creativity.

At some point we also started to dance together. Dancing also accompanied us for many years until we went onto different paths and sort of lost ourselves of sight.

On that one day when we met again in Berlin, 15 years without much contact, we went to a dance class together. I was practicing Gaga regularly back then, and thought it would be a nice thing to do. I also knew the space of a dance class was familiar to both of us and probably a good place to meet each other again beyond the spoken word.

And then she told me she hasn’t been dancing for a while.

I don't remember the exactly the whys, but I do remember feeling very touched by being there with her on that day. It seems that what connected us was also the responsibility to remind each other about what matters. What is important. What brings us into life.

Being with her there felt like introducing her to an old friend. At first, a bit shy and cautious. A few minutes later, at ease. Swimming in that familiar feeling.

The feeling of dance.
Warm. Generous.Creative.

After the class we talked about what we have been doing, the school times, the book on the worms. And just like me, she felt like dancing and writing, even if absent, belonged to the forces that gave her strength and purpose. I agreed with her. 15 later, this still made sense.

That which bonds one person to another is mysterious and wise.

There are people who enjoy travelling, going out and about, being in the move as much as they enjoy sitting quiet and doing nothing. They don’t see one or the other state as better or more worthy. They don’t think they have to choose between one or the other.

They value the range.

Being out and about is different than doing nothing. Nevertheless they are deeply interrelated. They are expressions of an underlying character of our nature: our ability to change states.

Changing states: this is part of our human experience.

It is a bit of a blind assumption but I notice that people who are curious about dancing are often fascinated by ranges of life experience.

The moving and the quiet. But also the loud and the silent. The unknown and the familiar. The close and the far.

Maybe because dancing itself invites one to travel through different states. To explore, to be curious, knowing that every state has its own spirit to be appreciated.

Dancing is range.

It is an adaptable space, a room of its sorts that gives its people access to being much more than the job, the role in the family, the fears, the angers.
It gives its people access to feel so much more.
It gives its people access to what is there, without cutie-eyes-filter.

And this is a beautiful work to do.

RESPONSIBILITY.

I carry responsibility.
And responsibility carries me.

It gives me energy.
It gives me purpose and strength to continue.

I carry it it on my shoulders.
And it carries my whole heart.

If you keep reading poems waiting that this will lead you day to start writing them one day, one day I suggest you is to toss your poetry books away (at least for some time), grab some paper and start writing.

Consuming creativity is not the same as creating.

Looking at the fruit is not the same as making the juice.

Climb the tree, grab the fruit and use your hands to do what you want to do.

I am fascinated by German words. One specifically caught my attention this week and made me think. It is the word "Vorbilder". It means role models. But if you look closer, you might discover some exciting aspects that do not become visible in the translation.

You have here "vor-", a prefix that means, in this case, "in front of". And you have "Bilder", plural of "Bild", which stands for image. Vorbilder are, therefore, the images one puts in front of his or her eyes.

And what you put in front of you is what you see.

That is what gets your attention.

That is what ends up influencing your thoughts, your expectations on life, on yourself, and how you go about in this world.

Are you aware about the images you put in front of you?

And: Are you aware about the images put in front of you by others?

It can be a nice think to have role models. People you admire and that inspire you. People that give you new perspectives and trigger in you the will to grow. But the inevitable question is: What do you admire? And why? What is important? And what is set as important, as a model in front of your eyes?

If you have a high social media exposure, you are getting images, models set in front of your eyes. All the time. It is not only your friends, family or close community that are modelling their lives and thoughts for you, but the whole world.

If you don't know what is relevant for your life, if you have no clarity on your values, social media might become a dangerous jungle you will very likely get lost into.

You have to be awake.

Challenge your "Vorbilder". Question why you admire the people you admire. Challenging the ideas, values, stories, "truths" that are set in front of you is essential in a world where our attention is currency. Challenge it in social media but also from your teachers, your friends, your family, the newspaper, the television.

Your attention is worth a lot.
Don't stay stuck in the worthlessness, in the it-is-not-about-me-ism. You are here, you matter, and your attention does.

If you don't decide what is important, others will decide for you.
Above you see a pic I took from the smurfs doing their things.

Notes on what a practice can be.

Primeiro follow along em português ou, em tradução bem bonita: vídeo pra fazer junto! Um pedaço do pedaço da nossa prática . Muito do que publico aqui vem dessas experiências. E em inglês, muitas vezes, já que a maioria dos alunos com quem encontro aqui não falam a língua que é do Manoel de Barros, da minha tia Nara, da minha sobrinha Catarina e minha também. Fazer esses vídeos é voltar pra casa estando em casa. É resolver o dilema em partes. É uma baita alegria.

Então: Você vai clicar no link (que ta no meu linktree) e vai aparecer eu ali, de calça verde e camiseta cinza, dizendo: oi, eu sou a Mariana. Não se deixem enganar pelo nome inglês, o follow along. Só quer dizer: pra fazer junto. A mãe vai fazer. A tia Nara também e a tia Vera, com certeza! Pra Mi e pra Du vou mandar o link, pra que a tia Gema também faça. Vou enviar pro Eduardo, a Marina e a Roberta, as queridonas e a Daiane e a Moni e o baile segue. Talvez você também queira fazer junto. Ia ser legal. E vão vir mais 19 por aí. Que legal compartilhar com quem for fazer junto o que faz tanto sentido pra mim.

Attention.

When you are so busy with yourself, you might forget the world.
When you are so busy with the world, you might forget yourself.

If you are busy dealing with whatever issues, you might forget that your house also needs care.

That people around you are important and you would actually enjoy spending more time with them.

That conversations need time to happen.

That walking in the forest makes you feel more alive.

You might forget that “interesting” is not an intrinsic quality of a thing or a person, but a matter of giving yourself time to stay and swim in the waters. It is a matter of attention.

I live in a big house with 5 other people. We share a lot of the daily duties and we do a good job taking care of the house. Still, we are quite often very busy with our own issues that we sometimes end up just forgetting things.

We forget to water the plants around the house.
We forget to clean the corners of the walls.
We forget to chop wood and repair a light bulb that broke a few months ago and bring the old bottles out.

We also forget to light a candle.
We forget to play the piano.

We even forget to go into the garden at night and marvel at the stars.

It is not that we keep forgetting these things because we just have a bad memory or are lazy or don’t have time. Again: It is a matter of attention.

How much attention can we give to things that are important to us and we really want to preserve in our life?

This a longer text. I don’t serve instagram but the spirit of texf. You can read it on my website.

ON STARTING A PRACTICE

Your brain will tell you you cannot do things.
You have to create evidence of the opposite.
It helps doing things that are easy at first so that they can be easily repeated.
Practicing with little resistance.
This is important in the beginning. Like this your brain will understand you can do it.

Repetition is important.
One time is not enough to learn anything in depth.
You gotta keep doing whatever it is long enough so it becomes part of your system.
With time you can increase the resistance and do harder things and this will not put your practice into risk.
Because it does not feel alien anymore.
It is not outside of you.
It becomes you.

This applies to any practice.

A personal example: I have started a practice of tracking my menstrual cycle 8 months ago. Everyday I dedicate a small moment of reflection on how I felt throughout the day, energy level, digestion, how I felt during my physical training etc. In the beginning I wrote just one or two words, just before going to bed. Some days I would skip it because I forgot, I didn’t feel like, or my brain would tell me I have no time. There are so many reasons to give up. I had to navigate these noises and remind myself of the big why. It is a practice I aim to take for my life to support my body literacy (fancy term for the ability of understanding and listening to the body) and my enthusiasm for the amazingness of the body. By now I created quite some evidence for my brain I can do this. And it is much easier to just do it - no need to convince myself of the relevance of it and how good it is for me. It is not outside of me anymore.

Tension and relaxation (2/2)

The two actions - tensioning and relaxing - seem to be disproportional when it comes to hours of practice.

One is our second skin.

The other one - letting go of the tension - is also to a certain level intuitive but not in the same amount. In order to relax you have to actually decide to do it, intentionally. You have to learn it.

Some people complain that relaxing is hard. Of course it is. Think of how hard we spend the day becoming high level stiff. Relaxing (which goes hand in hand with becoming soft and mobile) is pretty counter intuitive and demands a big effort of our brains. But, let’s look at a scatological example: if you just eat and never go to the toilet it feels awful. Same principle applies to 8 hours of sitting on the chair. The underlying truth with intended pun: you have to let go.

What is beautiful about relaxing is that is starts already when you notice the tension.

Noticing and letting go.

Noticing is the practice of practices.

PS: There are many practices that can support relaxation. Some I have experienced myself and can reccomend:

Feldenkrais
Stretch Therapy
Body-Stress release
Breathing work
Body scan
Shaking
Arm swings
Being in the water
and other 1000 ones

Many of them also influence the work I do in my dance coaching and in the coaching and group training .

Also if you want specific recomendation for practitioners of the three first practices mentioned above, please write me.

Tension and relaxation (1/2)

A musician friend of mine was recently telling me how her fingers and wrists feel stiff. She has to keep a certain tension in her hands in order to play her instrument, and with time she became pretty good at creating the exact needed amount of tension. But what she did not learn is how to relax.

Her story made me think of how amazing we all are at creating tension. We are the real docs of tension. Without even realising we spend day in day out accumulating tension in different parts of the body so we can sustain ourselves against gravity, protect ourselves against possible threats and do our human things.

You don’t see many people melting down from their chairs because they cannot hold their spine.

You also don’t see many people just falling like an apple from the tree in the middle of the street while walking because they cannot stand gravity.

Even more rare is to get scared and just sigh and say: aaah how relaxing.
(Quite the opposite: the whole body contracts and we might even scream, a normal response to threat).

Tension is wired in us. It is archaic. We have been learning this skill since ever. And this is pretty cool.

Having acknowledged the work of our bodies, now the question that remains is: how good are we in relaxing?

Part 2 is on the making.

Mariana Hilgert updated their website address.