Dancing with Polarities

A professional dance artist and close friend wrote to me:

“This is a huge show for me, and I am required to hold a profound silence and deep presence, while expecting highly technical and really crazy dance moves. I am starting to get overwhelmed by the pressure, instead of rising up into it. Even though the preparations are actually going quite well, and I feel very supported, I feel my nervous system overdriving a bit.”

Anonymous

This jumped out at me because I imagine that she was dancing with polarities. On the one hand, she was asking her body to be in a state of silent presence, usually associated with rest, digestion and integration (parasympathetic response). On the other hand, her environment and responsibilities seemed to be asking her nervous system to do something quite different. Physiologically, her heart rate was probably up and pumping forceful contractions, her blood vessels constricted, her lungs dilated, her motility down and every sphincter in her body squeezed (sympathetic response). All of this would be important in the execution of her “crazy dance moves”. The catch was, she was asking her body to also deal with all of this in an open and vulnerable state, basically the exact opposite of what was described above. Her blood was rushing to all her extremities, ready to act, but she wanted to give the audience an opposing impression of internal centeredness.

Though you may not be a performer, can you relate to this contrasting pull in your life? It seems to me that my friend’s dance challenge is a life metaphor, at certain times, for many of us.

From a psychological perspective, I am reminded that one definition of emotional maturity and resilience is the ability to hold two opposite states simultaneously. Perhaps the same is true of the body. I am wondering how my friend can embrace the polarities in her physical body? Perhaps that is her intention for her performance; to explore all the ways that she can “embrace the polarities”, within her dancing. When her “fight, flight, freeze” system is activated, can she stay with the discomfort and, eventually, undo the work of sympathetic division, after the stressful moment has occurred? In this way, we find this back and forth movement between the dance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Polarity, paradox, contrast, duality, opposites, inner and outer feelings; these all impact our personal and social lives as human beings, not to mention our artistic practice. Oftentimes, this contrast polarity is far more complex than we can fully address or understand on a rational level. How many of us find ourselves in this state of heightened arousal on a daily basis with the state of our world right now, ready for action, while working to cultivate the necessary calm that helps us to digest and integrate all that is going on?

Expressive Arts, especially movement/dance, is a powerful medium for working with contradiction and meeting challenges artfully, within ourselves and in our relationships. It can serve to find ground that would feel solid and flexible enough to provide space for this possible interconnection between imagination and the, sometimes, harsh reality we face. Even after a stressful event is over, the stress continues for the body. The medicine of art offers trust in the creative “rebound” and the life affirming energy we need, in the face of difficulty, distress and trauma. It can provides us with tangible tools to complete the stress cycle. Expressive Arts offer physical activity, breathwork, positive social interactions, laughter and play, affection and touch, vulnerability and permission to cry, as well as creative expression and imagination. The limbic brain, our survival brain, needs the sensing-feeling body. When we engage in creative activity, we can calm that part of the brain and let the frontal lobe, the voice of reason, take the lead once more.

From this open and receptive state, rather than looking for absolute truths and answers, we can practice dancing with the polarities and holding more than one thought simultaneously and with greater ease. Sometimes the resolution comes in the form of a “both/and”, with Expressive Arts serving as a means to facilitate intersecting multiple pathways of thought.

We can do this for ourselves, and we can also do it as a metaphor of what is possible in our ever more polarized world right now.

Artwork by Maggie Forgeron,
“Abstract 8”