editorial 2.5
by jeffrey gormly
When I approached Georg Ivanovas about reproducing some of his writing here on choreographdotnet, he expressed some bewilderment about why dancers would want to read about his chosen field of medicine. I tried, in my way, to break open an idea of choreography that I’ve been sticking together over the last few months in my editorials (they are all archived. See below). I suggested he have a closer look at the site and make his own connections. Hours later came the message “I get it. It’s about cognition.”
Yes. That’s why Georg’s papers are here: they illustrate gaps, inconsistencies, illogicalities, and peculiarities in the western medical model, and in comparing them with holistic, homeopathic and Chinese models, he gives a very good primer on key elements of systemic thinking, which is a fundamental of our expanded notion of choreography. It’s about cognition, about perception, and how we organise it into our ways of seeing-our-world, which is a primary act in making-our-world.
If you are a dancer, choreographer, or dance writer, and are beginning to see, or failing to see, links between our gathering process here, and the more directly experienced world of dance production and appreciation, please write and share your views (editor at choreographdotnet). This site strives to be an open forum, and can only thrive if it serves a community actively engaged in new ideas, new connections, and a real desire to communicate.
For the next month or two, having cast the net wide, we will tighten things up a little, by publishing some writings that approach a synthesis of ideas more than a patchwork. Until then, ‘free your ass, and your mind will follow’ …
published 7 May 08