Day 10: February 5

abyss

Feb 5

Written By Shebana

on the other side of the abyss, today, I bring the consciousness of this cuerpo when it dances: the center of course, engaged, the director of ceremonies, the rib cage open, the side muscles, the wings of the angels which are really the source for the braceos, the wrist for flowers but also the whole arm engaged and the glutes for the footwork.

on the other side of the abyss, is how it feels to be writing regularly at more or less the same time, a draft in the morning, a type up in early evening and how that schedule, interwoven with bouts of flamenco class and practice is a pretty beautiful combo. I miss having wild green spaces to walk in. But that is another story.

On the other side is the opening line of The Good Manners. Really, it is the opening line of stepping onto the stage:

subsé pehlé, en la oscuridad, in that first dark
the animal left the sea
found the shore
loved the cave and
tadaap
became
song
tree
stone
dance
(copyright 2018, shebana coelho, the good manners…)

Side by side with the Upper Paleolithic, I’m pretty wild about this moment from the late Devonian when we were tetrapods, four legged land-going vertebrates and we left the sea for land.

How wild is it that the first image for the first solo play was of this tetrapod.

I didn’t know that much about them then. But I’ve been reading today.

It represents a transition of life from water to land, a tremendous turning point in evolution.

Apparently, once a tetrapod, forever a terrapod.

Even though we now only have 2 legs, we are still considered to be in that family.

Don’t even get me started on the tetrapod trackway of Valentia island, in Ireland, right near where I was that I didn’t get around to seeing because I read about it too late in my stay.

All of this is coming close because I am feeling out a new choreography for The Good Manners… opening.

What will it be like to feel the heaviness of a heavy tail?

the belly horizontal or the feeling of being parallel to the earth?

And the wild marshes and forests of the Devonian.

I looked at photos today. I copied them. It felt good to draw. I read some more. I wrote: