3rd body- running out of tongue | 3rd person stranger

3rd person stranger · 3rd body – running out of tongue (draft)

what is the 3rd body? that terms has seen many forms and meanings, but the one referred to here is the one Koffi Kôkô and Johannes Odenthal have defined in the 2004 “In Transit” dance festival at Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin(1):

“The First Body is the physical, biological body. The Second Body is the cultural, socialized body, the body of memory. The Third Body is the ‘impossible’ body, the body between worlds, the body in cross-border transition. In search of a vision of humanity, the body becomes the medium for experience, communication, and transformation. The Third Body awakens echoes of the Third World and a “Third Space”—thus transcending those concepts embedded in bipolarity.” (2).

there are two important aspects of this third body – for one using the body for communication instead of words, thus making it a tool for not simply telling stories but make them tangible and transformative in the experience for both dancer and audience.

second the body as transitional, liminal traveller, as potential openener for another space that is between worlds or even a totally different space. another space culturally but beyond that for all pre-formed or even human spheres.

the latter is true because culture is deeply rooted in religious believes and the local ideas about god(s).

in the western world a very head-heavy, “objectiv” fact- and logic based system has taken the place of god (the question in what ways they serve similar needs as religion is another discussion). however, christianity is still strongly embedded in western cultures and the christian god actually echos (or has set the beginning of) traits of science as both set mind/soul over and separat from body (thus making the body a study of meat and analysis).

here the word is the power and energy that creates life. though in greek the word “logos” was used which means both “word” and “reason” -showing in a way the direct connection that is made between mind-reason-word as just the extention of the once made insight into the existence of the world. so gods speaks the world into being and while sound has its own vibration over the waters it is very condensed and bodyless vibration- an abstract yet physical force which states the tongue as messenger of precise logic and mind as highest form of pure and perfected energy.

god itself is not moved by its own force that is moving everything else as in the image of the “unmoved mover/motionless mover” of god.
the body in christianity however, is only associated with lower animalistic forces (impuls, lust thus sin) and weakness and perishability. the body is “still pushed into the role of sensuality – as the uneducated, the state before insight”(3).

this bewilderment with the body, it’s negation and severance from the mind- the subsequent mind-body dualism is a strongly enrgained trade of western thinking (funny as is that science itself now questions that duality). the logic in the west is the logic of analysis and separation not the organic connection of body and mind, which are in fact not separable. that’s probably why a third entity of spirit/ soul had to be set in place to make that separation by crating another quality for the midn that really takes it out of the body for there is no clear distinction otherwise than eternity that seaprates midn and soul in christianity.

residing in a body therefore has been depicted as being in a prison or even grave, as a burden and obstacle to real freedom and bliss.

and in consequence church service has been deprived of dancing, it has no place in liturgy in western tradition (sung words, however, have). and prayers are meant to be silent and unmoved. as Rudolf von Laban puts it: “the european has forgotten how to combine movement and prayer”(4).

as if abstraction would automatically lead to a destillation of the essence and thus closeness to it. but what if the essence lies in the inextricable connection between content and expression, cannot be experienced without one or the other?

with this mindset stasis will occur and this has been a problem for the development of art:

“the blockades in the european art traditions were based on a historically grown negation of the human body in motion, which from a language-based naturalist aesthetic no longer found expression for the expression of social changes”(5).

though I think this is still true to some extend, the contact and model of other cultures was able to break the western body rigidity to some extent.

in other cultures such as africa and asia (but many more) dance is deeply embeeded into life and also closely connected to religion and religious service.

in fact, not only the worshippers but the gods themselves are depicted as dancers with the movement being the energy and power that starts the eternal cycle of creation and destruction of all things and the entire universe(6).

shiva for example, is seen as the personified dance, wild and furious with the “cosmos as shivas theater” (ananda coomaraswamy), saying:

“fear not, for all rests well in god. the forms that come and go –and of which your body is but one- are the flashes of my dancing limbs. known Me in all, and of what shall you be afraid?”(7).

thus dance is not only a ritual for the gods but also a trait of themselves. and in this cycle the changes of the body and it’s final demise are taken as a neccessity of the universal order not a weakness that must be denied and rejected. the body here is not despised but used for its ability to express, communicate and translate-to bridge the worlds of human and beyond.

even the buddhist religion with it’s aim to escape the enless circle of suffering does not deny or devaluate the body and have dancing ceremonies(8).

dance is seen as active communication between humans and gods-thought of as praise or sometimes appeasement but also as tool to become a messenger of the gods or even become a god/ spirit in terms of giving up your own self and channeling divine energy and being as a vessel (such as in trance-dances in voodoo, the derwishes, tibetian buddhist monks, shamans in korea, peru and more)(9).

dance in this respect is seen as meditation in movement to gain an altered state and to let go of human rationality. these insights and experiences cannot be had using spoken and written words as they are inextricably interwoven with human reality(10). here, words are human made symbolism that actually prevents closeness to god or insight.

here speaking in no tongues but through dance goes beyond storytelling with the body- it is a way to become part or at least touch a mystery that cannot be logically comprehended. it is more than just knowing- it is understanding through physical transformation(11).

and even more: dance also opens a door for the audience. by bringing the gods to the “stage” the ritual dancers enable the transformation of their whole community- a “collective encounter” with the gods even if the audience is not taking an active part in the dance. that is said for example for watching the cham-dance of tibetian buddhist monks (these dances are actually called “mystery plays”!)(12).

this involement and possible transformation of the audience is also a big difference to the mere observation role western audiences usually have- presumed to expect an entertaining “spectacle” as Jérôme Bel states(13). This is why he created a dance piece with no movement at all- to counteract this expectation, to out it into focus and critisize it.

the quote at the beginning of the song comes from a collaboration of Jérôme Bel as well- with Pichet Klunchun in “Pichet Klunchun and myself”.

“so what is your profession?”- “i’m a dancer”. a simplequestion, a simple answer. as diverse is the implication of it as we have seen. as what a dancer is supposed to be depends on the discussed mental/ historic background of the audience. and while being a dancer in Bel’s case refers to the tradition of “concept dance”, in Klunchun’s case it’s the tradition of classic Thai dance and all the expectations as well as cultural hierarchies and judgements associated with it.

these assumptions do not remain undisscused however, both dancers exchange their backgrounds, the general and specific meaning of their movements on stage. from this exchange a new view emerges that displays classic dance in its contemporary form -as tradition in transformation-as well as contemporary dance as another traditional form with its own evolved rules. thus both ways of dance encompass grown as well as new structures.

and more importantly as Nakajima Nanako describes in her article about the piece: that “myself” also stands for every observer of the piece- asking what the specific background of the observer is and thus on what kinds of basis and viewpoint the observer experiences the dialog and dance. This way a bridge to the observer is made questioning fixed ideas about what dance is, should or could be(14).

as seen 3rd body comprises different aspects, but the main aspect is the opening of that 3rd/ other space that is not (fully) bound to fixed structures and grown moulds.

now, the stranger in this form cannot offer a background of religious dancing practice. however, the stranger is in line with Lemi Ponifaso that even in a non-religous setting he tries to “lead the people to a different dimension, a dimension that is not language” and that “the performers are servants, I think, of activating the space. there to create this dimension to enter”(15).

in that spirit this song is exploring that archetypical journey of body and sound in another kind of ceremony. without dissolving all inherent contradictions in the setup as well as the format (video versus presence in live performance) -just as a trial and experience to offer for this change of ideas.

maybe in the long run westerners will really reach the join to a bodymind/ mindbody and not treat the body like a stranger anymore.

literature
please note: the page numbers for the “Danced creation” book are taken from the german version! I am not sure if they refer to the same pages as in the english version.

(1)
Dance and Not Dance
Johannes Birringer
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art
Vol. 27, No. 2 (May, 2005), pp. 10-27

and

https://www.hkw.de/de/media/publikationen/2004_2006_publikationen/third_body.php

(2)
as cited in (given link does not work anymore)

Dance and Not Dance
Johannes Birringer
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art
Vol. 27, No. 2 (May, 2005), pp. 10-27

(3)
Translated from
p.86 Johannes Odenthal “Der Einfluss Asiens auf die europäische Tanzentwicklung”

Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

(4)
Translated from

p.87 Johannes Odenthal “Der Einfluss Asiens auf die europäische Tanzentwicklung”

(5)
Translated from
p.86 Johannes Odenthal “Der Einfluss Asiens auf die europäische Tanzentwicklung”

(6)
Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

and

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Campbell, Joseph
ISBN: 1577315936 (ISBN-13: 9781577315933)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

(7)
p.107
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Campbell, Joseph
ISBN: 1577315936 (ISBN-13: 9781577315933)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

(8)
Chapter “When buddhist monks dance” p.55 and following

(9)
Multiple places in
Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

(10)
Multiple places in
Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

As example
[rudolf von laban “a life for dance”]: “that through dancing a higher or at least different state of consciousness can enter, than our usual practically everyday looking into the world, which some people may have already felt.”

(11)
For exmaple p.56 in
Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

(12)
For exmaple p.55 in
Danced creation – Asia’s Mythical Past and Living Present (Englisch) 19. April 2013
von Weltmuseum Wien (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo (Hrsg.) (Autor), Dr. Bettina Zorn (Hrsg.) (Autor), PhD Mary Somers-Heidhues (Hrsg.) (Autor)

(13)
Jerome Bel as cited in
„Jérôme Bel and Myself“ Interkulturelle Aspekte des zeitgenössischen Tanzes in
Europa und Asien
NAKAJIMA Nanako
Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.jdzb.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/PDF/veroeffentlichungen/tagungsbaende/D58/22-pdf-p1227%20nakajima.pdf

“In the West there is a big concept of the society of spectacles. The idea is that our daily life is full of entertainment and spectacles, for example, TV. This dance is the critique of the society of the spectacle because I do nothing, people come here and I supposed to do something and people watch me or watch us. The fact that I do not do anything and stay here is the critique.”

(14)
„Jérôme Bel and Myself“ Interkulturelle Aspekte des zeitgenössischen Tanzes in
Europa und Asien
NAKAJIMA Nanako
Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.jdzb.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/PDF/veroeffentlichungen/tagungsbaende/D58/22-pdf-p1227%20nakajima.pdf

(15)
Biennale Arte 2015 – Lemi Ponifasio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCfBgXBRDrw