Sara Shelton Mann has been a choreographer, performer, teacher since 1967. She was a protégé of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis in N.Y.C. before moving to Canada where fell in love with contact improvisation. In 1979 she moved to SFCA and started the Performance Group, Contraband combining the principles of contact, systems of the body and spiritual practice into a unified system of research. Among her awards are a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 6 Isadora Duncan Awards, Djerassi Artist in Residence Awards, Headlands Center for the Arts Residency 2016, Lifetime Achievement Bay Guardian Award, 10 Women who made a Difference, Bay Guardian Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2016). Sara has practiced dowsing as a healing modality since 2010, is a Master NLP practitioner, and has a Master Certification in Intuition Medicine Ò. Her Movement Alchemy training is an ongoing teaching project and is influenced by certifications and studies in the metaphysical and healing traditions over many years. Sara’s performance work is a platform for collaboration and research in consciousness.
Trance Arms
5 minutes
Keep your eyes open
For the circulatory system and your imagination.
The basic practice is inhale lift the arms as weight and exhale release. The inhalation is larger than the exhalation (therefore keep the eyes a bit open) Do not lift the arms above the head, cross or bend elbows in the beginning as you want to engage every part of the lungs.
I began this as a basic practice and then asked what if: The weight shifts are different than the arms practice? What happens when the eyes shift focus through the arms, up, down, diagonal, what happens when arms and legs work directional touching energetically points in space, bending and extending separately, weight circles and drops or lifts and figure eights in space. The inhale exhale stays the same throughout. The arms are only symmetrical in the beginning. After that they are free to explore varied weight qualities, directions, etc. The what if and the imagination and technical challenges are all additions to the basic weighted arms and inhale and exhale. It has taught me a lot. Always moving, always adding detail and always adding weight shifts and a one-legged approach through space.
Sara Shelton Mann 5/2020
It is where creation, inquiry, philosophy, consciousness meet that I am inspired. The space where intuition meets form and content is where I thrive.
The end product is not the end result nor is the spectacle the desire.
There is a space between this world and that which we meet that ignites a fire, an antigravity, a movement of Soul in body with spirit,2 simultaneous realities. It is magic.
My training has been in dance/contact dance, dowsing, metaphysis and healing modalities. I have a toolbox that I have developed over the years filled with puzzles (movement, writing, imagination, energy transmission, transparency and composition) dedicated to awakening
Artistic Statement for 2020
Now I find is a moment of reset, to view my hypnotism of what was normal and potentially wake up. It is clear that my thoughts and actions reach far beyond my own energy field. What I teach and know to be true is not theory. Now is the time to connect to the consciousness of the earth, to be in gratitude and humility and express such. Our minds are like great transmitters through time and space and like a boomerang our intentions return to us. Here we are singular and connected. The stillness can be a bit disconcerting, yet I have the opportunity to go swimming in the void and reflect upon the miracle of life., the child awakes. And now we awake to another calling to see, feel and hear the pain of those who have endured unbelievable injustice. May the world stop and have the courage to befriend and listen to the pain and embrace equality and justice for those who have not had it and for all.
Last text
at the moment, I imagine
the sound comes through the house –
the house is upside down
the people are ancient children righting the world as it should be for as it is now
singing moves the feet and winds claim the heart
silence is the forgotten metaphor for answers
weight is the space between worlds
I forgot to love you enough and i listened to the voices
