Your posts are always so thought provoking. Just one phrase there, about memory of movement led me into a spiral, and I'll have to bore you with a story from another part of the globe.
It is a given that Iranian women dance at every opportunity, that is simply our social code. There are regional differences, of course, but even the spontaneous mehmooni dancing has clear urban and 20th century influences. One of the most particular things one can notice, as I have in myself and the hundreds of Northern women I've observed, is a very distinct way of moving the arms and upper body. The port de bras, if you will. It was always a curiosity, until I accidentally saw Georgian folk dances and bam! The arms and upper body moved *the exact same way*! And the sad, sad truth in this is that we are most genetically similar to Georgians and Circassians because of human trafficking. Generations of our matrilineal ancestors were stolen and sold. They lost their names, religion and languages, but the port de bras in their dances remained.
Okay now you got me really thinking about port de bras and where I think ballet got them! Are you interested in a doing a session together? I’d like to make some of the embodied writing taking place on Substack more accessible to others, especially in dance where a lot of people want something more interactive than reading
Your posts are always so thought provoking. Just one phrase there, about memory of movement led me into a spiral, and I'll have to bore you with a story from another part of the globe.
It is a given that Iranian women dance at every opportunity, that is simply our social code. There are regional differences, of course, but even the spontaneous mehmooni dancing has clear urban and 20th century influences. One of the most particular things one can notice, as I have in myself and the hundreds of Northern women I've observed, is a very distinct way of moving the arms and upper body. The port de bras, if you will. It was always a curiosity, until I accidentally saw Georgian folk dances and bam! The arms and upper body moved *the exact same way*! And the sad, sad truth in this is that we are most genetically similar to Georgians and Circassians because of human trafficking. Generations of our matrilineal ancestors were stolen and sold. They lost their names, religion and languages, but the port de bras in their dances remained.
Okay now you got me really thinking about port de bras and where I think ballet got them! Are you interested in a doing a session together? I’d like to make some of the embodied writing taking place on Substack more accessible to others, especially in dance where a lot of people want something more interactive than reading
You can always send a dm with your idea, I'd totally be open to chat about it!