This Very Moment
teaching thinking dancing
This Very Moment is a memoir and a handbook for classroom practices of dance, movement improvisation, and composition developed at Naropa University over 40 years. The influence of my study and practice of Tibetan Buddhist meditation with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche provides language, metaphor, and insight into the engaging of body mind in the same field of attention. Here, you will find my Contemplative Dance Practice (CDP) is unfolded in detail.Excerpts from This Very Moment
Parallel Corridors.
Chapter 3 Page 60
It's time to introduce Parallel Corridor Maps of Space. In the mind's eye, see parallel corridors going from one wall to the other. Three people stand against one wall. Each one in is a Corridor. Take an exploratory walk to the end of the Corridor, turn, and come back. Use the Five Moves ~ Standing, Walking, Turning, Arm Gestures, and Crawling. Call Begin. Use Peripheral Seeing, seeing from the corners of the eyes, one of the Five Eye Practices. Locate gestures from the other two and join them into your movement stream.
Classroom at 1111 Pearl Street. Walking in Corridors. Photographer Unknown
Solos
Chapter 5
Solo practice is deep and necessary.
Solos bring the inner world into This Very
Moment and connect us to our expressive longing.
We find depth in Solos on
those edges where intuition emerges in a structure.
Doing Solos strengthens participation with the ensemble.
The first Scores are simple because the less we do the more space there is to find
that intuitive edge.
When inner and outer come together, we are right here, right
now, in all its wonder. Then Solos become simple dances for elegant souls.
1111 Pearl Street Performance. Photographer UnknownKind words about This Very Moment
This Very Moment is a poetic and intimate evocation of Dilley’s path as an artist and as a human being. In her book, Barbara finds a way to translate choreography onto the printed page, taking an array of memoir segments, photographs, classroom exercises, and meditative insights and have them dance together in delightful and rhythmic harmony. In this word-picture dance, she depicts her journey from early ballet training to the avant-garde world where she worked with Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and other leading figures. She shows how she came to teach dance at Naropa University, meet her teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and learn about meditation and Buddhism. Eventually, Barbara reached a point where the boundaries between life, practice, and art dissolve, and from this point Dilley offers us this remarkable book – in this very moment.
— Judy Hussie-Taylor, Executive Director of Danspace Project,
The radiance of Barbara Dilley, as both a dance artist and spiritual force comes off every page. She danced with Merce Cunningham, was a sweet, mischievous presence in the legendary improvisation group Grand Union, and went on to teach at Buddhist-centered Naropa University, where she started a dance program and eventually led the institution. Each chapter combines memoir and practice.