Sympoetic choreographies: reconfiguring to wind-rhythms, repetitions and improvisations

Her bones are of Carrizo

The body of a dancer, strength and flexibility

Repetitions and improvisations

Ancestral choreographies play out in the movements of a human-kite-wind waltz

The perfect synergistic relation of reed grass and polymeric material

The logics of plastic in convivial spaces

Simultaneously sealing-off, and thrusting-with

Configuring ourselves among string constellations

Ravelling and unravelling with the insatiable demands of wind

Mapping string figures and getting lost in the tangle

Running to catch up with her speed, pulling/pushing

Seeking those spaces of calm where she’ll agree to hold us, but only for a moment –

Then we are back again – in her dance, she is the lead, we try to keep up with her

To hold her for a moment,

But she taunts us with only a glimpse of what it feels like to pause, to be held, to be soothed –

To be in the palm of her hand as she watches us and laughs at our naïve attempts to follow her steps

She pulls us down the mountain side, stumbling through tall grass,

Hidden are the compositions of earth-moss-rock and hole –

The perfect way to catch a gringita who tries to follow her steps

We rely on the intersections between land, hand, string, plastic and wind

Criss-crossed pathways,

The collective movements between each part frame a desire to hold a connection –

One hand in polymorphic rhythm with multiple others

With a slight shift, the entire assemblage is reconfigured

Our fingers burn as she pulls our strings

Sometimes, unpredictable movements bring us closer to the suspension we yearn for,

Where all of a sudden our footwork is of hers, and we’re dancing

In tiny moments of weightlessness,

she lets us glide

she dips us –

yet, caught up in her romance

we lose our place

And she drops up sharply to the ground

We plummet, with no apologies to follow

Kite pedagogies do not abide by human reason

Rather, they call on us to take seriously the agency of worlds that exist beyond a human eye –

To listen and respond to their urgencies

Repetitions and improvisations

Alex Berry

‘This piece is part of an ongoing and collective conversation with educators, Estefania Crusellas and Marieli Castro at Santana school in Cuenca, Ecuador, who have generously shared this dance with me.

With gratitude to Cristina Delgado-Vintimilla who provokes us to consider what choreographies sympoetics might put into motion.’