Post #1 for the Virtual Book Group (How to Land by Ann Cooper Albright)

During the past week, dancers throughout the country began reading How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World by Ann Cooper Albright. Please follow the Comments thread here, and please consider getting the book and diving in next week as well!

For today, we read the Introduction and the first chapter, Falling. Readers - I encourage you to come back to this thread 2-3 times today to add into the conversation. Thank you!

1. Within this dense text, there are many potent phrases to hold onto and consider right now. Post a few ideas here and list the page numbers please. You can simply post quotes - or add your connections with each quote you share or that someone else has posted here.
2. I love how Ann Cooper Albright plays with the concept of falling - writing about the literal and the metaphoric, and also our associations both positive and negative related to falling. How does the concept of "falling" play out in your dance life as teachers, choreographers, movers, and administrators? How do you relate to this word - falling - during this pandemic and Shelter in Place?
3. Feel free to also simply write a few sentences about your general response and reaction to chapter 1. What did you connect with, and what resonated?

Some book buying options:

Books Inc in the SF Bay Area

The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City

Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn

Amazon.com (paperback and e-book)

The reading/discussion/comment timeline:

Wednesday, May 27th: Introduction and Chapter 1 (Falling); 48 pages

Wednesday, June 3rd: Chapters 2 and 3 (Disorientation and Suspension); 57 pages

Wednesday, June 10th: Chapters 4 and 5 (Gravity and Resilience); 61 pages

Wednesday, June 17th: Chapter 6 and Afterword (Connection); 38 pages

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Comments

[Jill Randall]

"How has our increasingly digitized lifestyle trained us to focus almost exclusively on two-dimensional sources of information, reducing our awareness of the three-dimensional world around us and thus limiting our perception of crucial experiences such as weight and space - gravity and air?" (page 3)

[Jill Randall]

These quotes are helpful right now as we run Zoom dance classes online and deeply consider the what/why:

"how intentional movement can structure new ways of thinking" (page 7)

"This focus on the process of embodiment rather than on the product" (page 7)

"Gravity is the physical force that gives us a feeling of weight. It both connects us to the earth and gives us a sense of our place in the world." (page 13)

"I want to think seriously about the physical practices that might help us survive the twenty-first century." (pages 19-20)

"the physical possibilities in which one's body is both grounded and yet open to moving in any direction" (page 30)

[Bhumi B Patel]

From the intro, "reeling from one disaster to another, many of us are experiencing an increase in anxiety and fears about our future, and our bodies reflect that."

Is anyone else finding tension/pain/blockage in taking classes online that feel new/unusual during SIP? I'm finding emotional blockages in my own dancing from home and that feels like a bodily reflection of this moment (and, I think, my own anxieties about the future of live performance).

"feeling the support of the earth can transform moments of personal disorientation and national crisis into an opportunity to reflect on the critical relationship between individual resiliency and communal responsibility"

"in America seeing is believing and feeling is suspect"

"How has our increasingly digitized lifestyle trained us to focus almost exclusively on two-dimensional sources of information, reducing our awareness of the three-dimensional world around us, and thus limiting our perception of crucial experiences such as weight and space -- gravity and air?"

"Bodies are political. This is a central tenant of feminist, queer, critical race, and disabilities studies."

Some initial bits that stuck out to me!

[Jill Randall]

Thanks Bhumi for adding your thoughts here. I appreciated reading your notes.

Responding to question #3 here in the post (general impressions)....I love the author's play on words with the concepts, beginning here with Falling in Chapter 1. I am totally afraid of falling in all of the ways that it can happen - dancing, running, tripping, and conceptually (falling behind, falling flat, falling on my face). I hold and brace (or hold back) a lot to prevent falling.

I had a strong response here reading the quotes related to September 11th. I also am writing this with a broken heart, as a dear family friend fell to his death about two weeks ago in Montana (rocks gave way on his hike). Just heartbreaking.

[Bhumi B Patel]

Jill,

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. That unexpected, sudden loss is so heartbreaking and painful, and sad.

I agree with you on having a strong response to reading the parts about 9/11 -- it kicks up, for me, a lot of continuous grief that I feel like I've been living in both before and since 9/11 on a personal and global level.

I was thinking about how I teach falling, particularly to my beginning modern students, and how I ask them to give themselves permission to fall, knowing and trusting that on the other side they will be okay. I often roll out mats or towels and prompt them to fall, to meet the ground, to feel the softness of the earth (even on floors made for dancing) because gravity will hold us. This came up for me as I was on a yoga retreat call thinking talking about community care and how in movements and social justice centered work there is a softness that will catch you.

My thoughts are a bit all over the place but I'm looking forward to snuggling into bed tonight and reading more for the coming week.

sending you lots of love, and peace

[Jill Randall]

Thanks Bhumi for your note here in the thread!

[Nina Haft]

Re: Falling (Page 25) "Giving up control is not the same as giving up on ourselves, however. Rather, it is about giving up certain expectations." As a white woman working to develop a consistent anti-racism practice and awareness, this captures some of what I experience (and believe) about ceding the advantages and spoils of white supremacy.