Plasma evolved from physical intelligence training to physical intelligence game. Here are basics of that training, now a game.
Physical intelligence is basically ability and readiness to create new movement patterns and swiftly integrate them into the existing net of movement patterns in order to adjust to given situation or/and create new situation.
In order to do that, one needs to produce a physical state of the body that will enable one to create necessary or needed new movement patterns.
In Plasma there are several types of approaches to reach that creative physical state (and could be called like technique, method, workshop, training…). Strictly speaking it is not a technique or a method. It rather transmits unobligatory set of tools for one to be able to be in the state of readiness. And what is more important, it encourages each and everyone to look for creative usage of the tools that are suggested, created or learned somewhere else or by oneself.
So the basic question is not what is correct or not, but what works (functions) for you and what not. The criteria for what works or not is not in Plasma, it is in each of us. Thus is unique. Even it is not something set. It is indicator of where our interest lies in certain moment. So this criterium is not something fixed for life, but extremely dynamical thing. And Plasma is also about this: about extremely dynamical and unstable states of our body and how to recognize them and work with them creatively. And even more: to use them to be able to highten our physical intelligence.
There are no preliminary movement patterns imposed, Plasma takes off from the movement patterns already present in the bodies of participants. This immediately calls for creative attitude towards training. The participant is encouraged to work from and with its own sources of imagination, knowledge, intuition, sensation and abilities. Through this one recognizes its own movement patterns quicker and easily, becomes aware of one’s own movement strategies and tools and does not lose on certain specialisations (this refers to the background of the participant of Plasma).
So Plasma is perfect to be paired with techniues or methods since it approaches movement in the discrete (descrete like in math) way. Plasma does not approach movement from dance point of view or sport or scientific (though of course it corresponds with these approaches and draws tools from them). It enables one to come in touch with his/her own understanding of movement, explore it and develop it.
This is then a starting point for Plasma to enable one to develop already existing patterns, strategies or tools by changing them, breaking away from them, extracting them, taking them to extreme… These are precisely some tools that Plasma suggests: blow-up, extraction, taking to the extreme…
Plasma also explores the non-processual events. For example, there is no process to come into certain physical state. One is in the state or not. Not just that there is no way in or out of this state (no step-by-step approach), there is no such a thing as process to come to certain physical state. Or to put it differently: physical states are discrete and not continuous (or better like quanta in physics). On the other hand, physical state is not static. It is extremely dynamic state. So, one can only be in kind of relaxed state of open alertness, vigility… Or as I put it practically: to let go of unnecessary tension in the physical body in certain physical state.
Plasma is not a method or technique strictly speaking. It has clear aims. Through exploration of physical intelligence it wants to find the way to the door of set of basic movemnet patterns (that we learn in early stage of our life) and enable one to work with them again. Sure any change in this set of basic movement patterns is revolutionary for the physical body and there is reason it is not so easy to change it.
In Plasma there are basically two levels of research. First is more focused on movement patterns that are both a starting point. And then at the second level it is to explore what could be called physical-state plasma.
This is where Plasma reaches its definition peak. Between two physical states, going from one to the other, one can experience so called pure flow of impulses a kind of chaos but not confusion. Plasma aims at widening of the gap, what we could say, inbetween state of chaos. On the level of movement patterns, moving is set of physical states that continuously melt one into the other. A bit different angles reveals to us that there is chaotic gap between two physical states. When we discover in ourselves how to be present also in this chaotic gap, we enter into the flow of states and the understaning is quite different from the first level Plasma. It is not that a line of physical states makes the flow but rather that physical states are the gestalts of the flow (of impulses) – like coupure at Deleuze and Guattari.
Great. How this can be achieved?
As mentioned before Plasma has many approaches, that can be labeled as contemporary dance class, training, workshop, method. All in all, the exercises are not difficult in a tradional terms. But pose a challenge to even highly skilled and experienced dancer to call on other strategies to resolve certain movement challenges proposed in the exercise or movement suggestion.
Example: Training based on patterns in the walk.
We take a walk as a base of complexity of patterns. We extract certain patterns from the walking and elaborate on them to bring them to surprising connections with certain typically contemporary dance movements. This is done by blow-up (making patterns physically bigger or smaller then they appear in the walk), extraction (taking just one bit of pattern and transposing them from stand-up position to crawling or lying position), making them extreme (speed up or slow down the pattern, infinitely so – there is amazing connection that we can observe when we speed up (slow down) certain patterns infinitely) and similar processes.
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Plasma also stresses overlooked feature of movement: imagination, that is not connected only to visualisation but sensation (for example spacetime sensation) and other features of imagination. There is whole training that is very physical and yet playful and imagination envigourating.
Example: Training based on work with imaginary sphere
By particular usage of imagination, knowledge and sensation the work with imaginary sphere that evolves into amoebic like thing and further on anything that comes up imagination with. It has two main features: it regulates breathing while moving by just being aware and observing how we breath (so, there is no way I would instruct people how to breath); the other feature is immediate holistic movement, what usually takes some time to learn and achieve, this simple set of exercises enables dancers to work with whole body also when they are working just on a simple movement detail…
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The workshop can be headed towards treatment of impulses connected to movemnets. The first hypothesis is that dance movement impulses are nonphysical, so they do not appear… what appears in body is execution of this nonphysical impulses…
The other popular topic of worskhop could be storytelling through movement by using choreographical tools and not theatrical, literature tools or tools of other art in the first place.
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Again, Plasma can take many forms as the one described above as well as:
contemporary dance technique (a) floor work (b) stand-up postion work
training of physical ability and strength
method to get to the flow of states and not to create flow from series of states
workshop on many topics that can be suggested by participants
Plasma is open platform for any dancer to develop with his/her own means, knowledge, tools, strategies and develop them as well and learna and create new ones.
Plasma does not reduce technical ability or strength. Rather opposite. It is physically demanding training that enables dancers/movers to better understand some of the traditional movement patterns (floor work, rolling, jumps, plie, tendue, acrobatics…). For what is worth it is strong training on its own without relating to any other more traditional and normal(ized) approaches. Again, it of course connctes to them, but does not depend on them.
Some references in other fields of human activity:
integrative psychology
m-theory in physics and quantum physics
discrete values, infinity, incomputableness in math
deleuze & guattari (idea of flow, coding, rhizome, chaos, consistency)
alain badiou (notion of multiplicity)
cooking
biosynergy
minimal theory in linguistics
rolfing
open source and linux community in computer sciences
metamorphic technique by robert st.john