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my body, the buddhist
my body, the buddhist
DEBORAH HAY
with a foreword by Susan Foster
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, CT 06459
© 2000 by Deborah Hay
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3
Chapter 8 first appeared in Contact Quarterly 22, no. 1 (winter/spring 1997), and again in PAJ, a journal of performance and art, 21, no. 3 (September 1999).
Chapter 15 appeared in Artlies 18 (1998), published in Houston, Texas.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hay, Deborah.
My body, the Buddhist / Deborah Hay.
p. cm.
ISBN 0 –8195 –6436 –2 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0 –8195 –6328 –5 (pb. : alk. paper)
1. Modern dance. 2. Body, Human (Phihosophy)
3. Choreography. I. Title.
GV1783 .H37 2000
792.8'2—dc21 00 –008647
Frontispiece: Deborah Hay in Voilà. Photo © 1997
by Phyllis Liedecker
“Cover photograph by Todd V. Wolfson.” Note on line drawings: on page 9, there are three line drawings -- each goes with the paragraph of text that it is next to. Put the drawing first, and the text. On the following pages, 10-15, place the drawings (that are in the left and right margins of any given paragraph) before that paragraph. Similarly, on pages 82-95. there are other drawings. Again, please place the drawings at the beginning of the paragraph of text(that they are next to in the print edition.
dedicated to dance audiences in the 21st century
contents
foreword by Susan Leigh Foster, ix
1 my body benefits in solitude, 1
2 my body finds energy in surrender, 4
3 my body enjoys jokes, riddles, and games, 9
5 my body commits to practice, 20
6 my body seeks comfort but not for long, 24
7 my body is limited by physical presence, 27
8 my body knowingly participates in its appearances, 30
10 my body is bored by answers, 53
11 my body seeks more than one view of itself, 54
12 my body delights in resourcefulness, 59
13 my body trusts the unknown, 64
14 my body feels weightless in the presence of paradox, 74
15 my body equates patience with renewal, 78
16 my body hears many voices, not one voice, 82
17 my body relaxes when thoughts abate, 97
18 my body is held in the present, 99
a chronicle of performance practices by Deborah Hay, 103
To read about a specific dance:
the six dances described in the book and the chapters
containing material about them are listed below.
my heart (1995): chapters 2, 11, 13
Exit (1995): chapters 2, 14
Voilà (1995): chapters 2, 7, 8, 11, 13
1–2–1 (1996): chapter 3
FIRE (1999): chapter 12
foreword Susan Leigh Foster
Introducing Deborah Hay’s body-as-Buddhist. Such an agile body, capable of lightning-quick transformations—floppy then precise, always deft, full of buffoonery and deadly serious in its commitment to each gesture. It gallops, swaggers, tip-toes, and falls gently backward into the embrace of space. Scrambling or gliding to standing, it grimaces. The softest leaps, the most preposterous gestures, it happily cavorts before slowing to stillness, a dynamic tranquillity. The flexibility, the unpredictability of its attitudes draw us toward it. It gazes back at those who view it with a generous invitation to be looked at.
This body, it is proposed, practices a religion renowned for its skeptical stance toward religion. It performs as teacher, oracle, and companion in the investigation, not of spirituality, but of consciousness itself. Alternately a corporeal provocateur