Synchronicity

(adapted from Sarah Shelton Mann)

There is a common exercise within improvisation of action/reaction dialogue, where one person moves, then the other moves in response, then the first moves in response, etc. The Synchronicity exercise is a development of this exercise, where the reactions are more and more immediate until there is the feeling that the processes unfolding are unfolding simultaneously, rather than in chain reaction. There is a constant awareness of other and a constant relation process.  We completely abandon ourselves to the impulse that is coming as we are attending to the other. The judging/evaluating mind does not have time to get in-between perception and action.  Perception and action are inseparable. we are perceiving the other and in that moment of perceiving, we are already doing the thing that is in relationship to partner.

‘Complete commitment to this moment and complete detachment from accomplishing the goals guiding the last. As we synchronize with partner, we very immediately act in the moment of awareness, not stopping first to re-stabilize, but channeling what we are already doing into the new thing.

There may be a fluid flowing and mutating of one thing into the next, but there is also space for radical shifts of state and action.

The synchronous response may be logical or completely nonsensical or surreal. It may be in contact or not, move into contact or out. Any momentary thought, doubt, distraction is a reminder to be in this moment and embrace that we are already in the relationship with partner, throw ourselves into it further.

If the two actors have done some training with more athletic contact, the relationship can get quite wild if they get their judging mind out of the way.