{An excerpt from the up and coming book WॐBXXN - Eco-Feministic-Futurism, turnt up! Out on Amazon within the next week!}
The Play Process
SensethePoint, the organizer of the event, arrives first to the gym that’s now being transformed into an adult’s play pen. It’s perfect for that - with the wall to wall mats and mostly open space for stretching, yoga, and for what they’re using it for today: dancing! A kind of dance process whose intention is to cultivate play, real deep connection, and self-empowered self/collective discovery. Mr. Good arrives next, walking up from behind SensethePoint and unintentionally startling her. They get into a playful argument about who got there first after a bet Mr. Good initiated on Facebook as they both let everyone know they were on their way. A few moments later Mama Medicine arrives. She struggles to park on the slushy snow and SensethePoint and Mr. Good looks on half concerned half amused, trying to be helpful, but ultimately just being patient as Mama Medicine stands in the empowered clarity she so often exudes and finds somewhere else to park. They all walk in the building together, the energy of the excitement highly palpable to each of them. Mr. Good sets the tone of honoring and mutual recognition when he exclaims how clear SensethePoint’s eyes are. Gleeful in being seen, she smiles in affirmation and prepares for that kind-of playful group recognition to maintain.
They all walk into the playpen together, a little awkwardly because there was supposed to be another person coming. SensethePoint doesn’t want to start without everyone, so she puts on the empowerment and self-reclamation song Afterglow by Phaeleh with lyrics like “Taking control of the elements, making it mine” “Taking a hold of the present day, pushing it on” “Taking control of my destiny, making it fun” and asks everyone to just experience themselves, center, and ground while they wait. The song goes off and the final person still doesn’t arrive, and everyone screams together playfully. SensethePoint playfully rolls over the floor wailing “She’s not heeeere yet!!!”, Mama Medicine sits cross legged saying “Oh NO!!!” while laughing and rocking back and forth, Mr. Good laughs and wails a bit too. SensethePoint is unsure what else to do to give the final person a few more minutes. Mama Medicine suggest free-styling sounds together. SensethePoint agrees with lots of glee.
They sit together in circle kind of awkwardly, unsure of where to begin, so Mama Medicine suggests closing their eyes. They do and magic begins. Mama Medicine and Mr. Good start making ohm-like sounds with a kind-of seriousness, but SensethePoint, with awareness of the playful frequency she’s been intentionally holding for school and life in general, makes a half groaning half yawning sound and the mood begins to lift. They start to use their hands, to make funnier, higher, lower and deeper sounds and before no time a rhythm comes in. They each organically come in and out with a verse, Mama Medicine first, then SensethePoint, and finally Mr. Good closes off the piece. Near the end they all start to join in on the line about how delicious the experience is, with sounds like mmm and yum. And when the song is complete, SensethePoint suggests that they call the group that they are forming the Yum tribe. They all laugh in agreement, rolling backwards and stretching out in pure bliss.
Mr Good checks his phone and sees that the final person has said that she officially wont be coming. They breathe a sigh of release and SensethePoint starts the music. She starts the process by everyone just introducing touch. They start off kind-of tentatively touching each other so SensethePoint suggests going deep, giving weight, basically deeply feeling. They dance like this together in a triangular fashion, moving in and out of touch organically, getting more and more intense and deep. The beat of the song gets more intense and SensethePoint has everyone go back to themselves with this playful ferocity that they’ve now cultivated.
The next song comes on and SensethePoint introduces the next step “retraction”, a process of, when receiving touch, retracting from the movement. They all go deep into the process and Mama Medicine remarks after a while about how she feels like she’s running away. SensethePoint agrees and say it’s because its a frequency that they’re recognizing and honoring in their bodies. They do this for a little longer and they feel the energy shifting ready for the next process and symbiotically the next song comes on.
This process is all about “embrace.” SensethePoint shows them what she means, but as they do it she realizes that they are thinking more about what it should look like if it’s called “embrace” (hugging and so on) then actually engaging the energy of the touch. They agree to change the name to “come” midway through as they discuss this and figure out the intended flow through a few experiments, and then everything changes. They start to move deeply organically and everything becomes more beautiful. They all remark on that beauty as they have a turn to watch while the other two have the experience. SensethePoint pushes everyone to deepen the experience a little more by really feeling into the process of the touch and the coming forward into it even more slowly. The experience is deeply nourishing (even though still slightly awkward as SensethePoint notices sexual energy beginning to arise more palpably) and as the next song comes on they feel even more ready and excited for the next process.
This one is called “dodge,” which SensethePoint says may be her favorite (but she doesn’t know because she never got to the fourth process fully with anyone before) and she barely has to explain that one before the flow begins, her only remark is to allow themselves to feel the energy of the approach deeply and closely only without letting it actually make connection with their body. Throughout the experience Mama Medicine remarks that it’s like the epitome of a high pitched playful “no, no, no, no” while scooting back on your tiptoes. The fun is barely manageable at this point. The laughing is impossible to stop. They run around attempting to touch each other with their hands, fingers, toes, heads, bellies, and the person dodging is even more hilarious to watch and experience. SensethePoint shifts the energy a little midway through wanting to experiment what it feels like to bring the element of embrace into the process of dodge, like a reserved embrace where you receive energy without losing yourself completely into it. This becomes more like a mirroring process with a beauty that’s hard to describe. It’s beautiful and yet still funny and they’re laughing so hard and using so much energy that when the next song comes on they cant help but take a break. They lay out laughing, get up to hydrate themselves, and remark at how funny it all is.
A full song passes before they’re up again and ready to move. Mama Medicine asks what the final process is excitedly and SensethePoint says it’s called “flip” and she shows it by receiving energy from the air, spinning it around her body and giving it to the air again. Mama Medicine laughs because she knows this move from SensethePoint oh too well, as they’re long time friends and SensethePoint always tries to have this engage with people at any dance floor she’s on. They began the process and so. much. energy. surfaces. It’s like they all are receiving, holding, and giving entire universes at their touch. They go back and forth laughing, screaming, rolling, jumping, until their comes a point where the energy is so much that SensethePoint literally can do nothing but lay on the floor and offer it back to the earth laughing at her incapacity to do anything else.
They know they need to close the process but SensethePoint is so nourished by it all that she can’t even began to think of a way to stop. She gleefully hops and rolls around to the music playing, playing the drum on the floor in rhythm with the song currently playing while Mama Medicine goes to the restroom and Mr. Good does chin-ups on a near by bar. Mama Medicine comes back with an idea and suggests everyone sit in a circle. SensethePoint puts on a calm song and they put their palms together, with their thumbs facing the left. They let the energy run through them again one way and then the other. They then bring it to the center, up around them, and finally they ground it and themselves into the earth.
SensethePoint is so deeply appreciative of Mama Medicine’s suggestion and communicates that and Mama Medicine and Mr. Good communicate how much fun they had and they sit a little longer and talk about the project they are working on outside of this process from a completely different place. They laugh more easily. Their vulnerability is more palpable and fluid and honored more easefully. Their expressions are more crisp. And they keep saying the same words at the same time together! Mr. Good remarks that they are now one and they laugh and smile and plan to do this again real soon.