Motifs of support 

Motifs of support  for improvisation   

1. Acknowledge what is touching you. air on skin, skin to surface, what’s being received through tactile sense, vision, hearing.
2. Give time, time, and then…. some more.
3. Don’t try so hard, trust the body unconscious. Our will can be entangled with our habits.
4. Let go (or attempt to) into the arms of uncertainty, she will guide you, most of the time.
5. Let the environment support you. What is touching you/you are also touching. Trust the reciprocity of everything. The key is just receiving each single moment like its your last, but without being dramatic about it)
6. When you enter what feels like a void, do not be afraid. Its just a void. Lean in, and learn from it.
7. Enquire with great care into what it means to be seen, to be visible and also invisible. Sharing our creative selves magnifies places of visibility and invisibility within us, have soft courage in questioning where you may need to grow. 
8. You are a human kaleidoscope, one small turn and you are new again, each moment is new.
9. If the inner critic/superego begins it’s monologue (of shame/Fear) – Invite it to the front seat and  give it a show/ dance for it/ with absolute abandon. It will gradually quieten it’s power.
10. You are multiple selves, like a choir full of dancing voices. Expand the self beyond what you know the self to be.
11. Have the courage to wait, seeing someone wait can be beautiful. Something will arrive.
12. Hang around with people who are in their 80s. They experience time differently.
13. The audience member who sits with a blank face, unimpressed by your dance moves. Thank them silently for giving you the opportunity to have to love yourself that little bit more.
14. Be on your own side.
15. Meet your audience with gratitude for giving their time.
16. Trust the edge states. Any creative endeavour is worth risking leaving the harbour of comfort for the wild seas of uncertainty.
17. Unbind the places within you where shame and expression have become confused.
18. Dedicate your dances to the dead, so that someone, someday, dances a dance in your remembrance.
19. There’s a place where you exist without language. You were there the day you were born, uninhibited expression through your eyes and gesture and voice. 
20. Transcendence is compelling, learn to be here in your body first. You can only transcend form through form. Always know where your feet are.
21. Hang around people who work in nature and with nature. They may feel time differently and you may learn from that. 
22. The body is a portal. Trust it to take you where you need to be.
23. Have a sense of humour about all of the above, laugh often.

Cai Tomos 2024