\u2018Marmalade\u2019 is a collaboration of individuals and organisations coming together in Oxford to make it a better place for all by focussing on power, relationships, and place with the aim of shifting power and sharing it across the city.<\/p>\n Dance is an art form that exists in every level of privilege and oppression, and is used in every culture to express joy, to celebrate and to rebel. It can be both elitist and subversive, even at the same time. So obviously I signed up for this workshop the day after Easter Monday, thinking it might be a breath of fresh air after an emotionally challenging Easter weekend and two relentless weeks of childcare, which can bring out subversive intent in the best of us.<\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s been to some kind of creative workshop will know how they tend to go, but notably absent from this one was the \u2018ice breaker\u201d\u2019 or \u2018getting to know you\u2019 bit. The participants were for the most part strangers and didn\u2019t get to speak more than the odd word to one another until the end. We didn\u2019t know each other\u2019s names, roles, jobs, accents, or reasons for signing up. I\u2019ve had a similar experience in a silent retreat and being a nosy human, I find myself endlessly speculating about these other humans in my company. Who are they? Why did they sign up? Will I get to find out?<\/p>\n ‘And those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music\u2026’<\/em>\u00a0 (Friedrich Nietzsche).<\/p>\n The first exercise was to walk around the room. First, as if one were desperately trying to get somewhere as quickly as possible. Frankly, this one was far too familiar to me and I was glad to move on.<\/p>\n But soon we were asked to add a random movement into our walk. Just a gesture, anything. My thoughts were immediately drawn to the tics my daughter has developed recently, seemingly meaningless, repetitive movements, serving no practical purpose.<\/p>\n Odd. Kind of annoying even. Here we were, moving around a room and deliberately introducing tics to our gait. Next, we added another, and another, until we each had four, effectively meaningless but deliberate and intentional movements incorporated onto our travelling around the room.<\/p>\n At this point, and in these numbers, coming from maybe 20 people, the movements were no longer erratic but rhythmic, and possibly even meaningful, though who could say what that meaning might be.<\/p>\n Next, we began to meet one another, still wordlessly, but we were to offer and\/or receive a gift. The gestures and movements needed to express this gift and our gratitude and joy became part of the dance. We met one another as if we were meeting the first human we\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n We mirrored one another\u2019s movements, and this too became a dance. Small elements of touch entered the interactions \u2013 fingertips, hands. These interactions: facial expressions, fingertip touches and eye contact took on a profound communicative function which connected the individuals of the group still without having spoken to one another.<\/p>\n Eventually, to the horror of some and the excitement of others, we took our performance to the Said Business School where the Skoll World Forum of Social Innovation, featuring Al Gore as keynote speaker, was taking place.<\/p>\n We poured ourselves onto the concrete forecourt, performing our sequences of movements and our moments of connection and communication, much to the entertainment of the staff and visitors behind the glass frontage. Afterwards we learned that one of our number was taking part in the forum, and he disappeared inside once we\u2019d finished looking energised and full of a sense of fun.<\/p>\n We had a short session of discussion after the \u2018performance\u2019 where we realised that we had in fact communicated intimately with one another, we knew the movements of one another\u2019s bodies but not each other\u2019s names; we knew the typical gestures and type of mirroring a particular person favoured but not their job or nationality.<\/p>\n Just as not so very long ago, a person talking excitedly to themselves in the street would be judged insane, and now the Bluetooth earpiece means they\u2019re simply chatting to their boss, or partner, these meaningless movements can be perhaps interpreted more generously.<\/p>\n Moving \u2013 walking or perhaps dancing \u2013 down the street can be more than a means of locomotion but a deep connection with our fellow beings, whether we speak with them or know any of their standard data. What other communication are we missing by ignoring the medium and making assumptions about the value of information available from a person who doesn\u2019t speak?<\/p>\n Why walk when you can dance? Why talk when you can sing? Why rush on by when you can connect? Dare I add, why minister verbally when so much can be celebrated by silence?<\/p>\n Postscript: Grumpy old Nietzsche in fact found the sacred through the medium of dance and claimed his only act of piety was to dance daily, saying ‘I would only believe in a god that knows how to dance<\/em>.’<\/p>\n Read more here:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/WhatsAppImage2023-04-06at10.42.41.jpeg\")
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