My personal dance practice is heavily improvisational. I go into the studio and I improvise for hours. I do not improvise to practice improvisation, I practice improvisation to get into a flow state. The term “flow state” was coined in the 1970s by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly in his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play (Csikszentmihaly 1975). While the notion of “flow” is present in a myriad of cultures across time, for instance, known as wui wei in China, or rasa in India, Csikszentmihalyi was the first to extensively introduce this concept into the framework of modern day, Western psychology. Usually associated with athletes who describe being “in the zone”, flow state is characterized as a psychological state where one feels completely absorbed in a task, a feeling of effortless control, more attuned to their environment, less self aware, and a loss of perception of time and space. To flow is to experience an altered state of consciousness and come across a deeply gratifying “cascade of insights.” (Vervaeke 2021).
Kissing the cosmos: Entering flow state through improvisational dance
Dance can be the antithesis of a clock. Dance can teach us that time is not separate from the body. In fact, the moving body is rather a reminder that time and space are always in a dance. And the dance never stops, but it also never begins. One can tap into this dance, the same way that one can tap into a rhythm. By losing themselves and jumping into the flow of it all.
Rythm of the rolling hill, choreopgraphy: Markéta Fagan. Photo: Michaela Škvrnáková.