1. Alone and Together

Moving the Minyan to the Desert
Adina and I discussed the exciting opportunities for challenging the Movement Minyan to explore new horizons by facilitating two sessions at the Burning Man festival.  When designing these sessions, we couldn't know who we were designing them for, but could assume they would bring a wider range of familiarity with Judaism than our regular "venue", Hebrew College.  Through sharing and reflecting on some of our experiences in workshops there, and of the space and energy of the festival, generally, some themes that could be particularly engaging to explore with people on "the playa" emerged.  We noticed that some of the themes we'd already explored (of "togetherness" or unity and alone-ness or separation) resonated most deeply in this discussion, so decided that it would be powerful to revisit two sessions we had already done and think about how to make them deliciously immediate and accessible experiences in a context radically different from Hebrew College.



Principle #10: Immediacy
We decided two of the richest sessions to harvest material from and prepare for the desert were the
second and last sessions from the "Modes of Leadership" series (in the modalities of "call and response", and "everyone together", respectively).  As I began to brainstorm on my own (Adina didn't come to the festival this year), I had to examine the assumptions we made in designing the Movement Minyan with a group of rabbinical students, cantors and faculty in mind.  One of the first factors I considered in making the Movement Minyan more accessible and immediate for an audience that didn't necessarily have familiarity with Jewish liturgy was to use the Barchu instead of the Kedusha as the liturgical frame for "call and response" since it was easier to learn.  As the first session of the Movement Minyan at Burning Man, this verbal framework would also allow participants to directly experience the Barchu's liturgical function of lifting participants into a sense of holy community by formally calling the participants to prayer.  It was also a nice introduction to the next day's session, which centered around the Shema (and which follows the Barchu in the siddur.  Another alteration I made from the sessions we did at Hebrew College was to make time for people to introduce each other, since in these circumstances, the participants wouldn't necessarily be familiar with one another.


Bringing the Body into the Word
Over the course of the year we designed our sessions to open with a recitation of the liturgical framework.  As people became more present to and able to evaluate their Movement Minyan practice, several participants articulated that they only felt ready to pray after the "physical practice" or movement flow of the Movement Minyan.  Based on this feedback, I decided to place the recitation of the Barchu at the end of the session.  But upon further reflection, I decided I didn't feel comfortable asking people to recite this piece of liturgy because of its length, and relative unfamiliarity to a group of participants whose comfort with Hebrew and traditional prayer could not be assumed.  Instead, I decided to make the words of the Barchu part of the "environment" in which people were dancing.


Weaving a New Cocoon of Sound
However David, who had begun collaborating with us in creating what I termed a "cocoon of sound" - a wonderful improvised soundtrack that interacted with and responded to people's dances, and could delicately weave words in, if desired - was not coming to the desert.  Instead, I had to think about what David's looping added to the experience of the movement minyan, and think about how to replicate these qualities on my own: David's music didn't strictly dictate the movement of the dancers (there were no distinct rhythms that lasted for the entirety of his performance; and it was live, so David could respond to people's movement, rather them having to conform to his sound).  Also, his looping was ambient - it was part of the environment in which people danced, rather than at the forefront of their experience.  A third essential aspect of David's music was that it had an organic quality (though looped, using a machine) as it used only his voice.  Finally, this use of voice allowed him to weave in words of the prayer that framed the session.  Based on each of these observations, I created a soundtrack that ended with a recording of the Barchu.

Outline
I. Introductions (5 min)
Go around in a circle, starting with the facilitator (to model sharing).


1. Each person shares 1 word while enacting a movement based on that word ("how you're feeling"/"where you're at", or "your name" depending on what facilitator feels is most appropriate - I choose to have people share feelings).
2. Everyone in the circle repeats the pairing of word and movement.
3. Everyone takes a moment to breath to create space to "re-ground" between each sharing, and then the next person shares.


II. Introduction of theme (2 min)
Introduce call and response as a dynamic/mode of Jewish (and almost every religion's) prayer. Introduce the Barchu as an act of ritual welcoming into community and into collective prayer through a chanted call and response.


III. Frame (3 min)
In exploring the role of caller and the responder, I instructed participants to let the questions wash over them, and allow the one or two to sink in - and then to let all the questions go so they could be fully present with their embodied experiences.
- How do you feel when you're calling versus when you are responding?
- How do you open yourself to receive someone's call?
- How do you respond to someone?
- What does it take for you to present in the role of responder?
- What are you "responding" to when you're calling?
- What kind of dynamic does the call and response relationship create?


IV. Physical practice (25 min)
1. Split into pairs where one person is "caller" and holds different positions as the partner acts as "responder." I demo with my partner to show various ways to play as "responder." Examples: partners can explore from a distance or with contact as each partnership is comfortable, can move above, under, behind, through, around, etc.
2. Facilitator indicates when the "caller" should change positions
3. Invite people to switch roles after they are comfortable in these roles (5-7 minutes for each partner)
4. Then have two partners switch roles over smaller intervals (2-3 minutes, then 1 minute), until there's improvisational flow (if that seems comfortable)


V. Tefilah (5 min)
Played Richard Kaplan's version of the Barchu, so that the liturgy was woven into the movement, and those unfamiliar with it didn't feel excluded by an active recitation of the liturgy.


VI. Reflection (5 min)


Any reflections? How did it feel?


VII. Hand Closing (1 min)

Reflections


About 10-15 people came to this session. Because it was an odd number, I found myself both facilitating and dancing. The partner I danced with was experienced with contact improvisation, so we explored dancing in close proximity, and sharing weight in our dance.