2. Modes of Leadership

Initial Thoughts
For this sessions we wanted to make a very clear distinction between call and response, that is to say between moving/saying and stopping/listening. By exploring each of these dynamics separately we could then examine the dynamic that arises as these boundaries shift throughout prayer. One goal was to keep in mind the question: what does it mean to be fully alive in this space? We knew we wanted to at least start with something very structured to highlight the unique aspects of call and response. We continued to discuss the idea of presenting what we've learned to community at some point, using these modes to present.

Call and Response
For this session we wanted to create a group experience involving listening and responding in order to explore the dynamic of call and response in prayer. Our center focus would be on the figure dictating action, as it is in traditional prayer. However, even as we looked at the different rolls of caller and

1. Modes of Leadership

Planting  Seeds
We began by setting broad goals for the Movement Minyan as it moved into its second semester of existence - namely that we wanted to use it to create an ecstatic communal experience, surface new ideas in relation to prayer and G-d, use the body to answer questions, and ensure people left the Minyan with a sense of a quality they want to recreate in their personal and communal prayer experiences.


Collective Action
Some of the experiences Adina and I discussed working with this semester included exploring in the dark with the body, doing partner poses, and guiding intense meditation sessions.  We also explored the idea of bringing in another Contact Improvisation exercise that involved the whole room moving and each person being responsible to respond.  Continuing to delve into our own experiences of ecstatic movement, we talked about my

Visions of a Movement Minyan, Part 2

It's All in the Question
We came back from winter break excited to expand and deepen our work with the Movement Minyan. In our initial session with Ebn we reviewed what we learned from our work with the Minyan first semester. One primary learning was the value of asking a question that can only be answered through the body. From being in school all day engaged in intellectual matters, our tendency was towards brain-centered questions. With Ebn's help we were working to shift these questions so that the body could provide the answers. Ebn was also helping us to break down a complicated question to its essence in order to make it answerable. For instance, there are so many nuances that could be focused on in the flow of prayer from the Shema to the Amidah. Ebn's questions and direction helped us narrow and simplify so that we could focus on one dynamic: the interplay between oneness and freedom.

Facilitation
Not only were we learning what questions to ask, but how to effectively facilitate an experience to

4. Unity and Freedom (Two Versions)

Embodying Unity
In our fourth session, we wanted to explore the experience of "unity" by exploring and playing with its opposite, "separation".  These are abstract concepts, and we challenged ourselves to make them as concrete as we could by grounding them in specific movement flows that we had enjoyed in our respective movement practices.  I had done several partnered movement warm-ups in my training in contact improvisation that embody these concepts, and in our discussion, Ebn, Adina and I strung these exercises together to create a movement flow.

Contact Improv, Meet Drama Improv
The three movement activities we decided to use were 1) individual improvised movement, in which the mover simply responded to the music in their own way, 2) a method acting warm up by Augusto Boal in which partners respond to each other by moving into and holding poses, 3) a mirroring exercise.  Initially, we discussed exploring moving from a state of separation to a state of unity by

3. Unity and Freedom

The question we began with: If Shema stands for oneness/unity and Geulah stands for freedom, what does it mean to say that oneness frees me?

Boundaries
To answer our initial question we began by searching for what we could take from previous classes to build on for this session? Last time we used the diea of boundaries and structure, starting with formal boundaries that progressively got looser and looser. We asked ourselves what question we wanted to put out at end of next session? Ebn reminded us of the power of doing something more than once ie) doing last week's class again and adding 1 element to it. Using relationship structure we could ask new question or same question in a different setting.

Three Poses
We decided to use three set yoga poses as our boundary or limiting factor. We would choose three

2. Unity and Freedom

Shaliach Tzibbur
Our discussion began with questions. In what ways did we want to engage the community - through group learning, group conversation, liturgy or a combination of all three? What sort of questions were we, as rabbinical students, currently addressing--through our studies or through work--regarding prayer? As rabbis we will often be in the position of leading prayer for our community. How do we both have an experience of prayer for ourselves and facilitate an experience for others? This question brought to our minds the role of one who facilitates prayer, the shaliach tzibbur. Knowing that we wanted to explore the relationship between G-d, the shaliach tzibbur and the kahal, we became interested in how the shaliach tzibbur simultaneously maintains a relationship with G-d and with the kahal, keeping the connection between all parts of the triangle (as Ebn diagrams it) alive. Whether leading prayer or participating with the community, what is our awareness like during tefilah?

Dynamic Tension
We knew that we wanted to draw on the shared knowledge of our rabbinical student community and to

1. Unity and Freedom

Starting with a Question
In brainstorming with Ebn, we decided we wanted to start with a specific question, "What's tefillah about?" as a prompt for a one word answer, and to think about that idea in terms of movement, and finally build the process of the session around that idea.  We took the "answer" of "close and distant" and explored how we could create a movement process with this theme.  Do we want to involve touch (sitting back to back - coming away and back towards the other person)?

Body Awareness
In any case, we wanted to keep the movement simple, and decided to start with body awareness - perhaps by doing a "body scan" and perhaps 5 Rhythms.  The way Ebn framed body awareness was using the image of a landing strip and talking about "how many bulbs are lit up around body".  Ebn  also brought up the idea of increasing people's "body literacy": how one movement affects other parts of body.

Visions of a Movement Minyan, Part 1

"Movement Minyan"
In our initial planning discussion with Ebn, Adina and I began to articulate the goals of the Movement Minyan.  Our broad goal was to create a "laboratory" that explores a specific question over a series of sessions, and figure out how to learn about it through movement (i.e., the question of "What is tefillat tzibbur," or communal prayer).

Dance as Prayer
One question we wanted to explore before planning our sessions was, assuming we can pray in a non-verbal mode, what makes dance "prayer", rather than non-prayerful movement?  Some of the factors we suggested were the way the movement space would be set up, people's internal experience of the movement, and the time that the movement happens.

Body and Practice
In creating our specific sessions, we decided we wanted to start with an introductory session to introduce people to their bodies and their relationship to Jewish practice.  Part of the goal of this was