3. Modes of Leadership

Differentiating Modes

We began by thinking about the idea of praying "alone together", and how that might look as a movement flow.  After Adina and I had an initial meeting in which we had some difficulty differentiating between the mode of "praying alone together" and "praying together", which we felt would be a wonderful mode to explore in our final session of the semester, we talked about different movement activities we'd done that embodied this particular type of prayer experience.

Being Alone with Others

Ultimately, this particular session became an experiment in planning backwards: we had hoped to try to facilitate a session of the Movement Minyan that was inspired by something I had experienced at the Silent Disco.  At this type of event, participants each wear a set of wireless headphones to which DJs broadcast their music, so the dance floor is essentially silent, lending itself to people's individual experience of the music while they dance together in the same space.

iPod Dancing

In order to give people a sense of the difference between the very modes ("together" and "alone together") we had had trouble distinguishing, ourselves, we decided to create a soundtrack that we could play twice: once over people's iPods and headphones for an "alone together" experience, and once over the speakers in the movement space for a "together" experience.

Outline

I. Theme (3 min)
Tefilat yachid and tefilat tzibbur - modes of leading and following
a) In what ways do these modes appear in tefilah?
b) Why are they a part of tefilah, what purpose do they serve?
c) What does it express

II. Frame (3 min)
Exploring praying "alone together": How do you feel when you're "alone together" versus "all together"?
Introduce warm up (see below)

III. Warm up (7 min) 

Everyone warm up on their own, focusing on three different areas

IV. Tefilah (5 min)
Silent Amidah with repetition

V. Physical practice (25 min)
a. Everyone dances to soundtrack on their own, with headphones on
b. Everyone dances to soundtrack played over speaker 

VI. Reflection (5 min)
Any reflections?
How does the presence of others affect your "aloneness"?
Is there any sense of following or leading in this mode?
In what ways did you feel "together"?

VII. Hand Closing (1 min)