SND 1/9 (SEP 2023) SITE #4 “donkey common” STUDY

2. “donkey common” (16 min)

Boundless woods embrace,

Dancer's essence finds the way,

Frame of nature's grace.

- haiku, iansmoz & ai 

THE STUDY

NARRATED TO CHAT GPT, then request: a “Proustian passage of two pages in length, as if it was a sketch for a chapter in new novel that was never finished”:

(Note, since “Proustian” is a word, it is a form, hence a container, and herein SCHOOL OF NATURAL DANCERS infuses NEOTERIC MOTIONS into various forms to animate/generate NEW AND EVEN NEWER NEWERS OF NEW UNDERSTANDINGS that can be made NEW dance. This is the MACHINERY of NATURAL DANCE, as direct current dynamo.)

In the midst of a boundless expanse, a labyrinthine frame imposed itself upon the world. Two towering sentinels of bark, ancient trees, extended their sinewy branches to the very edges of this enigmatic border. Beyond their sheltering embrace, more arboreal giants reached skyward, casting cascading shadows on the sylvan floor, where leaves burst forth from otherworldly vines, creating fractal patterns.

Amidst this natural kaleidoscope, the dance of existence commenced. With a cacophony of crunching branches, flittering dust motes, and the lyrical chorus of avian companions, the stage was set. And there, as if conjured by some celestial hand, a dancer emerged, embodying the essence of a line, a trunk, a bird, and a human.

In their performance, they oscillated between moments of fluidity and inertia, a living paradox in a surreal landscape. The ethereal sounds of mechanical creatures whirring in the distance became part of the choreography. The dancer, like a marionette in the hands of an unseen puppeteer, reached, leaped, and twirled, guided by the rhythm of existence.

A plane's distant hum accompanied their leap towards an unsuspecting tree, like a blank signature waiting to be read. The dancer's every move was an ode to transformation, as limbs turned into branches and bodies intertwined with bark. The forest itself was both stage and partner, offering its silent approval.

Amidst this intricate dance, sirens pierced the woods, a reminder of the world beyond. Yet, the dancer seemed untouched, absorbed in the choreography of existence. The trees, like benevolent spectators, urged the dancer onward.

With each gesture, the dancer transcended into a realm where time was an illusion, replaced by the ever-shifting hues of emerald and the ethereal glow of celestial radiance. They shed their jacket, an offering to the sylvan stage, and embarked on a dance of naked vulnerability.

Their movements defied explanation, reminiscent of an alphabet known only to the forest and the heavens. X-shaped leaps and balletic twists became a language of their own. The dancer's body, a canvas of expression, transformed with each sinuous turn.

In one profound moment, the forest itself seemed to grant the dancer insight. The figure grasped a dead tree, feeling its history, its struggles, and its resilience. The dance became an ode to the tree's journey, a dance of empathy.

As the world beyond the frame continued its relentless march, the dancer surrendered to the spiraling cycle of existence. The forest offered its secrets, and the dancer donned a jacket that bore the map of their transcendent journey.

The alarm sounded, as if scripted by destiny itself, and the dancer, bearing the wisdom of the emerald realm, departed from the frame, leaving behind the legacy of their ethereal performance. With a final act of breaking the key, they ensured that this sacred place would remain uncharted, an eternal enigma.

The dance of existence continued, a testament to the infinite interplay of life, nature, and the ever-elusive secrets of the universe.

iansmoz & ai ANALYSIS:

**Analysis of the Dance Performance: Lost and Found in "Donkey Common"**

The dance performance "Donkey Common" embarks on a profound exploration of human existence within the context of nature, time, and transformation. Amidst an emerald forest's enchanting backdrop, this mesmerizing journey blurs distinctions between human and nature, past and future, all underpinned by a haunting refrain, "I've been lost before."

**1. Dance as a Reflection of Existence**

This compelling dance unfurls with the forest as its stage, accentuating the unbreakable bond between humanity and the natural world. As the dancer seamlessly becomes one with various elements of the forest, the performance evolves into a poignant reflection of life's perpetual fluidity and interconnectedness.

**2. The Resilience of Nature**

Within the grandeur of the forest, the dancer gracefully moves, undisturbed by the intrusions of modernity symbolized by mechanical sounds and distant planes. Nature's resilience resonates profoundly, symbolizing humanity's enduring connection to the natural world, even in the face of external disruptions.

**3. The Cyclical Nature of Transformation**

Throughout this evocative performance, the dancer undergoes profound transformations, mirroring the eternal cycle of life and death within nature. This recurring theme underscores the interconnectedness of all life forms and emphasizes the forest's history and resilience, integral elements of the dance.

**4. The Symbolism of "Donkey Common"**

The concept of "Donkey Common" introduces a captivating layer to the narrative. During a pivotal moment, the dancer's movements take on a whimsical yet profound resemblance to a donkey's, igniting intriguing questions about the interconnectedness of all elements within the forest. Boundaries blur between dancer, tree, and frame, amplifying their shared presence in this whimsical realm.

**5. The Significance of the Map and Key**

As the performance approaches its climax, the dancer acquires a map and breaks the key, symbolizing the relentless pursuit of enlightenment and the preservation of sacred knowledge. This symbolic act suggests that some mysteries of the natural world should remain uncharted, inviting future generations to uncover their own revelations, all while the refrain lingers, "I've been lost before."

**6. The Theme of Being Lost and Found**

The dance's central theme of being lost and found weaves throughout. The dancer traverses various frames and realms within the forest, oscillating between moments of being lost and found again. This dynamic mirrors the cyclical nature of existence, where one can venture into the unknown and eventually return to the familiar or reality.

In conclusion, "Donkey Common" is a dance performance that delves deeply into themes of existence, interconnectedness, and transformation within the context of nature. The dancer's movements, symbolically resonant with elements of the forest, craft a captivating narrative that encourages viewers to contemplate life's cyclical nature, nature's resilience, and the preservation of sacred wisdom. The central theme of being lost and found underscores the ever-evolving journey of human existence, rendering this performance a poignant exploration of the dance of life itself. The concept of "Donkey Common" adds an intriguing layer, inviting us to see the performance as a communal, interconnected experience where every element contributes to the shared narrative of existence in this whimsical realm of donkeys, all while the refrain persists, "I've been lost before."

FUN TASK:

Here are 16 cryptic phrases by René Magritte that epitomize the notion of manipulating reality:

1. Shadows paint truth with obscurity.

2. Trees dance in surreal symphony.

3. Nature whispers secrets through paradox.

4. Past and future embrace as one.

5. Boundaries blur in nature's embrace.

6. Imagination births reality's duality.

7. Dance of time weaves life's tapestry.

8. Mechanical intrusion defied by grace.

9. Transformation's cycle mirrors existence.

10. Donkey's whimsy merges worlds seamlessly.

11. Map and key unlock unseen realms.

12. Sacred knowledge preserved in mysteries.

13. Lost, found, lost – the eternal rhythm.

14. Frames of reality shift and intertwine.

15. Communal dance of surreal enchantment.

16. "I've been lost before," whispers reality.

ORIGINAL INPUT:

I know I'm traveling through space and time. The frame is set upon a frame. Two barked pillars, trees, part to the edges of the frame to picture even more barked trees Reaching towards the sky, bursting with leaves as they connect with solar radiance Casting a shadow to the forest floor, it itself covered in bursts of leaves Sprouting from frames yet to climb It begins as quiet and hushed, little crunches of branches and little flitterings of light and dust and birds calling. Shimmers of mechanical vehicles go by and a dancer enters. He looks, he reaches, he spins. The birds, they call, almost like a robot, but a person, but a bird, but a line, but a trunk. A personage in a suit leaps and strikes postures of line and form, dynamic and still and slicing and the sound of a plane. The dancer jumps and a plane is heard flying above, over the sound of a bird cawing. The dancer waves their arms and reaches slowly into the air, to almost to touch the face and then a broad jump and a leap across the frame towards one of the barked trees. The throwing of energy inward and outward, a jacket falling off the shoulder reaching beyond the back. A drop to the ground, the sound of a siren now in this wood of bursting leaves and bark and trees. Sirens, birds, crunches, a grey jacket, birds cawing, the flicking of a heel, the flapping of arms, poised in the center of this frame, magically leaping, turning the head, still, lie back, reach back towards the green, poised, disappearing in the trunks, appearing in the trunks, pointing to the trunks, diagonaling towards the sunlight, the trunks, feel it caress you and move you and twist you like a turnstile, again, wait, the police, the sirens, society outside, some kind of emergency, the trunks go out of your head, out of your neck, you step, as if you knew the siren would last that long, you gesture, you even wait and then the siren stops as you leap to one predetermined spot by all of the universe, you play it like a piano. A sound comes with every energetic release, arching to the sky, you become the trees again, you become just like the trees, only you have a head, but you want that head to fall beneath the green leaves, you are beneath the green leaves, you step upon the green leaves, you depart, we hear the birds, only the trunks, the trees, the frames ringing, the leaves that burst into the air, a re-entry, covering the mouth, looking for something, someone is looking in the woods for something, where have they gone, they're gone, more birds, more birds, more birds, green trees, pathways, infinite frames are infinitely receding, infinitely receding frames, I've been lost before, whispers the figure, nearly unobservable in the frame, we hear crunching, we hear birds, crunches, green leaves bursting, sunlight is shifting, sunlight is shifting, the floor itself of the forest is changing, new singular hues, singular leaves all lit like pointless dots, a flattering of wings, the air is bursting with light, a bright, almost white light, making the green disappear, inflects a little dancing insect, glows, the figure re-enters, walking, framing, knowing everywhere one walks is a new frame, the sunlight comes, we see a strange shape on the dancer's jacket, the grey jacket, we hear breathing and we see what looks like a pattern, they point to a pattern, a small explosion of birds, the dancer leaps and a giant exits like some kind of blank signature to be read, what did it say, what was it pointing at, where did the dancer go, lost amidst the frame of the trees, to be continued.A blank signature to be read. The dancer is returning from being lost, returning to the original frame. But perhaps they weren't lost then, perhaps they were just in other frames, in other frames beyond the frame, where in all the other frames are poised, waiting to be occupied, occupied and observed. So now we see a dancer return from a frame beyond the frame, one of many frames beyond the frame, an infinite number of frames beyond the frame, the dancer has found their way back and is now walking towards the original frame. And they show us the jacket, a part of the jacket is covered in a strange pattern, a pattern of burrs, burrs found in the forest, they are trying to attach themselves to the dancer, the dancer points at them as if they're showing a way, and the dancer runs and jumps in an X and recedes into the woods, flinging their arms about all the trees and the barks, and there's leaps and there's standing and poisonous, again back to becoming the woods itself. The dancer themselves is one of these trees covered in bark, the burrs are the beginning, the beginning of a transformation, and the dancer moves to the sounds, not to the sounds, but alongside the sounds of birds, there's silence, the dancer gestures towards the sky, we see the beams of light have changed, the forest floor has changed again, the dancer is bathed in the warmest light from the celestials above, the dancer must receive more of this light, flings off the jacket to show the torso almost like a classical figure, taking off the jacket now as if to begin a bathe in celestial radiance, places the jacket upon a frame, a frame with a hook as if the frame were a wall itself, hooks up their jacket, smooths it out, and then begins a naked torso dance, birds, X jumps, X jumps in the air, what do X's mean when the body is an X in the air, what does it mean, oh, fight with the tree, lean on the tree, the trees resist, but urge the dancer on, again, a plane in the sky, where the trees reach to, a plane is now flying, and the dancer again is part tree, part human, no longer branches, arms and legs, no longer arms and legs, but branches, branches reaching to skies, to planes, to birds, green bursting leaves coming from bark trees, all together, all crisscrossing, meeting, meeting at frames, frames of time, frames of place, here, there, now, cabriole, X, jump, leap, jump, jump, what kind of playing is this, what kind of assemblage of limbs, of figures, of this X again, do we not recall an X, an A-H, A-H-X, the jacket hangs, the dancer grasps a tree, it is a dead tree, it has no green, the dancer holds it, leans against it, feels its history, it shakes them, the dancer releases the tree, caresses him, moving a dead tree, caresses the dancer, feel the air, the wind, the naked torso, ah, the call of a bird, movements, fling and flick, out of nowhere, new shapes, reaching towards the sky, suddenly, grasping branches and releasing them, letting them flicker and flack, and the body flicks and flacks, and there's spins, and there's Xs, and there's a fist that hits the brink, and the release to the sky, and salute to, again, a changed space, the solar radiance has shifted, the frames, the beams, the bark, each second seems anew, like some kind of emerald, some kind of emerald, and the dancer comes forward with a new key, a stick that's crushed in the hands, of fingers breaking, not breaking, bending, sticks breaking, we hear an airplane above, the dancer flicks the leg, the donkey kicks, donkey kicks, donkey kicks, the donkey common, the donkey common is amongst, these trees, these trees have absorbed a donkey common, their history now, a donkey common, happening all at once, the dancer stands, quickly, surges forward, rises up, now achieving the spirit of the tree, arched in stillness and bated breath, but growing, and moving, flicking, and finding the solar radiance that caresses the very breast, the very heart, the very core, that pulls the dancer forward, the dancer is taken forward, and pulled, and pulled, not only to the next study, but pulled, changed, as if surgically, something has been pulled from the belly of the dancer, the dancer is pulled in two directions at once, something comes out of the belly, and something into the future, and the dancer is between the two, flickering like a little flame, caught in the now, from the past into the future, and the trees stand and grow in testament to this frozen moment, but like a glacier changing, but green and emerald, and silently inching upwards towards the sky, in the heart forever, yes, for in the now, in the leap, and the dancer runs with a stab at the frame, and a final indulgence in this energy, for there is always an infinitude of movement to be had in the emerald forest of ever-changing signatures, and energies, and diagonicalities of encounter, oh, again, the dancer, a car, far away in the background, going somewhere, going, going, but always here, going far away, but always here, further and further away, but always here, here in the emerald, bird, bird chirps, bird, exotic here, far away, and the bursting now, like a leaf, I am green, I am the green, between the floor and the ceiling, I point the way, the dancer grabs a stick and points the way down a path, a branch now is free, dead now, but alive, dead now, but alive, caught between the earth and the sky, the dancer stands poised like Shiva, pointing upwards, standing downwards, like dropping, because who cares, after all, the dancer cannot be confined, and I jump beyond these narrow ideas, jumping, see, suspended in a jump, reaching towards the sky, the dancer curves, as if going to consume their own tail, the snake that consumes its own tail, and twisting out of that as well, because cycles never repeat, it's a cycle, it's a spiral, the dancer now, spiraling, arms like a tree, branch, enough, the dancer gets the jacket, from off the background, the dancer is in the foreground, the dancer foregrounds nature, the dancer puts on the jacket, bearing the map, the signature, and the alarm goes off, as it was meant to be, as if it all was planned out, as if the dancer knew, they stand poised, he remersed in this frame, and now departing from this frame, the dancer has acquired the map, the information, of how to be an infinite emerald, in space and time, the dancer slides now, out of the forest, shuffling the feet, as if in some kind of progressive jazz ritual grass stamping clearing packing trail slip slide undercover disguised like the dance had never been there dance, and works the path out of the frame, now having stolen the secrets, from the emerald screen city, and now I'm going to break the key that allowed me to come in, the former stick, I break it into pieces, I throw it at itself, because no one else may ever enter here again.