‘Danced by the Tree’
Ecosomatic Research Project (2020-22)
“When I am sensing a tree, I am not alone.”
“How does somatic-improvisational movement allow us to be reached and changed by the embodied presence of trees?”
— Raffaele Rufo, Danced by the Tree
Danced by the Tree: Solo somatic-improvisational dance practice-based research
This emergent and exploratory assemblage of dance-led enquiries aim to displace the assumed separation between human and arboreal life to embrace the possibility of relating with trees as intimate companions of movement and perception. The enquiries are positioned within the emergent interdisciplinary field of ecosomatics. This field includes a variety of direct sensory approaches to embodiment that refer to the whole person (physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual) and that investigate kinaesthetic awareness and the human body’s multiple living systems in a dynamic relationship with other beings and the natural environment.
Sensing with trees is engaged as an improvisational and phenomenological earth-body practice through which the felt sense of movement meets and is met by the experience of something being felt and languaged in the light (and shadow) of the more-than-human. The embodied and emplaced enquiries reveal that an intimate encounter with trees cannot be constructed. We can work on slow processes of listening and attunement by opening our senses and imagination to arboreal livingness and responsiveness. The human-tree encounter is evoked as an improvisational dance which decentres human agency and allows us to be reached and changed kinaesthetically and affectively by the ‘planty’ and ‘woody’ presence of trees. Reciprocity emerges as the awareness of a deep ecological shift of perception: we are not only sensing and witnessing trees; we are also being sensed and witnessed by them. We are not only dancing with trees. We are also danced by their presence.
Language - as the articulation of the internal adventure of movement through words and audiovisuality - is explored as a medium for dwelling on the somatic threshold of the more-than-human and for sharing the experience with others. This is a work of exposing our vulnerability and tracing the movement of attention between inside and the outside worlds.
“The process was driven by a desire to be out there with nature every day, to step over the line of abstract thinking and meet the earth halfway with an open attitude of investigation. Be it with a warm sun and a clear sky or on a cloudy, windy, rainy or freezing day. I would go out on my bike early in the morning, after taking my kids to school, and I would continue the exploration in the afternoon until sunset. I wanted to challenge the comfort zone of my urban body as a clean, safe and detached body. I would lie and roll on the soil, the grass or in piles of leaves fallen from trees - be them dry or wet. I would move in deep contact with the bark of the trees - be it soft or rough. I would touch the gelid water of the river with my naked hands and feet.”
— Raffaele Rufo, Danced by the Tree
“‘Danced by the tree’ is a movement and sensory-based framework of embodiment, that cultivates sensitivity, responsiveness and participation in the concert of the wills of the ecosystem.”
— Raffaele Rufo, Danced by the tree
Lying under the tree: Witnessing and being witnessed - Ecosomatic exploration
Short video essay of the ecosomatic practice-research conducted by Raffaele Rufo in Autumn 2021 in an urban park in the periphery of Milan.
Lying under the tree is a mode of embodiment where human perception is met by a radically different way of sensing and responding. To stay here is to become a witness: of my heart, of my breath, of this earth, of this tree. To stay here is to be witnessed: by layers of broken branches, pieces of bark, bits of leaves of different kinds and colors, pebbles, worms and insects, moisture, and dried matter.
Grounding with trees: Between earth and sky - Ecosomatic exploration
Short video essay of the ecosomatic practice-research conducted by Raffaele Rufo in Autumn 2021 in an urban forest in the periphery of Milan.
Like trees, human bodies are the meeting point between earth and sky. As the trunk pulls upward, the roots are pulling downward. As the roots pull downward, the trunk is pulling upward. This constant tension between different forces defines the movement of becoming. Grounding is growing creatively out of the constraints that define our sensibility and our sentience. Trees are masters of grounding. To learn this art, we need to awaken our senses and our imagination to the possibility of a more-than-human perceptual interchange.
Shaping into the branches: Touching and being touched - Ecosomatic exploration
Short video essay of the ecosomatic practice-research conducted by Raffaele Rufo in Autumn 2021 in an urban park in the periphery of Milan.
When you sit, lie, or stand on a branch, your movement depends on the presence of the tree. You can feel how the tree is demanding something of you. The tree demands your sensitivity to its structure and to its shapes. It demands your responsiveness to its breath and to its touch. It demands that you listen to its height and width, to its softness and firmness, to its individuality and its participation in the larger ecosystem. The more you accept these demands, the more you can have an intimate sense of your body and of your movement as part of something larger than your individual self.