Masculine and Feminine Aspects of Movement

On one level the masculine and feminine forces within are ineffable—experiences that can only be felt.  And yet, there is a simultaneous intersubjectivity:  Our internal experiences may overlap with one another and inspire each other when we attempt to describe them. Definitions of energies, like descriptions of divinity, are mysteries that disintegrate when grasped.  They also point back to source—that which manifests through each of us.  I offer the following short investigation from my own body, initiated in me by teachers across disciplines including dance, Pilates, Laban Movement Analysis, and tantra.

For me the masculine in my movement is the direction and containment of my form.  It is the structure by which I organize myself in time and space.  I engage to meet the conditions of the environment and assert my will to participate.  I lengthen my leg, connect through my core, and generate the force that lifts me off the ground.  I may also embody my masculine simply through energy alone, holding space with my intention.  My power is my presence.

The feminine aspect of my movement is receptive and sensory.  I allow myself to drink in the experience of any moment.  I am permeated by my own form—taken by it.  I dissolve into being moved; into being breathed, slipping into the gap between formlessness and form.  As I repeatedly disintegrate, I am simultaneously given myself.  I am beyond form.  My power is my openness.

These two states within me co-arise.  They are a tension and play of energies.  Sometimes I am conscious of one or the other, and at times I can feel them simultaneously.  I am drawn to the image of these energies making love within me—this practice brings me wholeness.

I offer you the permission—as much as you may allow me to hold this for you—to feel these energetics in your body beyond the limits of your sex.  We all carry both energies, and each serves the other.  I think it’s worth speaking to the fear (it has arisen in me) that diving too deep into either of these polarities could take us through a point of no return—one from which we’ll become unrecognizable to ourselves or unable to function.  Perhaps this risk is real, but my experience has been one of intrinsic balance.  As one side of me has grown so has the other.