Why is it taboo to talk about the excitement of the bodies? The body is always suspected, and the pleasure of the body is often considered misleading.
By
Saras Dewi
·5 minutes read
SALOMO TOBING
Saras Dewi
There are those who let themselves get complacent when reflecting on the various things in nature that move and grow in spiral patterns. The spiral configuration is spread throughout this world, we can see it in the sunflower crown, a snake that wraps itself around, the DNA structure, as well as the Bimasakti that is classified as a spiral galaxy. The spiral movement can hypnotize consciousness, when I see a tornado rolling in the distance, it becomes a moment of life and death that is difficult to forget.
The idea was splashing repeatedly when watching the dance performance titled Spiral by a young choreographer named Josh Marcy. Two dancers, man and woman, wearing monochrome costumes that seeped into their skin color, moved breezily, as if the wind spirit transformed into their bodies, circling, connected to one another.
The Spiral choreography makes me realize that even though the philosophical study that I focused on has dismantled the body and awareness, in reality, many new views about the body are worthy of contemplation. Stated in the Kundalini Upanisad yoga, a philosophy that deciphers the energy in the body. Kundalini can be interpreted as a coiled snake that is buried within the human body. The belief of the adherents of Tantra is by practicing breathing, processing awareness of the body, then one can turn on Kundalini in him. The Kundalini Upanisad yoga text discusses the body’s layers and how to ignite the great energy in the body. One of the key teachings in Yoga Kundalini is about chakra, namely the belief that there are vital points arranged in the body. Sarira - the word in Sanskrit which means “body” - in this sense is the contact between the Stula Sarira or the physical body that appears on the surface with the Sukma Sarira, the subtle part of the body.
In philosophical conversations, I often feel trapped in a view that distinguishes body and soul, material and spirit. Comprehension through dance helps me erode that prejudice. The body, is not only obvious, the outer layer, but the body, which is viscerally deep and poetic. Through the creation of the dance stylist, we are invited to enjoy the body that is spinning as if every person who witnesses it is sucked into the rotation of the body. Through a dance work titled "Hidden Skin", Josh Marcy questioned another edge of the body. The dance performance featured a dancer wrapped in a red-textured cloth, who burst out of darkness. The red color was an expression of what is beneath the skin: blood, flesh, organs, but at the same time the body which is erotic, serene, fragile. Accompanied by music that was thick with the influence of Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina, a composer of the Renaissance, the dancer seemed to wrestle with the cloth that surrounded him like a membrane. Slowly, after removing the red cloth, with a bare-chest, he danced freely to walk into the light.
The dance haunts me day and night, more than just about the nakedness, but about the scarcity of our knowledge lately about the beautiful body dancing freely. I pay close attention to how the body is currently controlled by judgment, discipline and regulation. The body is always degraded, even the body which is actually plural, is controlled in uniformity. Meanwhile, the marginal body is exploited and tormented with violence. The fact that the disappearance of the body cannot be separated from cultural habits, narrow views in social or religious norms. Efforts to create new spatiality through contemporary dance open alternative spaces of encounters among bodies filled with affection. This spatial awareness is nothing but a cross between the bodies, which confirms the need of the bodies for intimacy, acceptance, and the sense of care. This is what is made possible by the Dansity dance community, the trio of Yola Yulfianti, Siko Setyanto, and Josh Marcy who are dancers and choreographers who have longed for the field for the bodies to continue to create.
Why is it taboo to talk about the excitement of the bodies? The body is always suspected, and the pleasure of the body is often considered misleading. While doused in the dance performance, the writing of a female poet named Audre Lorde rings out. She said, "The erotic is strength." She explained that the erotic is creative energy that should be able to spread into all aspects of life. Erotica for Audre Lorde is an honest love, nuraga that preserves other bodies. This essay is indeed Audre Lorde's protest at seeing bodies that are constantly colonized and subdued by racism and sexism. She uses eroticism to understand the wild side and longing by the body for freedom and justice.
In closing, I want to dive into one of the goals of philosophizing, namely reflection on self-existence, "recognize yourself". However, how lame it would be if in that pursuit, the matter of the body is always dismissed, moreover despised. Isn't the only way to recognize oneself is to slide into one’s own bodily experience?
SARAS DEWI, Lecturer of Philosophy at the University of Indonesia
