the writing of kali

Now, in Pinoy Poetics, I wrote about the Kali of Writing, how breath, movement, the discipline of one art speaks to another, etc. But what I realized today, is that I failed to write about the Writing of Kali, how writing changes my kali. Because if you can do it one way, you can do it the opposite way.

Last Sunday, actually for several Sundays, Tuhan has been trying to get us to do what's known as the "running style" of kali, where your feet and body are constantly moving, no start and stops, rarely a pause. It's not something you can teach folks right away, you have to coordinate your feet with your hands first and to do that you first learn this stop and start rhythm. But how do you break yourself of this "basic"? Been pondering that for a while now.

Then it hit me tonight when I was talking with my students about answering that question, "how do I get myself to do the running style" because frankly, the body just ain't doing it on its own! I realized in Tango class on Sunday that the reason I wasn't getting the "running style" was because I've been too concentrated on the steps and not the sequence, that I'm looking to closely at the notes and need to think more of the phrase. Okay, but how do I get myself to DO that. Then it hit me.

I need to start writing more poetry with more phrasing, more sequences, think longer, think beyond singular words, but strings of words. That's how writing changes my kali!

If everything is connected, then to solve a problem in one area, I simply execute the answer in another area and the answer will translate itself. So, here's this thing I'm having trouble in Kali, the running style that I had no idea how to wrap my brain around. Then I went to Argentine Tango class and saw what the problem in Kali was, but I couldn't solve it there either, because I don't know enough steps in Argentine Tango to be able to think about sequences. But, but, I do know enough about writing poems and stringing words together that I could do this thing that I can't do in kali in writing. I can DO THIS! And if I can start to do this in my writing, my body will eventually figure out how to do this in my kali.

And this is why though the Chatelaine always had trouble figuring out which direction the kali stick should go, I had always admired the deft and skill she could string words. Which is also why I've had so many artists come through my classes, because they can see, how this physical movements speaks to them in their own media/form. Maybe they can't do the movement physically, but that doesn't matter as much as how the movement speaks volumes to them and perhaps can give them the answer they are looking for.

Right now, it's a running theory, quite a personal revelation, I'll let you know how it goes.