ICK AMSTERDAM BLOG

Double Skin/Double Mind #2: The experience of a dancer
— October 2, 2018

During the 1990’s Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten developed the dance method Double Skin/Double Mind. This method inspired many dancers over the years. An example is Alejandro Longines, dancer at Ballet National de Marseille. What does Double Skin/Double Mind mean to him and how does he experience the method in his daily practice?

Double Skin | Double Mind (DS|DM) can be defined as a dance method that helps the body to expand as much as possible in order to achieve a certain sensitivity. Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten developed this method to allow the body to create a direct connection with the skin and the mind.

A double expansion

For me as a dancer, it is more than just a method, it is a philosophy in movement. The expansion of our body could not be possible without a previous mental expanding. That is to say, sometimes without thinking, the body can reach an expansion but the moment we allow the mind to enter, the creation of new movements can be blocked. For me, it is this double expansion, objective (body) and subjective (mind), that the name Double Skin | Double Mind embodies.

This subjective expansion can go in two directions: we speak about “attempt achieved” when the body uses the mind to reach an unexplored physical estate and about “attempt failed” when the tiredness of the body enters the mind and restrains the research. This philosophy of movement allows me to reaffirm the idea that the mind can reach impossible and unimaginable things; with the simple thought of “my body is only flesh, and I am my body”.

From the very first moment I came to Marseille, I have been trying to find the relation between DS|DM and the encoded British style of ballet, in which I received my education at the English National Ballet School. I strongly believe that finding a new connection, physical and mental, between both disciplines, could lead to a dance with no limits. There is nothing better or more beautiful than a free dance without any kind of restrictions.

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 La danza es emoción y también es expresión, en resumidas, la danza es vida. 

Read more about the Double Skin / Double Mind on our Blog
#1 Ways of documenting and reflecting
#3 Dansen Denken (Danser Penser)
#4 The aging body

Portrait: Thierry Hauswald
Photo in studio: copyright BNM

— Article written by ICK Amsterdam

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