R. Panjim, Goa, India
Dear Tish,
Hope this note finds you well!
More than a tonic for the soul, in the form of words, I’d like to ask –
As both a dancer and a poet, you hold two powerful means of expression. When emotion stirs your soul, do you turn to movement or words? Which one speaks to you first, and why?
Love,
R.
TD:
Dear R,
Hello…. I am thinking about a word you just used–what does it means to be stirred? For the soul to be shaken up as though it were a kind of dirty martini. I feel sometimes as though the challenge of living in these times with the pace of technology, is that it is hampering our ability to be ‘moved,’ to literally shift in our emotion from this place to that, that all the old modes of transformation and revelation and chamathkar are harder to access. The ways I know are the body and language. Without them I have fewer footholds to move through, to make connection. This past year I have felt words lose their power, meaninglessness parading as intent, or worse, the truth. There is a real crisis in language, and I think about what poetry can do in this moment, how it can navigate to arrive at a beating heart. I don’t know, but I know that when we hear something that is true, it shifts us differently, and this shift is first felt in the body. Perhaps there is your answer.
