Autor: Frank Lee Döllinger

When you practice flow movement, you frequently, out of nowhere, receive ideas or feelings for the moves you would like to do. Afterwards you may realize that your execution matches only 70% of the original idea. This is odd, especially if the movement would not have been physically or coordinatively challenging for you. For some reason, you avoided giving the expression its appropriate time and space. The expansion of your freedom to move into these excluded spaces will be the journey of your life.

The structure of the forbidden room

The room that you avoid entering has a structure that is determined by your beliefs. For instance, in western society, the pelvis is considered a sinful place. There is shame and fear associated with it. In the german language, the sex is called „Geschlecht“, which derivative of „bad“ and the whole area is named the „Schambereich“ which means the „area of shame“. Women are allowed to dance with pelvic movement to some extent, but for men, it’s in general a forbidden place. For most western men, the pelvis is a part of the body that is totally out of awareness. It’s a muted, almost not existing region. So if a movement runs through a man’s body and would enter the pelvic region, the male dancer would do something to bypass the pelvis or break the movement completely.

A life long journey

Because the inhibition of pelvic movement is strongly connected with the western imagery of what a man should be, regaining the pelvic freedom of movement would take the destruction and recreation of a man’s entire world perspective.

What is flow movement

We say that flow is an altered state of mind where a person loses himself and becomes one with his activity. Flow movement happens when the dancer is in an altered state of mind, where a stream of moves expresses through the dancer, without him needing to think about it.

Looks like flow, but isn’t

By nature, your mind wants to go a path that it has already taken. That is, when dancing, the mind suggests repeating movements that have already been made. It’s tempting because it feels safe and comfortable to stay in the already known world. There is a difference between evolution and innovation. The recombination of existing movements that have already been learned is evolution. But only when movements occur that are not recombinations or derivatives of other already known movements, then the movement is an innovation.

So if the sequence of movements is complex, but with altering elements of the same quality, the dancer is caught in a loop. This is a type of monotony that has the ability, like the rhythm of a drum, to hypnotize a person. The ego will take over the dance completely and every movement is the result of an automatism. The dancer could get lost in the stream of movements that could be mistaken for the „flow state“. But that is not the flow that we want to achieve as freestyle dancers. Falling into automatism is a form of unconscious sleep and what we want is a creative trance that is total awareness.

Be aware of repetitions

A good way to keep yourself from getting caught in a loop is to constantly watch where you are repeating your movements. Of course, you need to do repetitions to practice a movement, but be careful not to repeat it because it feels comfortable. Reinvent your style and your movement qualities again and again. Make an effort to break your own patterns.

„When you dance, your mind suggests repeating moves that you already know, and if you do so, you will be rewarded with a sense of security and comfort. Even if the movement sequence is complex, but with altering elements of the same quality, you are trapped in a loop. You could lose yourself in the stream of movements which could be mistaken as a trance. But what actually happened, is that you got self-hypnotized, which is a totally different thing.“

What is movement flow?

The flow behaves like an independent living being. It is obstinate and delicate as a cat. You can’t command the flow to come. It comes by itself. The flow comes and goes, but with training, the flow comes faster, and easier. The more flow experience you have, the longer and more intense it becomes. The ability to get into the flow is like riding a bike – you don’t forget it anymore.

Flow is just a clue

As a rule, the flow does not give you any exact information to move. It is about movement tendencies. The flow doesn’t give you more information than you need to get just an idea.

There are different types of flow

Depending on which flow you tune into, other types of movements come out. Chi Gong, Kung-Fu, Krumping, Feldenkrais, Breakin, Popping, etc. are different movement flows. There are speaking flows, writing flows, painting flows, etc.

The flow is always there

Whether it unfolds or not depends only on whether you are paying attention to the flow and giving it energy.

How do you get into the flow?

To flow you need the courage to dedicate yourself

It takes courage because the flow leads you into movements that are unknown to you. The unknown is always scary at the beginning. It takes courage and trust here. The flow changes people and that too is scary at the beginning. Surrender means stop trying to control something. Wanting to understand something is like wanting to control something.

„To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.„

– Pema Chodron

Have no idea of the flow

You can have an inner attitude, like a blank sheet of white paper. No motive, no direction, no intention. As soon as one believes to understand the flow, expectations develop. If these expectations are not fulfilled, one gets into doubt. The doubt kills the flow.

Do not think

To get into the flow you must stop thinking about the movements.

Judgement kills the flow

Judgment is a result of thinking, which is why judgment also separates from the flow. Negative judgment destroys the flow immediately. But you can’t give a positive judgment either because you’ve done something surprisingly beautiful for example.

Many mental comments come as well-intentioned advice or criticism: „The movement looks better differently.“, „I can’t do that“, „That doesn’t suit me.“, „That looks ridiculous.“, „I heard it that’s unhealthy. „, „That was a nice movement!“, „I’m not that flexible“, etc. A way has to be found to take the inner monologue out of its influence on the flow. The flow can just happen without judgment.

Flow is a process of remembering

As children, we are in the flow. We act out of inner impulses without thinking. Later, when we get older, we learn to suppress spontaneous impulses with well-considered strategies for action. Experiencing flow means remembering something you had as a child.

Keep the focus on body awareness

Move. Perceive every signal from your body, no matter how small. Examine it. Get closer. Move again. Always try to feel When you start pondering, return your attention to the feeling.

A distraction-free training ground

You need a protected space where you will not be distracted. It is difficult to go deep if you are constantly being torn out by ringing phones, children, etc. You should be certain that you can experiment undisturbed for a couple of hours because the mind does not relax when it does knows it doesn’t have enough time.

Sometimes it can be difficult to indulge in the flow when you feel watched. Perhaps there shouldn’t be any other viewers for the beginning.

Listen to good music

Music makes us feel. It doesn’t matter what we hear, the main thing is that it touches us. We can let ourselves be hypnotized by rhythms.

One thought to control all thoughts

Basically, meditation is also based on a thought: A thought that dominates and suppresses all other thoughts. Not thinking is also the work of thought. In movement flow, the task of thinking is to keep reminding you to stay focused on the flow. A thought that says: „Don’t get distracted.“

The problem with thinking

Thinking keeps you in the comfort zone

The mind wants to protect us against danger by trying to foresee the future and avoiding unknown terrain. When flow moving there are unknown emotions, unknown feelings, unknown movements, etc. Since we don’t know trance and ecstasy either, we don’t like to go there either. Thinking keeps us from leaping into the unknown. It keeps us in the safe comfort zone, i.e. where there is no growth. Thinking doesn’t like change.

Thinking repeats movements

Thinking tends to go again on a path that has been taken once. Thinking works with memories, i.e. knowledge of the past. This also happens with movements. When the mind memorizes a sequence of movements, it tends to repeat it over and over again. You then get into a loop and creativity falls asleep.