Hanging Body (Water Bag)

This is Yumiko Yoshioka’s Noguchi Taiso-inspired exercise.

Our bodies are water bags:

➤ As water bags, we are hanging from the thread connected to the

center of the earth and the center of the sky.

➤ Let your water bag hang from a thread. Where is the thread? Is it

tying the top of your head or your ear to the heavens, or your knee or

elbow? Find out how your water bag hangs, and feel its connection

to the earth through your feet.

➤ Shake the bag, or feel how somebody is shaking it.

➤ Reach up with your arms and then squat down in your water bag.

➤ Keep doing this until you feel a little tired.

Now take a minute to renew before continuing.

➤ Let the water flow and circulate, getting lukewarm so that the life

can be born; then let a wave occur. Sense how your body is just part

of a long transmitting wave. Make the wave in your own way, and

allow energy to flow smoothly, giving and receiving, go back and

forth for a while, then up and down. Give time to the wave in these

directions.

➤ Then let the wave move through your sides and around.

➤ Circle your torso in a wave. How does this wave feel in your feet?

➤ Rest for a short time now – just long enough to feel a new direction

begin.

Give wasted water weight back to the earth, and receive fresh water as we

continue.

➤ Take time with this. Think of becoming transparent water or thick

water like jelly. Play with these images of transparency and thickness.

➤ According to these images, your water bag changes. It is important

not to fix the image in the body. Rather, the water is like a kaleidoscope,

constantly changing. Think of action and reaction.

➤ Nothing can be done by force; just let it happen.

➤ At first, move consciously; then forget the movements as you let

them happen automatically.

How is your water bag dancing now?