Elizabeth Weitzen - Final Project

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Weitzen, Elizabeth: FFTT Final Project Overview Written Assignment

1. Describe your process. How did you choose your project? Why did you choose this method?

I had initially wanted to create a video online with my assigned cohort, but as the deadline drew

nearer, it became evident that what I had in mind didn’t really suit the time availability or project

plans of my group peers, so I pivoted! What I ended up doing was part collaborative

performance devising, part medical experiment, part practicing my own cueing.

I knew I wanted to explore neuro-reprogramming for pain management, because it is something

I have been very focused on as of late. I personally have experienced a great deal of pain,

particularly in the past few years of the pandemic, and I found immense relief via somatic

hypno-therapy. I was struck by how much overlap there is with Floor Flow methodology.

At the same, I had been investigating the overlap with performance devising (I am professionally

a theatre artist and movement director by trade, training, and practice) and these hypnotherapy

tools. I am familiar with many different somatic modalities, and in using them as devising tools,

but I began to wonder if the process of communication with one’s body and pain

neuro-reprogramming couldn’t itself be a kind of art or art process: either a performance unto

itself or the seeds and methods of devising a performance. This interested me both as a

process-oriented performer and as a person with a disability, an incurable chronic illness, who

also has family and loved ones who carry disabilities and illness through their lives.

I won a grant to explore this work myself in my own art: I pitched a proposal to create an

interactive piece (to be performed in November in New Jersey) wherein I could explore the

dreamscapes of my hypnotherapy induced body imagery and movement. I am thinking of

including “Bodywise” in the name. As is true with so many of my performance art projects, my

goal will not only be expressing myself, but encouraging the audience to express themselves

and their bodies, experientially learning.

So when I had to pivot from my planned peer group single video idea, I decided to ask a diverse

group of people in my life if they would participate. I included only people who identify or have

identified as performers, as I wanted to gauge the success of my “thesis,” if you will, that these

tools can create compelling performance. I also only included people who were willing to

engage with some kind of pain - physical or emotional trauma held in the body - somehow,

although they did not have to be in pain at the time of our work together. Finally, I strived to

cover a range of movement backgrounds and bodies.

On zoom, I recorded 25 to 45 minute movement sessions with ten people, using cues from

hypnotherapy and Floor Flow to induce a flow state, engage in pain reduction

neuro-reprogramming techniques, and lead the person through a short floor loop. At the start of

each video, I asked the person to describe in a few sentences both their movement background

and relationship to performance, as well as to rate their body in that moment on a ten point pain

scale (a common, subjective self-analysis used frequently in medical settings). At the end of the

movement, I asked each person to rate their body on the same ten point pain scale, to tell me

how they would feel about the movement we did being watched by an audience, either in its

current form or once further devised, and if any of the techniques we used might be something

they could use in a moment of trauma or pain to calm those sensations.

2.. What felt good ( or provided a healthy challenge) in creating this project?

I actually found myself getting into a flow state while cueing after the first couple videos! I lost

track of time and had to start setting quiet alarms so that I didn’t lead my participants way over

the time I’d asked them to generously allot to my project.

I am not super well versed in zoom and doing this project entirely online was a huge challenge,

but I learned a great deal. It was really lovely to have an excuse to connect via video with so

many people in my life while filming these, as I have been very socially isolated during the

pandemic.

3. What do you think your project offers the viewer/participat? (Tools for accessing a Flow state,

more awareness of the floor, etc. )

Most of my participants experienced their bodies feeling much better after our exercise (in a

couple of cases, the exercise actually stirred up some difficult things and they felt worse in the

immediate, but in all of those cases, they follow up with me later saying it was very cathartic,

worthwhile, and ultimately helpful) and every single person said they would use these tools to

help themselves in a moment of pain in the future to some extent. So I hope viewers of the

project are similarly inspired to use tools to help their own pain process when useful.

Most of my participants felt good or neutral about using this these techniques as a jumping off

point for performance or diving. I feel this part of the project needs more development, and as I

am creating a project for my grant award, I hope to continue on this work, finding a methodology

to pull these tools into a creative process that is repeatable and actionable for other artists and

myself.

4. If there is ONE thing that you would do differently, what is it?

I would start getting better at video editing six months ago. I typically, in my professional life,

have either edited very, very simple video projects, or I have hired an editor to collaborate for

more elaborate projects. I found it very stressful to have all this footage, a clear idea of how I

wanted to combine it, and a dearth of the skills needed to do so well, especially when I was

already behind on the timeline I would have liked for project completion because of my pivot to a

new concept fairly late in the game.

5. What did you learn from this experience that you will apply to your own training or teaching?

As a movement director, I am very used to cueing movement, but also reacting to bodies and

adjusting my cues to get the movement quality I am after. I am not used to offering cues without

the need for a “product” - an aesthetic or storytelling result. I had to resist the urge to coach my

participants into particular shapes or experiences. When I successfully did this, I learned a great

deal more about what my cues could prompt in different bodies. I also put a lot of effort into

incorporating the lessons from trauma sensitive cueing in FFTT, and I found it very interesting

that depending on the person’s movement background, they might be very likely to start in a

place of stillness and a submissive position in defiance or regardless of my cues. I believe this

was just people going to a familiar “start” position from other movement work. This opened my

eyes to how very non trauma sensitive so very many modalities of movement are, from the

fitness industry to dance to yoga to somatics. I am grateful for this insight and will carry it into

my practices as a mover, movement director, and a human.

2C. 1-3 Sentence Summary of your project.

What did you do? Why should anyone watch it?

(use this opportunity to entice others to check out your work). We will be loading your projects

into a “gallery” and these few sentences will appear under the cover image for your work.

Flow State induction for Neuro-Reprogramming of pain! I combined elements of self-hypnosis,

hypnotherapy, and, of course, Floor Flow, to conduct a little experiment. My ultimate goal was to

see if these healing movement practices could also serve as performances, or the basis for

choreography. Find out what happened!