ABSTRACT
“The Big +” is a neologism I created to compel dancers to make connections between sensed tensional elastic lines stretching through three planes: right/left (sagittal), up/down (transverse), and front/back (coronal). These tensional lengths of complementary opposites link energy through a limb-to-limb connection, a limb-to-torso connection, or a limb-to-torso-to-limb connection. In pairing opposites as complementary, the point is to be aware of where all the limbs are and what the sensed energy is relating to throughout moving. A Big + awareness is a way to constantly monitor the complementary oppositions you are creating during movement. Opposition is not a new concept in movement, but the idea that you want to sense all these oppositions simultaneously to activate tensegrity in one’s body during movement is. The idea that these oppositions that need to be sensed and negotiated with are plural and not just in one plane is different. The body must dance in 3-D to find the Big +. To pair complementary opposites, a dancer’s awareness goes from a bodily parts view of a single limb to slowly questioning to find the complementary opposite limb. At that point it becomes easier to sense both limbs together as a connected line of energy in movement.
