

Sharing by members of "One is All, All is One"
Xi Yong:
1. Liberation / Primal Body
Meaning constitutes the everyday. Reach out, grab a water cup; squat down, pick up glass.
To satisfy daily needs, the body acts as a tool, becoming a bridge for the mind to engage with the real world. This body is interpretable, filled with "meaning," because action itself is driven by "meaning." For now, let’s define this narrow form of "meaning" as something that can be directly understood through thought, articulated in words, and logically deduced.
So, "liberation" means the body breaking free from "meaning."
The body is not just a tool; it is the purpose and the endpoint itself. It captures the images, stimuli, feelings, or responses that come to it and materializes them. The body is a dreamcatcher.
Perhaps the primal body we should trace back to is not the hunting period of humanity’s early days, but rather the beginning of every life—
the body of an infant: discovering, moving, exploring, feeling, fully unfolding towards the possibilities of the unknown.
2. Companions / Observation
Companions are not friends.
Walking along the same path, striving to achieve a common goal together.
The ways we support each other may not always be filled with positive energy, but love and respect are essential. After all, one probably cannot explore art in an environment lacking trust unless they dismantle their self-defense mechanisms.
Thus, the means of mutual stimulation is very important.
The choice of communication methods itself sets the tone for the art, while observing each other serves as the only source of judgment. Observation allows you to make subjective judgments based on objective observations, and then objectively observe your own subjective judgments. What we can do is probably just this—try our best to understand others.
3. Analysis / Reconstruction
This involves interpretation, distortion, or metaphor.
Establish your own views; write your own scripture.
Dissect, tear apart, digest, absorb, and then reconstruct into our own flesh and blood. The operation of organisms is the fundamental principle of alchemy.
All external opinions can be consumed as references; they are subjective food, easy to chew.
However, all great thoughts never focus on the conflict of opinions—who is right or wrong, or arguing about trivial matters. Instead, they concern objective rules and unchanging principles, digesting what cannot be deformed. Chewing on unchanging forms will reshape your mouth, adjust your teeth, and after expelling it, that unique smile is all you can leave behind.
Tiffany:
I started engaging with the RE-searching Routine led by Ting-Hsuan around January 2021, continuing until the performance of "One is All/All is One" in May. During this time, I trained in various locations, including sandy beaches facing the vast ocean, flexible wooden floors, and hard concrete surfaces. In my training, I mainly focused on analyzing and reconstructing the movements of my body. Occasionally, I would generate images, and only when these images were clear and interesting could my body be liberated, though I still have a long way to go to reach the "primal."
However, the training we did on the beach next to the ocean, surrounded by a campfire, left a deep impression on me. We spent four consecutive days training in the outdoors without mobile signal, and being immersed in nature allowed us to shed many of our habitual behaviors. The connection between body and mind strengthened significantly, making it easier for my feelings to translate into physical actions. I believe that experience was the closest I've come to the "primal."
Previous body training has made me understand that motivation is crucial for me. Without motivation, I cannot persuade my body to continue moving. In the "push-pull"/contact improvisation practices, I learned to draw motivation from my companions, sometimes responding to their tangible pushes or pulls, and other times extending invisible lines from my body to connect with others, being pulled along. In the Routine, when I see a companion become a wild horse running across the plains, I can become the wind, trees, or a little rabbit nearby. While observing my companions, I opened myself to establish stronger connections with anyone, allowing them to influence the rhythm, texture, or psychological actions of my movements (which are often related to imagery). Therefore, my companions are very important to me; through observing them, I gain motivation and help transform my body, exploring new realms.
Lastly, I want to emphasize that analysis and reconstruction are what I spend the most time on in training. Essentially, I analyze my body at every moment, judging whether it conforms to the framework of each stage. For me, these frameworks are the focus of the Routine training, as following them allows me to perform actions I wouldn't typically do in daily life. This, in turn, reveals images I wouldn’t usually associate with everyday life, releasing my body from the constraints of routine. Some stages more easily generate imagery; for example, jumping can turn me into a frog or a bird, while crawling can easily transform me into a beast. When I use my head to attack, I become a rhinoceros in mutual combat. Some stages require more careful adherence to the framework, such as in the "Branches" phase, where I often linger in the analysis of movements and may inadvertently violate the framework, but occasionally I might also become an angry person or a thousand-year-old tree spirit.
Ming Yan:
Liberation of the Primal Body
Beyond freeing the body itself, within the framework of the Routine, being aware of the interrelations between body movements, imagery, and emotions is also a significant aspect.
Imagery refers to the pictures we see in our imagination, which can be concrete—like a horse or a house—or abstract, like "peach-colored air," or even sensory imaginations involving temperature and texture.
The sequence of imagery and body movements will change depending on the situation. Practitioners can explore pure body movement, focusing on bodily perception without actively associating thoughts, allowing images to arise naturally (or not at all). Alternatively, one can imagine first, and upon the emergence of imagery, respond with body movements. Emotions and feelings may accompany the imagery. At this point, practitioners can choose to simply observe, letting them flow, or allow those emotions and feelings to influence the dynamics of their body movements.
Analysis and Reconstruction
The Routine provides several entry points for developing the body, allowing practitioners to improvise within the framework, recognizing their own movement processes (How to move) and understanding each part of the body that can move (What to move). The former involves perceiving body movements as intricately as possible, from the initiation point to the endpoint, tracking the muscles, joints, and skeletal weight involved. The latter is to clearly understand each body part, being able to isolate and utilize them while also familiarizing oneself with the connections between body parts.
Observation and Companions
In addition to personal exploration, being mindful of the entire group's state and understanding the condition of companions is essential in Routine practice. When delving into body movements, the presence of companions serves as an important reference. Within the same framework, how do others’ chosen responses differ from your own? By adapting to the visible body movements of others, one can open up unfamiliar domains and break free from unconscious repetitive patterns. Furthermore, while focusing on individual exploration, observing companions' reactions serves as a training of awareness. Where is everyone in the space? What is the overall atmosphere of the group? After observing companions, the next step is to decide how to integrate one’s conscious actions into the whole, whether that involves creating conflict or coordinating.
Tak Wing:
We develop a series of simple and clear physical activities as foundational principles, fostering continuous movement and inviting unknown imaginations.
Between different bodily forms and strengths, imaginations can suddenly emerge and then gallop, as does the body.
I am a wave,
I am a massive cumulonimbus,
I am a lion,
I am a rabid dog,
I am a horseback rider,
I am a rope thrown from a ship,
I am a member of the Survey Corps equipped with 3D maneuver gear.
Sometimes, the body even slowly constructs a distant fragment of memory (like a scene from a comic I watched as a child).
In this exploration,
I follow my imagination and body,
temporarily departing from daily physical activity patterns,
enjoying the surprises that belong to me and my body.
But I must consider balance,
because I have companions nearby,
so I am not creating a closed imagination;
my imagination must allow space for others.
I have let others become part of my imagination,
and I have also tried to immerse myself in others' imaginations.
I have also noticed
that over prolonged repetitive training and exploration,
I seem to slowly fall into a certain repetitive inertia.
When engaging in certain physical activities,
there tends to be a preferred rhythm or strength,
and upon realizing this, I will attempt to break it.