The warp and the weft R&D day 3
On Thursday we returned to the studio for our third R&D session for The Warp and The Weft. I chose to build on the explorations of Tuesday’s workshop, rather than take on any new content, as I wanted to try and enact the reflections from the start of the week and refine my delivery. The format stayed the same, but I wanted to shift the focus more intentionally toward imagining our future threads - using the tapestry metaphor to reflect on personal agency and possibility.
Greetings
We began with the free writing prompt of ‘arrivals’ and the participants were invited to write for 3 minutes on their arrival to the studio that morning. This allowed us all to land in the space and share a little about the shape of our days so far. Then, we went on to a physical warm-up, using “Yes / Yes and / No” as a framework for movement-based conversation. This structure helped us settle back into our bodies and the space, and meet each other through moving together.
Fabric of life
We then revisited our memories through fabric - reflecting on three key items from childhood, adolescence, and now - and then translated the emotional and physical qualities of the fabrics into movement. I guided the participants through placing the movement quality in their hands and then exploring how it could sit in the rest of the body - allowing gestures and sequences to take shape intuitively.
From there, we returned to the metaphor of life as a woven tapestry. After listening again to the recording from my grandmother and looking through a few filmed demonstrations of weaving, we again considered the questions:
What is your warp? (What are the threads have you been given and that you weave over/through?)
What is your weft so far? (What is the make up of your life tapestry so far?)
What is your future weft? (What do you want to weave in next?)
This time, more space was given to that final question. The responses were reflective, emotional, and complex. From what we wrote in response to the prompt, we picked out three key ideas, or words, to focus on, which we wanted to manifest for our future wefts. We then developed these ideas into movement and shared them with each other through a final session of “Yes / Yes and / No”. Each participant would start with their own set of movement gestures from their initial ideas. Then, we watched the movements created by others. Finally, we began to replicate and repeat everyone’s future manifestation movements, as well as blending them together, until we had a huge dance party tapestry of everyone’s movements and manifestations!
Reflections.
We had a really amazing and rich session, uncovering lots of personal truths as well as new discoveries about the development workshop. We found that thinking ahead to the future wasn’t easy - “sometimes it’s too big,” one participant noted - but the conversation it opened up was rich and vulnerable.
“I identify more with the warp. I know what I’ve been given. But imagining the weft - that feels harder.”
“Even just talking about the future makes me feel like I’m suddenly not quite in control of it… but also kind of inspired by that.”
Others shared how the process helped them start to untangle what they do want going forward, even if they couldn’t name it clearly yet.
“It’s not about knowing exactly what I want to weave… but just realising that I can.”
I left with lots of food for thought about the specific timings and facilitation of the workshops but also a new wave of motivation and belief in the importance of them! I have been so grateful to have extra hands in the weaving this week offering new ideas for stitches, colours and textures to add, and I can’t wait to get stuck in again soon!
See you next time,
Izzy
