Light

Often when I approach the bandstand, I see images. These images sometimes move, at times they speak and sometimes they are still.

An image I see frequently, is that of myself jumping from the highest mountain. As I jump it seems as though I’m simultaneously cognizant of the possibility of falling and perhaps hurting myself. At the same time, I feel also attracted to the idea of jumping regardless of the consequences.

In other moments, after jumping I float long enough to a point where I start thinking that I’m carried by a grace that is stronger than any gravitational fields. At the back of my mind I also feel that a glimpse of grace, a short lived moment floating and be-ing in the air is worth the probability of falling with all its implications.

This bandstand situation in improvisation has also taught me that navigation and walking these journeys is in itself is an accomplishment. As such I have learned that goals in a sense of reaching, finding and arriving to something are to a certain extent some type of illusions. I have learned to make my process matter, doing is my new fascination, just to be immersed in process itself is fulfilling.

In my dreams I float with the wind, through this body I improvisor, inside the song I divine but in the true essence of my spirit I fly.

Thoughts on improvisation

Nduduzo Makhathini

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