From Dys/Function to Flow: Inception, Perception and Dancing Beyond Life’s Constraints

Abstract

When the existential state of flow is experienced, the flesh of oneself perceptually intertwines with the Merleau-Pontian flesh of the world. Perceived constraints and worries disappear, and according to Csikszentmihalyi, longtime researcher of flow, all that exists is the merging of bodily action and awareness within the timeless nature of the present moment. Such a state is highly desirable and for those who experience flow often, the path towards its onset might become automatic, even predictable. But what might it be like to experience a dys/function, such as an injury that veers one from this ‘automatic pilot’ course? Could such a circumstance, if mindfully embraced with a Heideggerian sway, cultivate a different kind of flow? Influenced by Daniel Stern’s concept of vitality forms, an affective attunement towards movement that attends to the nuances of force, spatiality, and intentionality/directionality within motility, this inquiry delves into the motile experience of finding a new footing in life, of embracing emergence, and exploring the cultivation of flow in both fluid and em/bounded/bodied ways.