gravity?

Meditating on three activities: hiking the AT, acroyoga, and contact improv... their relative merits, relations to gravity and partners.

Hiking the AT: mostly male, often solo, extremely grounded, weighted down with 50 lb. pack, 8+ hours a day of direct work with gravity, placing one foot in front of the other. Points of contact: pack to shoulders / hips, feet to ground. Basic goal as I realised it: to move the pack North. because the pack has become your base. you can run ahead without the pack, but eventually you have to go back and get it. The distance only counts when the pack moves with you. Goal is very simple: move north. Improvisation is conversational, but often participants simply reduced to: move North.

core value: reduce & simplify, discipline
strength: 8
flexibility: 2
balance: 5
mobility: 10

AcroYoga: fair male/female balance, requires partners, alternating of extreme grounding (supporting complete weight and responsible for total safety of one other human) and complete aerial freedom (when flying). Base is rock solid, glued to ground, fixed position of core. Flyer is completely gravity-free, often inverted, often with no line of sight to any ground plane. Partner points of contact are primarily hands and feet, hips and back. Partners maintain arms length distance. Bone stacking. Truly superb balance can compensate for lower strength. With added energetic balance of thai massage: physical manifestation of gratitude to the base. Here, the base is your support. Improvisation only comes between advanced and trusting partners; generally working within fixed vocabulary of forms and sequences. Some verbal communication in sequence. Typical session lasts only 3 hours, twice or three times a week. Wonder if anyone does Acro 8 hours a day?

core values: freedom of flight, metta, boldness
strength: 7 (advanced)
flexibility: 5
balance: 9
mobility: 1

Contact Improv: mostly female, requires partners, fairly grounded, multiple points of contact with partner and ground. In fact, all possible points of contact between partners (including breaks and re-connects), most flexible of all forms in that regard. Often on all fours with ground, or even lying / rolling. Partners get truly intimately close. Often feel strong pull of gravity. Inversions, catches and carries dynamic, trust-building when successful. Complete improvisation and real-time. Very little if any verbal language... all in body and eye contact. Each participant responsible for their own safety, even when aerial. Typical session 2-3 hours. Free switching of partners.

core values: improvise, listen, move, act
strength: 7 (advanced)
flexibility: 5
balance: 6
mobility: 5

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I'm having fun looking at these in their metaphorical aspects. In the future, will have to add rock climbing, martial arts, and fire dancing to the matrix... so stay tuned for part 2!