Women’s Conference
“Your body never lies,” we say at our weekend courses for women. Your body never lies, so if you keep brushing it off for a long time, it will come back to you one day, whether you like it or not. Your body never lies, so when you have stage fright, your heart pounds, whether you like it or not. But the body can be practised and trained, so that even stage fright stops being an enemy and becomes a buddy.
I talked about the body and the courage to express yourself (not only with your voice and body) – and expressed myself in other ways too – at the women’s conference Že(h)nám. The whole time I was wondering how to bring the body into a panel discussion, where people sit, talk and listen. I didn’t come up with much, but it came on its own when the microphone started acting up. I walked around the stage looking for a spot where the mic wouldn’t buzz (and no, it wasn’t the feedback buzz I know from concerts – it later turned out the batteries were flat). Anyway, it turned into a little performative étude called “Find the spot where it doesn’t buzz”. In the end everything went brilliantly, also thanks to the wonderful host Karolína Antlová. It was an honour to sit next to the founder of the Bez filtru podcast, the first Czech female catechist Petra Pospíšilová, and theologian Jana Šídlová.
Lately – also thanks to Not So Fair Fairy Tales – I’ve been thinking about the body more and more differently. “The body, the world and the devil I overcome…” but also “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” My body is with me, even when I’m alone on stage. The body is brilliant at being here and now. In fact, it can’t do anything else! Unlike the head, which wanders back and forth into the past and the future as it pleases. The head also makes up fears. And fairy tales. The one about Fearella, Can’tella, Cringella, Waitella, Toomuchella, Overdoella, Perfectina, Alwaysbeenella, Noriskella, Whatwilltheysayella and others. At the conference workshop, 18 women and I put those fairy tales aside for a while and let ourselves step into the circle and do the first thing that came to mind. We also let ourselves walk out of the building and spend the workshop among the trees, because inside it was hardly bearable.
I wish for all of us to keep on stepping in, and to keep allowing ourselves what’s good for us (like walking out of the classroom into the park, because you really couldn’t breathe in there!) – and see you soon somewhere in the woods!
Recording from the conference:
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