How, when, and where have I experienced moving north, or moving in the north?

Thinking about north as a vector-- an arrow pointing in a direction-- we approached this question through orientation scores, asking whether we could identify north when working inside and outside. We noticed shifts that occurred when we oriented our dance structures with a compass. We practiced standing facing north, noticing the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory cues to north. We organized ourselves in space according to the furthest point we've traveled north. We wrote and reflected on our individual and collective experience of moving north.

Thinking about north as a location, we kept asking, "What makes me feel “I'm north?” or “I'm in the north? Is it the lower sun on the horizon? Is it the orientation of satellite dishes -- pointing to the horizon instead of way up into the sky? Is it the appearance of forests and mountain valleys at sea level which appear at 6000 ft in the European Alps? Is it the vast land, the long distances between settlements? Is it the stronger seasonal changes influencing the rhythm of life? We found that almost everybody thinks north is “more north than me”. Most people place themselves centrally. Based in Switzerland, north as a place .is Finland, Greenland, Alaska. For people living in Anchorage it is “Fairbanks”, “the arctic”, “the north slope”. North is relative; it doesn't exist in people’s minds as one common place.

We identified qualities that characterize life in the north that we also recognize from our practice of Contact Improvisation: self-reliance, interdependence, working with available resources, paying attention to the timing of what's there. We developed movement studies and performance structures around these qualities.