MA - dance

The real music is silence, and all notes are framed by silence.
La véritable musique est le silence et toutes les notes sont encadrées par ce silence.
Miles Davis

For English speaking readers, here is MA - dance,  my favourite item.
Voici enfin la traduction de l'article Le MA - danse (juillet 2010)

On saturday July 3rd, Arte showed a Montpellier Dance day.
To remember that bodies move, feel, occupy space, express.

I could feel ma, the emotional space between people : too far, too close - very far, very close - attracts, repels (each other) - unites, separates.

 "Ma, here the emotional space between two persons."

It reminds me of the beautiful reportage of the Spanish photographer Xavier Comas (published in Courrier International HS manga March-April-May 2010) - photos are great - titled "Ma or Tokyo Space".
In which he captured the so special  universe of trains and stations in Tokyo, inspired by the Japanese notion of "ma".

He writes : "Ma could be translated by interval or gap in time and space, even if it has no real equivalent in our language. This is a very subtle concept which, beyond the mere physical space, involves a sensory experience of emptiness as a substance : white between the lines of a haiku, the movement of a calligraphed character or the pause between two musical notes. "

Having practiced a martial art (Shintaido), I could feel what ma is : this space between the partner / opponent and me, between the teacher and the student / students. It is present between the target, the archer and the arrow, and also between the sheet of paper that flies away and the hand that grasps it, without looking, between the object that falls and the hand that catches it up.

A good archer hits the target even before he shot it.
Un bon archer atteint la cible avant même d'avoir tiré.
Zhao Buzhi