Articles
Learning to Let the Heart Communicate
LEARNING TO LET THE HEART COMMUNICATE
By Jeff Snyder, 1991 Charlottesville, VA
"If you heart must speak or sing, go to this man and learn what you can about the wonderful wor(l) d of mime. Can fish see water? Does the fish know fire? Samuel will show you how, if you will allow yourself be shown."
I have never been too good with words and am relatively certain that Samuel's classes don't necessarily teach one to use words, spoken or written, more effectively. So when he asks me to write some of my experiences, he asks for much. To be sure, people just don't leave his workshops and trot directly over to their typewriters.
It's been 20 years since my last workshop with Samuel, but it's been only 20 milli-seconds since I have related some of the lessons I absorbed there. This truly is difficult. Here I am, trying to direct two or three of the ten narrow things on the ends of my hands to squeeze and trim feelings and ideas into words. I am trying to click them out through a typing machine and on to a piece of paper, which you will then turn back into hints or shadows of ideas and feelings. That's as good as it gets with words.
For whatever reasons, mime the process of learning mime, and the beings with which I learn with offer me clarity and access to a deeper level of communication than I can attain with words.
If you heart must speak or sing, go to this man and learn what you can about the wonderful wor(l)d of mime.
Le Centre du Silence was a place where I found natural ways for me to communicate that which I was most interested in to the world around me. As a being develops, it must learn to speak to others of similar condition. Life is, among other things, fluidity of space moving within the fluid space. Can fish see water? Does the fish know fire? Samuel will show you how, if you will allow yourself be shown, to make the invisible, visible and to let the inside become the outside. He teaches people to coordinate and realize progressive development in the moment and in this breath. As we breathe, the air between us stretches. Seize the moment!
Editor's note:
Jeff Snyder studied with Samuel in 1973-74.
