Virtual Performance Idea: Body Integration

Lets start a new section at Mentalism Center!

"Virtual Performance Idea" will offer you a simple technique, tip or insight that can inspire your next Virtual Performance.

The first one is called "Body Integration". One of the key differences from face-to-face and virtual performances is the interaction and connection with our physical body.

In normal situations people are in a different and novel place, seated in that chair for the first time, being physically in a space that is prepared for a special event.

The performer enters to stage, and everyone move their hands in applause. One of them is invited to stage and this person moves to reach the space....

You get the idea. The physical is constantly changing, as in any "normal" human experience.

The new reality of Virtual Performance is very different in that dimension. If we are not aware of this, our audience will be just seated for the length of the performance, in the normal chair, in the normal space, nothing that is perceived as novelty. They will feel your performance as boring and uninteresting, even when your performance was bright and interesting from your point of view. Maybe that same act worked great in face-to-face performance, but because the body is our basic and first connection to consciousness, they didnt connect with you because they didnt connect with their bodies first.

We need to integrate the dimension of the body in conscious way so our audience can perceive a deeper experience. Let me share with you three ways in which I accomplish this in my virtual events

1. Energetic Hand exercise: If you go to the "Tarot Virtual Performance" this Friday, you will experience this very simple exercise. Basically I invite everyone to show both hands in camera, and to shake them, starting slowly. This allows for a fun interaction, as simple exercise to start the theme of "energies", and of course, as body integration into the experience. 

2. Progressive Muscle Relaxation: If you know about Hypnosis, you know this classic technique to invite the participant into the experience to be aware of each muscle, in a progressive way, to create relaxation and openness into the hypnotic journey.

You can do a very simple and short exercise in which you invite your audience into the progressive relaxation of each body section. You can start from the foots, facilitating the experience for them in a soft and hypnotic way. This will bring awareness to the body and open the potential impact of your performance 

3. Emesqua PK Touches: Lets integrate the body in an mysterious way. If you know the work of Carlos Emesqua and his realistic approaches to PK Touches, you know that his techniques can be used in powerful ways in virtual performance. 

So now you can invite everyone to connect to his/her left hand, and from that, you can facilitate for your audience an energetic experience, feeling at distance the energies that you are sending.

 Sometimes we dismiss the body in Mentalism, but because finally all is one, we can understand the body is indeed the beginning of our mind. What we feel with our hands is what we feel initially as real. 

So, in your next virtual performance, remember to bring the body of your audience into the interaction with these ideas (or others) .