Jump In
The Puddle
(Csikszentmihalyi, 2004, 15:43)
Becoming the Vessel
A Site-Specific Dance Exploration in Grosvenor Park
This project was my first foray into site-specific performance, created as part of my postgraduate studies. Without choreography, music, or a traditional studio, I entered Grosvenor Park with a simple aim: to become a vessel through which nature could express itself. Influenced by Victoria Hunter’s research on site-specific dance and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of “flow,” I explored how environment, sensation, and movement could shape one another in real time. What remains is a transcript of the lecture-demonstration I gave to share this deeply personal, at times disorienting, but ultimately rewarding process.
Unlearning the Studio
Coming from a studio-based training background, I initially struggled to adapt to a process where I wasn’t in control of the space—I was in conversation with it. Early sessions left me frustrated, caught in the mental loop of trying to “do it right.” But the writings of Hunter, Doughty, and Reeve helped me shift my focus. Instead of choreographing onto the park, I began allowing the park to shape me—grappling with the cultural and personal boundaries that arose just from stepping off a paved path and into the grass. Slowly, I began to embody what Hunter calls “present-ness”: a live, moment-to-moment attentiveness that connected body, environment, and meaning.
Flow, Friction, and Finding My Way
As I returned to the park across multiple sessions, I began to experience what Csikszentmihalyi describes as flow: a transient state of deep focus where skill meets challenge. At first, I lacked both—I was unskilled in site-specific improvisation and uncertain where to push myself. But through persistence and practice-as-research, the work began to shape itself. I stopped planning and started listening—to the wind, the trees, the shape of the land. By the end, I realized that even in my moments of doubt, I was already embodying the project’s thesis. I was doing phenomenology. I was being the vessel.
Transcript & Footage
Transcript
This is the transcript of Jump In The Puddle from the exhibition
Footage
This is the footage of Jump In The Puddle that corresponds with the transcript