Anacrusis–Crusis–Metacrusis
n. the progression of the parts of any action.
Anacrusis (Émile Jaques-Dalcroze & Rothwell, 1930) is the gesture- or yearning-toward. It is everything that is both preparatory and in motion toward a resolution.
It is the first two syllables in the word Mississippi.
It is the years of courting that builds to an engagement ring or break-up. It is the proliferation of nuclear arms and the mounting heated rhetoric yearning for the dropping of the bomb.
It is the ringing of the doorbell, the wind-up, the inhale.
The anacrusis yearns-forward for its crusis.
Crusis is the point of arrival. It is the specific instant in every beat/ event/yearning where the actual arriving is marked. Cruses take up no space or time. They are instances in time to which one is always driving-toward or away-from.
The crusis is the ball hitting the bat.
It is the instant of recognition for a job well done.
It is the body’s actual striking the ground when falling off of a skateboard. It is the moment of greatest heaviness at the bottom of a swing.
Metacrusis is the follow-through. It is the fall-away. The metacrusis is the trajectory created from the anacrusic gesture meeting its crusis. The metacrusis yearns for equilibrium.
In cyclical motion like pendulums, swimming strokes, or tides, it is often not clear where the metacrusis ends and the following anacrusis begins.
Crusis is every city on your travel agenda and is also the items you list when reporting on your day. Each city on the report or title on the list is most often a crusis. It is not the experienced beat or event. The anacrusis and metacrusis take up time and drive toward or away-from the crust instant. One spends a lifetime in constant yearnings-toward juxtaposed with fallings-away. One can list the crusic moments but can only experience the build-toward and the retreating-decay.
The crusic gesture (anacrusis–crusis–metacrusis) aspires to progress through all three parts to equilibrium. The full gesture requires motion that is always driving-toward or falling-away. The crusic gesture cannot be static, or wait, or pause.
I have emphasized the fact that every integral experience moves toward a close, an ending, since it ceases only when the energies active in it have done their proper work. This closure of a circuit of energy is the opposite of arrest, of stasis. Maturation and fixation are polar opposites. Struggle and conflict may be themselves enjoyed, although they are painful, when they are experienced as means of developing an experience; members in that they carry it forward, not just because they are there. (Dewey, 1934, p. 42)