What exactly is perception?

Perception is generally defined as the process by which a person assimilates and makes use of sensory data.  Behavior is based on what people perceive, hence its importance.  There are a multitude of factors that affect perception, from what we select from the cornucopia of sensory stimuli that we are bombarded with to how we organize and interpret this stimuli.  There is so much information coming in that we can't pay attention to all of it, and we end up selecting what is meaningful to us and ignore the rest.

  Our selection process is based on what we need, want and expect, so in effect much of what we perceive responds to our physical, mental and emotional condition.  The organization of the stimuli we receive involves forming positive or negative responses to it, which in turn is affected by our assumptions and beliefs.

 In the interpretation of the data we receive our beliefs, values, attitudes, past learning and experiences combine to form a mental filter through which our perceptions are interpreted and evaluated.  With this in mind, it is evident that perception is highly individualistic which accounts for differing interpretations of the same incident.  Communication becomes imperative, or our interpersonal relationships can become minefields of discordance.  Do we know how to talk to each other, taking into account the importance that perception plays?  

So now the dancers and I approach a piece about this vast topic of perception.  Where and how do we start?  The best way I can think of is to start personally, having the dancers write about their feelings and memories attached to certain important events in their lives.  This becomes the starting point of our creative process and requires a certain fearlessness and courage to mine the depths of who we are and how we have become what we are.