Deeply grateful for the serendipity that brought me to this series of video works today.
Especially grateful for this work by Sally Morgan and Lou Sheppard, and Kinetic Studio for the series. So much of the threads of thought and feeling I (and I am sure many, many others) have been experiencing over the last months are encapsulated here.
Every day that brings sunshine that warms the skin and clear pavement to walk is a gift.
Being able to stretch, feel muscles move under skin; a little more awake and alive with every step under the spring-blue sky.
Fitting then, that I came across video of this mesmerizing sculpture:
For all the dancers I know. Thank you.
… and Chaotic Bodies will close at Spazio Performativo.
Amazing how fast the month has gone by – I’ve been too buried in the never-ending-cold-that-should-be-spring here to actually grasp that time is really passing quite quickly, and we are over 1/4 of the way through the year.
It has been a great experience re-working this project for static exhibition – being able to look at it again with fresh eyes, dig back into the ideas simmering inside it – and see what potential there was in the conversations between media.
My sincere thanks to Mile Zero Dance for the opportunity to show this work!! And my thanks to everyone involved in the RUCKUS dance project for allowing me to develop this project further, and to use the footage from rehearsals and performance in the video work!
SO: if you want to check out Chaotic Bodies before it disappears into storage again, you have until SUNDAY April 8th. I am striking the show on Monday!
If you have the opportunity, see the work both in the daytime and at night: I have a video work rear-projected in the window that is best seen after dark, and the installation and drawings are available for viewing during opening hours daytime at Mile Zero, and of course in advance of evening events.
If you get over there – drop me a line and let me know your thoughts! I’d like to hear from you.
I wrote last month about a dance/choreography project I am involved in – RUCKUS – and wanted to offer an update on Anastasia’s progress for funding this phase of the work.
The GoFundMe campaign has raised$1200 so far – which is exciting – HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that has supported this so far!
That $1200 is about 70% of the goal for the project – so, it’s doing well – but it’s getting down to the wire to make the last 30%, so that everyone involved can be paid properly for their work to make this project a reality.
This is a really exciting chapter in my practice, I would really love to be able to continue to work with these fine dancers and choreographers.
If you would like to help support this work, there’s still time to contribute (even the price of a coffee out will make a difference) – our collective, RUCKUS-filled thanks.
IMAGE CREDIT: All Images, Ernest at Studio E Photography
I had the pleasure earlier this fall of working with Anastasia Maywood, Krista Posyniak, and Alison Kause (and a group of amazing dancers!) on a new dance work-in-progress called RUCKUS.
Anastasia has been given a residency by the Good Women Dance Collective in Edmonton to develop the work further, and has launched a GoFundMe Campaign to support the residency work, so that we can bring RUCKUS to life as a more fully-developed work.
I am so excited by this collaborative process, and being able to create sculptural work specifically for people (dancers) to interact with has been both challenging and a whole lot of fun. What this work is teaching me about sculpture and space is invaluable, and I am working with some wonderful, intelligent and talented women in making this idea a reality.
If you would like to support this project, you can help Create a RUCKUS here!
IMAGE CREDIT: All Images, Ernest at Studio E Photography
I have been thinking about a series of related concepts/ideas in the last little while … having the luxury of a little time to allow things to percolate through my brain, see where they take me. The swirl of idea(l)s has caught me up in the last 48 hours, and has insinuated itself in the nooks and crannies of the concepts I am beginning toward with for a new project …
I will perhaps post updates here as my thinking evolves and revolves …
Bodies in space.
The way a single movement occurs in time, changes space, changes everything forever.
The fine line and inextricable link between order an chaos.
What can be built can collapse at any time.
The Lorenz Attractor.
The difference between being active and reactive, in all things.
The way a body reaches out to another body:
Intent is Everything.
What an amazing SubArctic Improv last night!
I am continually blown away by the diverse and powerful talent we have here in Edmonton. I’m also inspired and thrilled by our creative community’s generosity of spirit – the way people come together to make work, and give freely of themselves and their creativity. These people share with each other and share with their audiences – and we all are better for it.
A better city, a better community, creative and otherwise.
*yes, if it seems I am gushing a bit, I am – no apologies. It was a great night!
I must extend my thanks to everyone that made this event happen: Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis who curate Subarctic Improv, Mile Zero staff and volunteers for being such excellent hosts, and all the people who shared the stage: Kate Stashko, Vincent Forcier, Pigeon Breeders, Nicolas Arnaez, Thunder Lightning Heart & Adrian LaChance.
It was an honour to work with you all.
Some preliminary pics from last night, courtesy of Ernest at Studio E Photography, below.
The bubble wrap/LED light objects and bubble wrap costumes were my contribution to the night.
Enjoy!
I am really looking forward to participating in this month’s SubArctic Improv, which will happen on Thursday January 21st, starting at 8pm. This series is curated by two amazing women: Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis. The lovely people at Mile Zero Dance host this series, and the Spazio Performativo is a beautiful and welcoming space to be working in. (all the details are in the links!)
This is a delightful opportunity for me – a moment to play a little, stretch my thinking, try things, be funny and fearless. I’ve long wanted the opportunity to make work for and with moving human bodies in space (dancers and movement specialists), and so when Jen kindly invited me to participate in SubArctic, I couldn’t say no.
This series harkens back to a project I had roughly a decade ago with the Edmonton Poetry Festival: a multidisciplinary jam called CORTEX, that I pulled together with Phil Jagger. I’ve always thought that the silos within which we create in the arts here were limiting, somewhat artificial divisions (not to say that cross-disciplinary work hasn’t become more prevalent in recent years, but this kind of work could happen more IMO). There’s so much to learn from other disciplines’ creative process and from the people who live in it. Working outside our respective comfort zones – making that leap into risk – is always a great way to come at what we do with fresh eyes.
So – to that end – my contribution to this month’s Improv will feature unconventional (and interactive) materials, and provides a new and playful way for me to consider: light (and its absence), stars, hibernation, insulation (because, heck it’s Edmonton and January, and well … cold!), security, exposure … .
A nod to how fragile real safety is, perhaps; or a fun way to explore what it means to have the illusion of safety, and actually be really vulnerable. Riffing and punning on the idea of exposure, privacy, security, ‘nesting’, voyeurism, exhibitionism …….
All potentially heady/serious/intense stuff. And all very real concerns in the world – but here, for this moment, I wanted to flip all of that on its ear, and have a little FUN – be a little silly, inject some humour and play into the mix.
SO … here’s hoping that happens! (it’s improv, ANYthing could happen)
