Dear dancers, movers, shakers, contemplators,
To not get to see you or move with you, live in person, is more than disappointing. My heart goes to those of you who had so meticulously and generously crafted your graduating semester. Rest assured our practice is ongoing – moving, shaking, cat-ting, swimming, and laughing. I hope that you are all well, taking care of yourself and loved ones, & finding patience as plans have unfolded, shifted, and detoured. So, here we are.
We are certainly deft problem solvers ready to rally and improvise our way into new perspectives and online realities. We are do-ers and innovators – action oriented, checklist having, managers of the future. We are also deep thinkers, creative beings so rooted and practiced in empathy that this moment of being distant is foundationally dislodging – personally, economically, creatively. While at heart I am an introvert who is on the fast-track to reclusive living, my love for dance is primarily because of the prolific energy that is generated when we move, search, and research together. There is a fair amount of peace that I am experiencing because I have the privilege to rest safely – I get to read, slow down, take a variety of online offerings, go for walks, do Nike fitness, play Zoom charades, watch everything on Netflix. Distance makes it easy to think of myself in a vacuum, yet, our practice makes it impossible to ignore each other’s varied needs and responses. So, here we are.
As we shift this course online, I imagine it will be imperative for you to tailor your time and practice, which will greatly vary between you all. In this, please be in communication with me. I will be posting options ongoingly on Elms – a few are listed below to get you started or keep you going, etc. In the meantime, I have made a few updates for our pre-existing assignments. The changes are quite simple – a few extended due dates as well as an acknowledgment of not being to attend a performance in person. For the most part, these assignments have not changed since the beginning of the semester. What has changed is our regular physical practice together.
The physical practice.
In some ways, this quarantine has forced a brutal final exam for many of this course’s primary objectives, such as…
· tailoring one’s training / what are we training for?
· redefining “restoration” and “challenge”
· actively stretching cardio-vascular and energetic capacities
· cultivating a creatively, physically, and intellectually rigorous practice
· This is what I propose.
I propose that you each select how you want to engage with your embodied and/or creative practice. Please commit 3-5 hours per week. I am very open about the many possibilities this allows, and expect you will think critically and generously about these possibilities. While there are a few options listed below, I will post these and more ongoingly on our Elms discussion board and am asking you to share what you find and/or offer your own proposals, prompts, etc. There is not a specific post/response requirement; any write-up has already been embedded in the remaining assignments for the semester. This will be a sharing, a compilation of sorts. Once again, I ask you to consider trying things outside your comfort zone – this is the time to do it! In the privacy of your own home! Running into your couch or having your family members sitting behind ya as you practice cats! But also, and perhaps more importantly, I ask that you sit with yourself a bit, practice listening to your desire to move, find pleasure in the somatic and the bombastic, enjoy something dramatic or cheesy, be sexy, make yourself laugh, share with others.
EMPATHY. As you are familiar, I think of empathy as an energetic attunement, for which we are practiced. To me, it is a deep listening practice as opposed to a gene that one has or doesn’t. I believe that the way we envision and negotiate movement is built on empathy – the way we partner, devour the space together, create maniacally complex choreography. This quarantine has allowed me to acknowledge how much this practice (empathic attunement) has become a fundamental guide in my teaching. It’s like I can smell the direction we need to go together, the exercises I need to employ, how and when to push us, etc. Of course, some days I can’t smell shit. But, what I’d like myself to sit with during this period is how empathy can be felt over a distance. Intuition. Care. Imagination and patient mindfulness.
Embodied practice: creative and/or physical // Recharge, gather, sit with, work, regenerate
Here are some things that I am doing and/or have seen. I haven’t tried all of these and am easily overwhelmed by long lists of links. I will be posting imagery based movement prompts as well as occasional Zoom or prerecorded classes as I am able. Until then, invite me to what you are up to and try some of these….
· Go for a walk. Listen to any music or ask a distant friend to go for a walk too while you both talk.
· Nike Fitness App or other HIIT programs
· Living room non-stop dance party to one full-length album
· Group Shake with Lion’s Jaw Festival (Insta: @lionsjawfestival, or https://www.facebook.com/events/632134470666416/)
· Check out establishments such as Gibney, BDF, ADF, DancePlace, etc. for their online offerings
· Consider supporting fabulous freelance individuals, including alumni. They need support, their livelihood is built on live engagement and performance.
· Fightmaster Yoga: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcox27Gc-NGbb2-X9hdLaMw
· Online African dance classes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wS4cHvvLoOiag3W4OotNgUZdOyDKHNUFE6pEXJ1aDhQ/edit?fbclid=IwAR1odHQkdeTGYzD7QcygMnUJPMzLsBOf5I0S6Z-1W4UmGTjfRs974v5UV6g#gid=0
· Freeskewl: https://www.instagram.com/freeskewl/
· Dance for camera prompts with Robbie Shaw: https://sites.google.com/site/shootingdancecin/?fbclid=IwAR0qcfCGRB_6coQu9-C5tp2pxb1RDk4npS-h-6F50lhXel9B4494rSbTinA
· Read fiction.
· Take on a HOBBY! (and let it stay a hobby)
· Take a nap.
· Draw ala Lynda Barry: https://thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com
· Listen to Ibram Kendi and Angela Davis: https://www.cityarts.net/event/angela-davis-ibram-x-kendi/
· Make anything without tying it into a bow – draft and sketch and mash
· Write