Photo:  Pam White, from The Traveler by Paula Josa-Jones

Making solo work can be lonely.  In the studio I am alone. This is new for me, always the director, always in the company of interpreters (dancers) of my visions. Now I have set my feet on a new path – making a suite of solo dances that will premiere next year.  It is scary, exhilarating, necessary and as I said, often lonely.

During my February residency at the  Bogliasco Foundation in Italy, there was the collegial support – shared meals where we could diffuse the intensity of a day spent alone with our work.  There was something reassuring and playful so that making the journey back into the studio the next day felt more of a shared journey.

One of the solo dances I am building, The Traveler, is about a character who is similarly alone – journeying through perilous landscapes, finding and losing balance as the terrain shifts and buckles.  Besides the movement, I am making film, working with a projectiion designer, pushing into new visual landscapes.

I have not been sharing images or news about the work.  It has felt important to hold it, to let it grow like mushrooms in the dark, the quiet, the damp.  I am reminded of this by Mary Oliver: