I am so excited to see this work. I keep starting to write that I RARELY see work that touches me and excites me this way. But that is not really true. I do see it, and every time I do, I share it here. Even so, those finds are treasures, surprises, gifts from the big sea of the world washing up on my shores. This is a gorgeous gift from French choreographer Luc Petton. Aren’t we lucky! This next one made me weep!
I took many, many pictures of Capprichio yesterday. He is a black stallion, a Baryshnikov among horses and the love of my horse life. He is also very equanimous about having his picture taken.
Some horses are not. Sanne, the Lily of Holland, Pam White’s big Friesian, is very cagey, wary and not especially cooperative. he is not exactly nervous, but he is an avoider (much like myself).
That brings me to another subject. After a certain age, I did not want my photo taken. I am more than a little embarrassed about this. I would like to be easier with it.
I got some significant help yesterday when I watched the film Breath Made Visible about the now ninety year old dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin. It is stunning. She is stunning. There is a glory in her that is so rare, so unabashed, so full that I just sat in silence for many moments after the film. (It is available on Netflix.)
What this has to do with for me (in part) is a willingness to be seen, to be witnessed, to be held in the attention of a single lens or a large audience. These are the waters that I am stepping into again now. At the end of the film, Halprin says that she wants her dances and her dancing to connect to something profound and shared. (I am paraphrasing badly.)
That is true for me as well. What I danced about before is not what I want to dance now. In the past I made beautiful, feral dances that were like a Chinese sliding block puzzle: you had to work hard to discover the order, the relationships and the meaning. Now I want to dance you into the eye of the storm and into my wild heart. I cannot wait to see what will happen.
Watch this film. It is not to be missed.
Still from the video dance Dive by Paula Josa-Jones and Ellen Sebring
Tuesday night at Helsinki in Hudson, NY, I will perform a solo for the first time in thirteen years. I am excited, nervous and pleased to be doing it.
It’s part of an open mic series hosted by Ryder Cooley. I hope you will join us. 8-9:30. See you there.
My friend Suzanne sent me this video. I found it both disturbing and irresistible. It immediately set off a storm of video surfing on YouTube for more about Continuum. What I found was exciting.
For no particular reason, I have avoided Continuum Movement for many, many years. The founder of Continuum, Emilie Conrad calls the movement a connection to our “spiritual bio-world.” She says that the undulating wave movements that originate in the fluids of our bodies link us to each other and our environment. I think that it is time that I dive into those waters.
In the conversation about the text of the body, this has a place. I wrote yesterday about Abraham Verghese’s experience of being massaged by a kalari practitioner in Kerala. The post-massage state-of-body that he described feels like what I see in this video.
My appetite for movement has taken a big leap because I have started to prepare to perform solo for the first time in thirteen years. I don’t know exactly why it has been so long. But because it has been so long, I am voracious. There is a ferocity and a clarity to this new work that I have not felt before. You can see me next Tuesday evening, 8 pm at Club Helsinki in Hudson, NY.