DCDanceBlog

if i want to know what good writing is, i can pick up a new yorker any day of the year and read something really, really well written.

if i want to understand and learn about good music, i can go to itunes, anytime.

good video work is all over tv, movies and the internet.

but good dance is hard to see. unless i really spend time looking for dance videos–where? on you tube?–there’s not that much to be found. and in terms of live performances, the real thing, i see perhaps two, three really inspiring dance pieces a year. if that.

no wonder it’s a hard art to get good at. learning how to do something comes from doing it, but also observing what works for others. and in dance, that’s in short supply.

i saw a video of myself at earthdance recently. the folks there set up a video camera for 80 minutes and we filled 20 slots of mini performances, 4 minutes each. i was in a couple of them.

the one that interested me had six of us working w/ the idea of speed. i decided to be really slow, and to stick to it. it was hard. at times i connected with people, at times i was alone, and i never was sure if i contributed anything to the piece.

but when i saw the video, i was surprised. i had committed to slowness and it came through as a constant thread among all the other craziness that was going on. and even when i was alone and everyone else was engaged in duets and trios, my slowness added a grounding theme that came through.

i certainly don’t say this to brag. i’m very much learning what works and doesn’t in improv. but it showed me that how something feels often has nothing to do with how it looks. and, more importantly, that finding something and sticking to it has an integrity that comes across.

so i’m working on that in my improvisation practice. committing to something, and staying with it to see if others join in, and even if they don’t.

Here is a well-crafted taste of the last Wild Meadows intensive that sparked some discussion here and here… enjoy the trees and bird sounds and stillness and movement