Sunday, August 17, 2008

Day Five

Sorry for the silence.......
I have been at the Omi International Art Center Dance Omi Residency for a full 5 days now.
Each day at least two (one day it was all we did so there were four) of the other residents taught a workshop based on their own creative process. The assignment was to use techniques that inspire them to create or, as I did, bring the other residents directly into their process by creating dances within the workshop time.

I am in love and fascinated and swept away. The space, depth and the intelligence of the people around me ..... and experiences of improvisations and creation we have already explored.

The only thing missing to make it completely impossible for me to find my way back to good old NYC is that those people that actually make my world my world are not here.

This is a new universe and however wonderful it may be, I have learned one more thing about my sense of home....it is connected to people that ground me in who I am, love me for it and play with me in it. However....in a very selfish move I would like each one of these amazing artists (that you will be slowly meeting as I introduce them to you) to come live with us in New York (some of them already do...other live in places like Rotterdam, Riga, Budapest, London and Hong Kong)

This is Marie, she is French but living in London for the past four or five years training at The Place.
she is dancing on an art installation called Stepping Stones by Jean Shin and Brain Ripel that is in The Fields...it is pots and pans, and their tops.

I am also learning that I connect to sculptures that are organic and natural (like a Noguchi for instance) or junky and strange (like a bunch of pots buried in the ground) or the piece Mach 2 by Mary Mattingly.

As for dance making up here I find I am drawn to the pieces that are:
  • large enough to climb on or frame a body
  • create an unusual landscape and therefore world/environment for the dance or interaction...
  • white enough to project something on to....
This all starts tomorrow...and I find can't help but be connected to my questions of home and communication over distance........
Circle of Friends, By Alena Ort
a bench seeming to be patiently waiting for a dance to happen.......

4 comments:

Dame Wendy said...

Lovely. Miss you.

Unknown said...

mmm...it is and nice and cool in the evenings.. you would like it dear Wen.

Unknown said...

When you told me about the beds I thought they were in a field, out in the open. Much better their being under the trees, with the light filtering through and down to them, like moonbeams. It also makes me think of light through stained glass in a church. Can't wait to see what you do with them.

Unknown said...

yes there is something magical/mystical about the light in that picture - A few others are building a series based on dreams connected to the beds (actually they just left with flashlights to go out into the woods now)
We just may end up with three works based around these beds!