Sept 30, 2014 - Getting into the Swing of Things

Part One

Recently, I travelled to Europe on BC Arts Council Professional Development Grant. The grant became a part of my mentorship with Karen Jamieson Dance, as Pamela, the manager of Karen Jamieson, coached me through the writing process. I attended a choreography intensive at Ponderosa Movement and
Discovery, on a reoccupied farm just east of Berlin. The conceptual discourse was open, insightful, demanding and focused on a different dialogue than here in Vancouver. This is why I went: To expand and challenge my knowledge of art making, and bring it back to Vancouver. I loved being surrounded by newness – people, spaces, landscape, and culture – but I am so pleased to be back with the soaring mountains, familiar faces, open ocean and salty clean air.

Integrating this into my emerging career in BC is what’s next. We’ll see how some of what I learned and
gathered at Ponderosa factors into work at Carnegie, if at all. But it has transformed my art practice and
process in some interesting ways. One of the primary questions that informed much of the work with
Jennifer Lacey was, in order for a work to be perceived, on an energetic level, what kind of spectatorship
does a work need?

Part Two

Upon returning, literally the next day, we had a meeting about the next session of workshops. I was still
jetlagged, to be sure. I was happy to reconnect to everyone, and get up to date with the administrative realities of the next couple of months, but it was difficult to focus with the heat of the small office, jet lag and such.
We decided to split that meeting and the next in two, and talk about Carnegie Troupe at one and Elders
project at the other. First off, because of funding, I was to be at each workshop. Teaching three times a week has been a luxury so far, allowing me to sink in to the work and the process of community engagement more deeply.

There were many things on the agenda:

-the need to do more postering!
-the issue of participant crossover between Carnegie Troupe and Elders
-what is an elder? According to the Carnegie, it is over 50, but we discussed that it may be better if we went with self-identification
-discussion of cultural liaison and translator, and how to best incorporate them into the tone and energy of the workshops
-Karen’s interest in facilitating the horse stance, often used in martial arts and in dangerous work, its emphasis on keeping the kidneys open
-how to better support soft spoken participants that are leading an exercise/exploration –using an echo/
chorus/human microphone/amplification method
-working more specifically with how to integrate advanced participants leadership