I’ve been reading, reading, reading. It’s a lovely part of my job. I get to read grant proposals, budgets (numbers tell a story, too), research studies, emails and numerous articles featured in In Dance —finding comfort and inspiration as I read in my spare time.
My post-work reading is eclectic and is made up of consuming features in various online publications. Also I love fiction books —like Bryan Washington’s beautiful novel called Memorial. And I’ve been reading lots of NY Times features on artists. Through these pieces I’m being introduced to live-treasures. They’ve become my weekly, sometimes daily, inspire-pleasure.
Here’s a highlight of those I’ve been learning about. I’ve fallen for the artist Lorraine O’Grady whose newspaper poems from 1977 are stunning visual dances. The artist Roni Horn has led me to appreciate the word “acclimatize”—I want to figure out how to use it in a sentence. And Horn states: “Since I know what I want, but not what it looks like, it takes time to focus it and arrive at some form of clarity.” I needed to hear that “it takes time to focus.” And then there’s the brilliant Kyohei Sakaguchi. “I do what I do in order to keep living.” The matter of factness of Sakaguchi’s statement slays. That they do what they do to live, resonates so deeply during a pandemic. I feel such a kinship within their words. Connecting with artists —even abstractly through interviews—comforts and is simply wondrous.
Wondrous words from dance artists is a way to ensure their voices and ideas are documented and visible. Highlighting how they maneuver complex relationships with their community, with their collaborators and especially how they connect with artists that motivate their own work and thinking.
Are you ready? Within these pages are the most amazing writings Dancers’ Group has put out. I think this each time we publish, it really is true now and it will be true next time too—wink, wink. The featured writers in the Spring issue address how we acclimatize over time. They boldly speak to long known injustices like colonialism, white supremacy, racism and patriarchy.
They speak to adapting and prompt us towards new combinations of insights, through intuition, by taking time to be. We present writing by Yayoi Kambara, Gerald Casel, Marvin K. White, Bhumi Patel, Usha Srivinisan and Priya Das, Aura Fischbeck and Christy Funsch, Hien Hyunh, Rowena Richie, Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, Sima Belmar and Justin Ebrahemi. The themes are deep and personal.
As you savor each word I hope you share these Spring articles and join me in asking questions like: How am I feeling? How can I evolve?
Be well –
This article appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of In Dance.
