The Things We Do For Love
I’m back on my feet and dancing again. It’s really exciting and satisfying to be so mobile again. I have really missed moving in all the ways I can.
Over the year I have spent time trying to get more organized and able to approach my life and schedule in a more balanced way. I love doing all the dance projects I do, I realize that I love having a hand in co-ordinating, and actualizing them, even though I wish I didn’t have to. Or I think I wish I didn’t have to. There is joy and satisfaction in realizing projects that have been ideas for a long time. However, there is a lot of joy and a different kind of satisfaction in having the time to chill with the one you love, cook dinner, grow vegetables, go for walks. The joys of this kind of time are felt fully, for me, when balanced with meaningful work.
I’m working on two big projects right now, and a fundraiser to support them both.
Gettin’ Through The Night is an event in preparation and celebration of Stand Up Dance’s project for Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche ‘dance like no one is watching’. It’s big and fun. I’m excited and nervous about it. We’ll be previewing some of the ‘dance like no one is watching’ material for Nuit Blanche, and I’ll be previewing a bit of my new solo. And we’llb e teachign the audience a little dance!
Then there’s Nuit Blanche. 32 dancers on four teams dancing in sets of 30 minutes in relay over the course of 12 hours across the city. So exciting and so many logistics. It’s going to be amazing though. October 3-4 everywhere in Toronto. The actual schedule and map for our project is on www.standupdance.com
And finally there is my solo. ‘based on actual unrelated events’. I’m really learning about space and focus and time. Actually I’m good on the space and focus part. I just am terrible about understanding time. What I mean by that is that while I am creating the solo I have no space for the co-ordination of the other projects. So that even if I’m only in the studio for two and a half hours, it takes up more like five hours of space in my day. Which means that converting my brain back to logistics and fundraising for Nuit Blanche is really problematic. And vice versa. It’s hard to be in organizing mode and switch into expansive creative zone in studio for a few hours…
Regardless.
The solo is going to be great. I’ve already seen the brochure put out by DanceWorks that it’s in. It always helps to see a design in print for your work. Nothing like something concrete!
I’m actually having a really good time working on the solo. It’s just a matter of being disciplined about my schedule.
It goes up at Hub 14, my studio in downtown Toronto October 20 – 25 & 27 – 30. It’s a ten show run with an opening dance created and performed by one of: Susie Burpee, Val Callum, Alicia Grant/Cara Spooner, Karen Kaeja, and Julia Sasso. The amazing Trevor Schwellnus is doing the design, of the space and the lights. Hub 14 is going to be transformed!
So that’s it for me right now. These are the things that are consuming me.
I am looking forward to more balance.
