For me, the words connected to my work—dance, environment, and embodied experiences —carry weighted memories. A short while ago, for example, I could not conceive of dance outside of the realm of children’s classes and professional companies. Dance felt exclusive, performative and largely body and beauty centered. These images were deconstructed through work with Celeste Miller and other students at Grinnell College—dance is for everyone and in everyone—but it was a process.

In conversations with others, I assume they understand dance as I did two years ago, and I feel a great deal of discomfort imagining the associations they are making between me and my work. In a similar pattern with embodied experiences and environment, I think to myself if I am interested in the environment and embodied experiences, you imagine that I am a grungy, smelly, tree-hugging, white, privileged, spiritual hippie, right?

Barbara Dilley writes,  “When you start making work in a space, you want to be careful not to colonize it. Be with the space and honor what is already there” (2015). When I struggle to talk about my work with dance, embodied experiences, and the environment, I am sitting with past memories. I am not present. To use Dilley’s words, I am not honoring the space and what we each are bringing. I am colonizing it.

I am working to communicate honestly about myself and the work that I do. This honesty is not about people agreeing with what I think or do; it is honestly sitting with and speaking the good, bag, ugly, and everything else in between. I’ll communicate honestly so that you can communicate honestly back.

So, taking this all in, let me share my most recent work with you. I am beginning my second week of summer research at Grinnell College, collaborating with Celeste Miller, Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Obuchi Adikema on research titled, Embodied Experiences in the Environment. Sharing a belief that experiences that allow space for us to be present with ourselves, each other, and our shared place are vital to our personal health and the health of the environment, we dedicate these next ten weeks to exploring and researching how dance-based movement practices can be used to connect people to their place. 

Work Referenced:

Dilley, Barbara. This Very Moment: teaching thinking dancing. Naropa University Press, 2015.