Breakthrough!

Whew! Made some progress on the Marriage Dance this Saturday. We started from scratch. Instead of beginning the dance with Alex and Amanda bound tightly by the sheet, we began with the sheet stretched out like a sail. This image immediately increased my interest: the sail represents a journey, the voyage that you begin at the ceremony, then continue upon waves of joy and pain.

We experimented with alternately stretching the sheet between Alex and Amanda and wrapping them close together. This movement of growing/shrinking reminds me both of waves and of the shifting sense of distance in a relationship: we grow apart, rediscover each other; spread, then return. As people, we grow and change; therefore, as lovers, we repeatedly get to know each other.

I also instituted a spatial dimension whereby the lines of Alex's and Amanda's bodies remain consistently at 90-degree angles to each other. Their bodies seldom line up, which creates a tension of division. They are together, but separate, different people with different ideas, priorities, experiences, sharing the same lifeboat.

Join Human Landscape Dance on Wednesday March 23, 2011 at 6pm for a free performance at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage. We next partner with Philadelphia's Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Co for the Washington DC/Philadelphia Exchange, Saturday July 9, 2011 at 8pm and Sunday July 10, 2011 at Dance Place in Washington DC. This is the second half of our partnership with Mulgrew, which began at our shared concert in Philadelphia's Painted Bride Art Center.

Photo by Jennifer Mueller.