I wrote a paper for a theatre class in college that was about how everything in theatre is dance. The speech and text is dance, the blocking is dance, the lighting and setting is dance. Even in a straight play there is dance.
“I may have stopped dance performance physically, but I now embrace Katherine Dunham’s concept that one should never stop “dancing” even when incapacitated, as she was in a wheelchair during her last fifteen years. As I have aged, I recognize how I was using the principles of dance - rhythm, shape, space, and dynamics - as I interacted with every aspect of my life in the world. I began to realize how knowing what to say at the right time (rhythm), in the right way (shape and dynamics), and in the correct place (space) create choreography of life itself.”
-Halifu Osumare, Dancing in Blackness
I thought I came up with some new thesis for my college paper when in reality I just tapped into a knowing that has already been sought before me.
I wanted to translate this for fellow artists and performers who find them selves waiting for something to happen. Waiting for an audition, callback, job, action, etc.
We all can create a list of things that need to get done in life, but how can we cultivate and create art at the same time?
I, started this email list, of topics that interest me. You may post pictures you took on Instagram or sing a song on TikTok. You might rent out a studio with your friends a read plays or go to a writes meet up.
We can just live our lives and get inspired with a message and share it with the world.
Inspiration is all over and community can be reached virtually with the snap of a finger.
I used to never look to the past and only focus on the future but then I found a moment of quiet and realized how inspiring my past is, my very young past. Some of the oldest lessons we’ve learned are the best.
To read “Dancing in Blackness” about a dancer’s career spanning decades from the 60’s to present day taught me that experiences don’t expire. This book was published in 2018 and Osumare writes about her teachers, travels, and shows with so much detail it feels like it just happened yesterday.
Start writing your story, not with intention to share with the world, but with intention to solidify your presence here on earth, what you’ve been through and where you are going, because those are things you carry with you always and everywhere.
Ciara
P.S. I have made a behind the scenes video to go along with this email. Click HERE or the picture below. Just in case you are interested in what my process looks like.
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