Here We Go!
/Before I dive in and tell you about the show that is happening in our local swimming pool this weekend
(Ha Ha get it? “Dive In”….Oh. You got that already didn’t you? Way before I did. My 14 year-old niece is rolling her eyes at me as I write this. I’m slow on the uptake sometimes, okay?),
I want to share an email I got from my dear friend and colleague, Kim Nelson.
I was lamenting this abyss I have been talking about lately
— Let me say again, to one and to all: This is a “creative abyss” that I speak of, and I am totally okay. I am better than okay. Something is shifting, percolating, coming into being, and when I am not wallowing in the unknown and fear of that, I am shimmering on the edges of it. The abyss I am referring to is not a fall into a depressive or anxiety driven mental state. I know that state well, from my own experiences, and from witnessing it with friends and family. This is not the type of abyss I am referring too, so no need to fret. That being said: Thank you so much for your concern, for your worried phone calls, and for your kind emails. My mother is shaking her head right about now: “I told you this would happen. It’s time to climb of whatever “creative abyss” you are in and find a real job missy” —
when I got this email from Kim:
“I sense a wisdom in the fervent curiosity, a call as an artist, as a person, to go to a place that is not known, surrender, possibly feel like you are going to die, and maybe die, only to gather and strengthen a more layered knowing. It is scary shit to have your mind, and everything you have known, blown open. You inspire me. I feel moved toward a desire regarding my own curiosities of a type of diving in and sharing.…It seems you are following the deeper current. That deeper impulse does not always move me toward what feels good, but seems to move me toward what (is) a necessary dissonance.”
I have read Kim’s response many times over the course of these past few weeks, and I am slowly allowing myself to breath into, and follow the “necessary dissonance” that is unfolding.
Yes, it is hard and uncomfortable at times.
No matter, I will continue to dive in.
I will continue to follow the “deeper current” that is emerging.
I can’t imagine not doing this, no matter how disconcerting and bewildering the dive might be.
As I was pondering all of this the other day - wondering if my mother was right about packing it all up once and for all - I got this lovely email from a long time friend and reader, Tyr Pinder, who lives in Wales:
“By the way, I am doing bird dances in many shapes and forms. Come fly with me. Let’s fly away.”
I read that email from Tyr - far way in Wales - and I held my breath, and I dove.
Do you want to dive in too?
Speaking of…
GOODNIGHT, COURTNEY LOVE opens this weekend!
GOODNIGHT, COURTNEY LOVE is a site-specific dance performance created by Laura Ann Samuelson and myself that takes place in the swimming pool at The North Boulder Recreation Center:
Friday, February 19th, 2016 at 7 PM
Saturday, February 20th, 2016 at 7 PM
Saturday, February 27th, 2016 at 7 PM
at
The North Boulder Recreation Center
3170 Broadway Street
Boulder, CO 80304
All performances are FREE and open to the public.
It gets hot and humid in the pool area, so make sure to wear a light t-shirt or tank top underneath your other clothes.
Your Dance Mission for the week is to find a body of water, submerge yourself, and dance.
It can be the local swimming pool, as we have been doing in creating Goodnight, Courtney Love, or it could even be your bathtub. If you are in a warmer climate, a pond, the ocean, a mountain stream would be amazing. I am jealous if that is the body of water you get to dance in.
If you are local, I hope to see you this weekend or next Saturday.
If you are not local, have a wonderful week and I will miss seeing you in the pool!
For everyone, post your comments here, and share this newsletter everywhere.
With Warmth and Jivey Vibes,
Joanna
of
Joanna and The Agitators
sweetly agitating/persistently upending
www.joannaandtheagitators.com