some people call me a witch

I have decided to suspend all rational thought and embark instead on building a business in the field of post-modern/experimental/post-post-modern//next wave/call it what you will/ DANCE. This process has been in the works for the past 10 years when I began TinHOUSE with Nathan Montgomery in what was then a recently burned down cabin in the woods. At our first rehearsal, Nathan and I were sitting in the ashes trying to come up with a name for our dance company. Because of recent events, the word "HOUSE" was essential, and due to the rickety foundation from which we were starting, the element of TIN seemed fitting.

The name has stuck, though I continue to be called "Tin Cup Dance", which makes me laugh and seriously consider changing the name. Since that first rehearsal, Nathan has moved to Ouray, Colorado to continue his studies in Butoh. When Breanna Rogers moved to Boulder shortly after Nathan left, she became a long-time collaborator, colleague, and friend.

And then Breanna left too. She moved to Arizona where she is doing amazing dance work at a residential school for girls.

After a few years of thinking my dancing days were over, I became set on becoming a middle school gym teacher.

Then I had the luck and privilege of meeting Laura Ann Samuelson of Hoarded Stuff Performance. Everything I thought I knew and understood exploded into a new found curiosity and longing to begin dancing again.

For the past three years I have found myself diving headlong into the deconstruction, research, implementation, and practice of performance, movement, and dance (with many middle schoolers breathing a huge sigh of relief that I am not the one teaching them to play softball, whiffle ball, soccer, basketball, etc.). This dive has been tremendously joyful, though totally irrational considering everything that is happening in our world today.

And yet.....

It is the only thing that makes sense to me.

It is the only thing I understand.

It is the only frame from which I am able to see the world and to understand my place in it.

This email is an invitation to be part of a community of movers who delight in the soft, vibrant, shattering, discombobulating, and invigorating experience of being in a body. If you wish to be on this list, I will be sending you emails every other Wednesday where we will explore creativity, imagination, art making, and embodiment together. These email exchanges will guide you toward a deeper understanding of the generosity inherent in creative expression and the connection and community that can emerge from dancing together.

If this is something you are interested in, please keep reading. If not, this is a good time to stop reading and unsubscribe from this email list. I would like to be very respectful of your time, so if reading an email from TinHOUSE does not spark your interest, let me know by either emailing me directly or just hitting the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the page.

Okay!

For those of you who chose to continue to read:

Every other Wednesday you will get a TinHOUSE email from me. At the bottom of each page I will include a DANCE MISSION so you can launch into your dancing with freedom and release, leading you on an intimate journey with your dance practice. If you don’t already have a dance practice, this is a great time to start. If you do, these ideas are here to enhance, excavate, and distill what you already know.

Here is your DANCE MISSION for the next two weeks:

A. Dance for 10 minutes a day, every day, for two weeks. Do it at the same time every day. Pick music you love or don't love, or sing, or do it silently, or have some one play music for you, or recite your grocery list over and over again during the 10 minutes you are dancing.

B. Dance at least twice in the next two weeks in an unexpected place at an unexpected time. Do it once where no one else can see you. Do it a second time where at least 3 people can see you.

Take a moment now and schedule this mission for the next two weeks.

At the end of the two weeks (or at the beginning, or anywhere in the middle), email me and tell me all about it. I would love to hear what happened for you. How did it feel? Was there resistance? Did it get easier or harder? Did you like it? Did this experience intrigue you enough to keep going or did it shut you down?

I want to hear from you! Let me know your thoughts, ideas, questions. This will make our conversation more vibrant, accessible, and relevant to you.

As always -

With so much warmth, Joanna