Responses to Ellen Kaz’s performance
Physical and wanting and casting back remembering:
What was wanted, unwanted rarely what was
neutral: math.
Wanting. Freedom and returning, returning to
the ground, earth, crutches or no ( I grow old,
I grow old – an old man is a paltry
thing)
Somehow metropolis, gears and the future which is
now remembering which is now wanting what is now
direction unknown falling? rising? up? or down?
crutches or no. Wanted, unwanted and neutral.
-No Name
Very powerful image at the end, with the
flying – I could really see the strength
on the dancer’s back, and it made me
think of the particularly personal
experience that a person with a disability
might experience her way of being in the
world – that her body has a grace and
power and an expression of self that is unique to her own self, and it
might be a way of being that is
very personally her own, since she has
to invent herself more, perhaps, than do
people whose experiences of their bodies’
abilities are more commonly shared
with other people’s experiences.
It reminds me of a place in
childhood & my mother.
-Laura Friedland-Kayes
Fly fall
into pieces
held by
wings
holding
eggs
a baby sings
inside
the movments’
echo
-dean
Memories – falling backwards –
tumbling moments of stability and
grace
flowing floating stumbling balance
long limbed tree – falling free
wings wings wingsto be free
with gravity upside down
waving watching memories remembered
stillness carries forward into now
bringing us to vulnerability and
strength - a place of
quiet abandon dynamic letting go
Delight!
-No Name
Responses to Melinda Buckwalter’s performance
Silent
the edge of a cliff
working, moving, trying
Getting nowhere from here
Give it up, out the door into the night,
move back into yourself.
Come into yourself. Here.
-Sarah Hammill
Simple simple thank you
word
stop word
I feel like I’m inside
invited inside
notice
stop
notice
It is.
She is.
Time is Yes.
Shimmering water reflections
of moving perceptions
window
window
buttons in the cushion
the home
the shifting changing
home.
-Ann McNeal
The windows….moving….the anchor….moving
Body….moving ….body….stopping.
Re-member……re--------member……in body.
I can’t hear everything, every word….
“Wow!” I heard.
The anchor is moving….I’m unsettled.
and very curious. ….light….happy.
-Eric Friedland –Kaye
I could believe her presence. Some dancers pause because that’s the rhythmn of their dance, and it symbolizes a mental or emotional state that the character in the dance is meant to be experiencing, but I could rely on Melinda’s pauses to bring to me a vicarious authentic inhabiting of the moment. A real solid comfort and rest and trust in that very moment.
I appreciated the windows of perception, it brought an image, a reminder of possibility for how to shift the way I see the world, a reminder of the unusual or not-rote channels that can happen through.
-Laura Friedland -Kaye
Stopping Places:
speaking in public
giving clear information
loving my mother unconditionally
letting go of changing what I cannot change
receiving compliments
learning how not to return
-Jean
Shifting perception, doors, windows, pillows. The pillow as “anchor” creating and defining space around the dancer then lost, dropped on “out” – illusion of space, perception, “anchor”. Then transformed again as “window” – mutable, pliable, not a stable view. Re-member coming through.
- Sarah Wilson
Prapto Kapkunka
ahk eya pajmomenta
newaka outu
nowaka inko
cushenszo amaflayzen
shindo mashanlassy prapto momenta
-Anonymous
An inner journey made visible. A story of movement
completed in immobility. All that was fixed became plastic, a cushion, a window, a vanishing of image. There was struggle here, where the sense of story met visual metaphor, met meaning that was beyond both.
- No Name
Writing, listening, remembering
reflecting visible thought
visible awareness manifesting form
naming the nameless – surprise
seeing what was always there but
not seen – not seen
naming the moment awareness
touches – opening window thought
disappears into wonder –
surprise
directionless focus – journeys us
forward
surprise
moments of clarity opening
windows in my mind
surprise!
-No Name
Don’t tell me about me Speak of what you are the
greatest expert – of you and this now. What? You
are on sands slipping sideways, so you don’t know
you; don’t know what is happening? OK, then speak
of the sand slipping beneath your feet, tumbling
rocks moving past (of the grit, smooth, rough, tender,
cold, hot…), now stopping, now starting, whatever. Why
would it make sense? Rusting and losing losing everything,
eventually, speak, move, sing to me yourself. I don’t know
about windows, stationary or moving metaphorical spaces
here in this just now with palm clasp and
knees flexed baby, baby.
- No Name
Windows of perception. Becoming
what we want to be might be as easy
as changing the angle we look at the
world from. If I think of myself as
different, do I simply become that?
Can I stop looking at myself from the
same window frame and allow myself
to be something new?
Are all lines straight – or do we
limit ourselves by trying to be linear?
New frames for thought.
-Jody Wright
Vipassana
I wanna
Practice
Moving
This Here Now
means wanna means want
Breathing Breaking Blacking Bluing Flying Fleeing Flowing
Going Out
Coming In
A Heart Full of Yes
-Ellen Kaz
Yes
I found myself remembering Prapto
feeling him saying
Oh Melinda your question is very hard
How to answer you. I must think. Silence
Silence Silence.
He said, value. If you value
it you will practice. Even if
you think you may never get
it. If you give it value
then you will surely try
shadow over water
shadow moving over water.
-Melinda Buckwalter