A Peculiar Career

First let me say that I count myself lucky to have been able to continue making work all these years, adjusting my methods and expectations as needed, occasionally taking long breaks, re-defining what I make, how I make it and who I make it with. Not many people can claim a career - in modern dance! - that's not in some way peculiar. But Lordy, it's been an  independent path, one might almost say on the margins. 

I often wonder how different it would have been if I'd apprenticed myself to a master choreographer, or gone to graduate school - especially now that I'm making films! Hard to believe I've done all this without the benefit of an agent or a booking company except for about 6 months in 1985, at which point I promptly got pregnant with my first son.  Did the fact that I moved to the suburbs and raised a family inevitably lead to a life's work that has become more a vocation than a living? Is trying to measure a life in dollars rather than personal satisfaction just capitalism talking?

[ALERT: solicitation in store !!]
At the same time as I have felt unrecognized, on the whole it's been rewarding, Nothing is quite as engaging as spending time making stuff up - either in a studio with others or editing footage alone. But with age comes The Great Reckoning: if I didn't make any money, did I at least make a difference?

In the past week, I've gotten some data suggesting that what I make has touched people, and might serve a purpose. Below are a series of heartwarming responses edited by curator Eva Campos Suarez with audience members immediately after a screening of Her Magnum Opus in Spain in late April. One thing I know about this peculiar career: it's important to find the audience who understands and appreciates what you make. Because making a difference is not about numbers of views: not everything is for everyone.




[3 paragraphs till fund-raising pitch!!]

I'm also tickled to report that 2 very different pieces of mine will be studied in school: The Woods by students from 3rd-6th grade; In search of lost time by high-schoolers. Brilliant of FAD: Film-Art-Dance Festival in Cary, North Carolina to create this curriculum - naturally, I've asked them to share their lesson plans with me! I can't quite imagine how a 3rd-grade or an 11th grader might be inspired by my short films ... but I love thinking about it.

Looking to the future, there are two rewarding projects on the boards before 2019 ends - one a collaboration in NYC sometime this summer with 10HL, a repertory company of 6 very talented men, to be based on Lewis Hine's photos of men at work. 
Details not finalized, but I can't wait!

I've also been invited to be a part of the inaugural Mabel Residency at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, Rhode Island where in 2011 I made Tales Told in the Woods as part of Open for Dancing.  I'm thrilled for the chance to return to that beautiful place - forest, field and ocean - to make a dance film tentatively entitled En Plein Air: Through Mabel's Eyes. However, the invitation to stay there for 3 weeks doesn't include production support ...

... so if you've read this far, PLEASE MAKE A DONATION to help make that new work possible. I'll likely do a Kickstarter campaign, but I would so appreciate the Kick in the Tail that even a hundred-dollars-per-person might guarantee.