7.5.12
Face to Face with Jennifer Miller
At Cafe Orlin on St. Mark's Place and 2nd Ave.
Jennifer sees the piece as historicizing the dance world. We talk about the fact that dance world that we grew up in, that she was already in and that I come into, no longer exists. It is gone irrevocably, eliminated by the way that history and capital move through the city (AIDS, real estate, etc.). She says that it's hard to know what's gone till it's gone.
She talks about dance as a process of living through a series of rooms, and the art that comes out of this is the energy that gets created by being in a room together.
She wonders how people are dealing with making work now. What is their process? How is it different from what we did in the past? She says that dance is not necessarily about "movement" per se, but could be seen as a group of "tools for existence." She uses movement exercises when she teaches theater history--she sees dance as "instructions for existence in the moment."
She says that there will be many authorial voices in the room so 40 Dancers will probably be a "messy piece." She and I have both found ourselves disconnected, by chance and choice, from the community we used to be part of, so part of the piece could be seen as strategizing about re-creating community. She points out that connections made in dance are good for socially awkward people.
Physical space is a space of freedom.