[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I can remember the very first dance that
I choreographed I could not have been
older than 12 years old and it was a
prophecy draped in every possible color
I could feel the rippled floor beneath
my feet since the shifts of weight
between my imagined steps and trace the
edges of the six large red round buttons
securely attached to the front of a
custom that didn’t actually exist waking
up from that dream was jarring for me
because being awake meant that dance
wasn’t real it was the first time I
really understood the difference between
my very active imagination and what was
happening in the world around me in her
magic the young version of myself
visions something that was both
wonderful and imaginary and that was
kind of frightening for a kid I mean
think about it you are barely out of
pigtails and hula hoops when you get a
very large vision for your life and as
whimsical as it all sounds to know
exactly what you want to be and do at
that very moment my 12 year old self
well she was equally full of both magic
and fear I did not wake up from that
dream with a booklet on my nightstand
that red crystal Michelle’s guides to
making dances and three steps to
simultaneously change the world there
were no meticulous instructions on what
to do with all that creativity and
ingenuity brimming over inside of me so
I did not follow the blue
of my dreams in that dance with the red
buttons didn’t become a real thing in
fact when I think about it it’s the
first time I remember feeling the
presence of a void a specific kind of
disappointment that sticks with you when
you don’t follow through on your biggest
ideas so in the wake of that prophecy
and an unfulfilled directive my young
self was left with this a very tactile
impression of what life could be like if
she could just swallow herself in enough
courage to bring that kind of vibrant
and magnetic vision for her life into
the world to design the kind of dances
that are so powerful they show up in
your dreams and push themselves out into
the world through you that young girl in
that moment of Nan making together they
are my start here moment she’s my power
origin story when the mountain of
becoming for any creative project grows
seemingly impossible to climb I turn to
her I carry her and her clarity for art
making into every new and impossible
idea I use her strength to carve out
creative spaces that might have some
meaning to the people who do them and
view them she takes her tiny hands
places them on the small of my back and
pushes me down the path of doing I
imagine I make
I envisioned I craft I pick behind me to
see if she is still there she is
I make more dances I make more dances I
make more dances
[Music]
a few years ago I was a mid step
climbing up the creative mountain of
dance making when I lost track of that
start here moment I was making a
site-specific dance piece that was
supposed to be choreographed on the
banks of the Scioto River in Dublin Ohio
and the Great Miami River in Dayton Ohio
it was my largest Commission today and
something about the sheer size of it
just had me nervous I was losing track
of myself losing track of my focus
losing track of my power I was
desperately trying to figure out what
the work was about so I laid my ear near
the earth hoping that the earth would
whisper back when I remember that the
land we live on has memories and people
like me got here like that cold song
says wading in the water to freedom
across boundaries like the Ohio River
which meanders
along the same space as what people used
to call the mason-dixon line an
imaginary boundary that separates the
air between free and slave states here
in Dayton the Great Miami River rushes
into the Ohio River so I thought as a
site-specific piece this would be the
kind of dance that unearths history and
undoes it through the gluing and viewing
of the piece we would gather around the
river like droplets of rain and the
dancers would become this healing
flowing rushing source reminder of
community so I imagined but I couldn’t
make I envisioned but I couldn’t craft I
looked behind myself to see if she was
still there and she wasn’t in my young
choreographic life the dances I create
it felt like honey lay soliloquies of
being and doing where the history of a
place and the narratives of our body
collided in vibrant color so imagine how
tangled in confusion I felt when on my
climb up that mountain to choreograph
the descent of this water rain I was
stuck I lost track
of my power there were things going on
in my life taking up her space a
combination of fear anxiety and much
less magic there was my fear that people
wouldn’t understand why I wanted to talk
about race with my work why history was
so important or by making dances from
the vantage point of marginalized bodies
is a viable artistic practice I was
doubting that this kind of social
justice art-making
would work that it even had the capacity
to leave us changed the book art and
fear says when the work goes well we
keep such inner distractions at bay but
in times of uncertainty and need we
begin listening looking back I was
raised in one of those homes where love
spirituality and art held much more
weight than money where my mother alone
taught us about goodness she did her own
kind of sparkly magic tricks to sow in
us all the things she thought would be
important about the world so we learned
to dance to make music to paint to
imagine the world for ourselves she
knelt down dreams like take me to the
wall
take me to take me to to be whispering
in our ears the value of friendship and
community she taught us through her work
of building that our life’s work should
change the world that we could and
should make things that are half feel
whole again
cueing in our lives a kind of alternate
reality and cueing in my work a
foundation of spirituality healing
culture history as I continue to
continue to meditate on my life as an
artist as a human cuz it isn’t all about
being human the memories of my mother
reminded me of my young self and the
capacity of her imagination so I reached
down and pulled her near me and we
readied ourselves on the start here
square gathered our power remembered
what it was like to have life’s work and
we began to make a new dance we talked
about the Ohio River as a provider a
connector and a divider of race class in
culture you know the way some folks come
on y’all you know the way some folks use
natural boundaries to separate people
from neighborhoods and resources we came
to terms with the history of this place
as a methodology to free our
Souls we dug up our joy memories and our
nightmares all in an effort to restore
ourselves and bring back our sense of
connection and our responsibility to
community
[Music]
together we crafted a kind of physical
artistic space with the energy from our
bodies that allowed us to tell the truth
about our experiences with water
we made dance is about socializing on
its banks floating in its safety
drowning in its chaos and being baptized
by its spirit those dances became simple
physical gesture those gestures became a
shared language amongst the community of
performers and the end result was a call
for community to the doer and the viewer
of the piece it took me two years to
choreograph the descent of this water
rain to years to remember that the work
matters even if you can’t see the end
two years to find her my power origin
again we all have a kind of start here
moment a thing someone a time in our
lives that reminds us we have a
responsibility to create to imagine to
imagine the world for ourselves to peek
behind ourselves and make sure that she
and her magic is still there so we craft
we envision we create say this misery we
make more dances come on make some
energy with me we make more dances last
time together now we make more dances
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I can remember the very first dance that
I choreographed I could not have been
older than 12 years old and it was a
prophecy draped in every possible color
I could feel the rippled floor beneath
my feet since the shifts of weight
between my imagined steps and trace the
edges of the six large red round buttons
securely attached to the front of a
custom that didn’t actually exist waking
up from that dream was jarring for me
because being awake meant that dance
wasn’t real it was the first time I
really understood the difference between
my very active imagination and what was
happening in the world around me in her
magic the young version of myself
visions something that was both
wonderful and imaginary and that was
kind of frightening for a kid I mean
think about it you are barely out of
pigtails and hula hoops when you get a
very large vision for your life and as
whimsical as it all sounds to know
exactly what you want to be and do at
that very moment my 12 year old self
well she was equally full of both magic
and fear I did not wake up from that
dream with a booklet on my nightstand
that red crystal Michelle’s guides to
making dances and three steps to
simultaneously change the world there
were no meticulous instructions on what
to do with all that creativity and
ingenuity brimming over inside of me so
I did not follow the blue
of my dreams in that dance with the red
buttons didn’t become a real thing in
fact when I think about it it’s the
first time I remember feeling the
presence of a void a specific kind of
disappointment that sticks with you when
you don’t follow through on your biggest
ideas so in the wake of that prophecy
and an unfulfilled directive my young
self was left with this a very tactile
impression of what life could be like if
she could just swallow herself in enough
courage to bring that kind of vibrant
and magnetic vision for her life into
the world to design the kind of dances
that are so powerful they show up in
your dreams and push themselves out into
the world through you that young girl in
that moment of Nan making together they
are my start here moment she’s my power
origin story when the mountain of
becoming for any creative project grows
seemingly impossible to climb I turn to
her I carry her and her clarity for art
making into every new and impossible
idea I use her strength to carve out
creative spaces that might have some
meaning to the people who do them and
view them she takes her tiny hands
places them on the small of my back and
pushes me down the path of doing I
imagine I make
I envisioned I craft I pick behind me to
see if she is still there she is
I make more dances I make more dances I
make more dances
[Music]
a few years ago I was a mid step
climbing up the creative mountain of
dance making when I lost track of that
start here moment I was making a
site-specific dance piece that was
supposed to be choreographed on the
banks of the Scioto River in Dublin Ohio
and the Great Miami River in Dayton Ohio
it was my largest Commission today and
something about the sheer size of it
just had me nervous I was losing track
of myself losing track of my focus
losing track of my power I was
desperately trying to figure out what
the work was about so I laid my ear near
the earth hoping that the earth would
whisper back when I remember that the
land we live on has memories and people
like me got here like that cold song
says wading in the water to freedom
across boundaries like the Ohio River
which meanders
along the same space as what people used
to call the mason-dixon line an
imaginary boundary that separates the
air between free and slave states here
in Dayton the Great Miami River rushes
into the Ohio River so I thought as a
site-specific piece this would be the
kind of dance that unearths history and
undoes it through the gluing and viewing
of the piece we would gather around the
river like droplets of rain and the
dancers would become this healing
flowing rushing source reminder of
community so I imagined but I couldn’t
make I envisioned but I couldn’t craft I
looked behind myself to see if she was
still there and she wasn’t in my young
choreographic life the dances I create
it felt like honey lay soliloquies of
being and doing where the history of a
place and the narratives of our body
collided in vibrant color so imagine how
tangled in confusion I felt when on my
climb up that mountain to choreograph
the descent of this water rain I was
stuck I lost track
of my power there were things going on
in my life taking up her space a
combination of fear anxiety and much
less magic there was my fear that people
wouldn’t understand why I wanted to talk
about race with my work why history was
so important or by making dances from
the vantage point of marginalized bodies
is a viable artistic practice I was
doubting that this kind of social
justice art-making
would work that it even had the capacity
to leave us changed the book art and
fear says when the work goes well we
keep such inner distractions at bay but
in times of uncertainty and need we
begin listening looking back I was
raised in one of those homes where love
spirituality and art held much more
weight than money where my mother alone
taught us about goodness she did her own
kind of sparkly magic tricks to sow in
us all the things she thought would be
important about the world so we learned
to dance to make music to paint to
imagine the world for ourselves she
knelt down dreams like take me to the
wall
take me to take me to to be whispering
in our ears the value of friendship and
community she taught us through her work
of building that our life’s work should
change the world that we could and
should make things that are half feel
whole again
cueing in our lives a kind of alternate
reality and cueing in my work a
foundation of spirituality healing
culture history as I continue to
continue to meditate on my life as an
artist as a human cuz it isn’t all about
being human the memories of my mother
reminded me of my young self and the
capacity of her imagination so I reached
down and pulled her near me and we
readied ourselves on the start here
square gathered our power remembered
what it was like to have life’s work and
we began to make a new dance we talked
about the Ohio River as a provider a
connector and a divider of race class in
culture you know the way some folks come
on y’all you know the way some folks use
natural boundaries to separate people
from neighborhoods and resources we came
to terms with the history of this place
as a methodology to free our
Souls we dug up our joy memories and our
nightmares all in an effort to restore
ourselves and bring back our sense of
connection and our responsibility to
community
[Music]
together we crafted a kind of physical
artistic space with the energy from our
bodies that allowed us to tell the truth
about our experiences with water
we made dance is about socializing on
its banks floating in its safety
drowning in its chaos and being baptized
by its spirit those dances became simple
physical gesture those gestures became a
shared language amongst the community of
performers and the end result was a call
for community to the doer and the viewer
of the piece it took me two years to
choreograph the descent of this water
rain to years to remember that the work
matters even if you can’t see the end
two years to find her my power origin
again we all have a kind of start here
moment a thing someone a time in our
lives that reminds us we have a
responsibility to create to imagine to
imagine the world for ourselves to peek
behind ourselves and make sure that she
and her magic is still there so we craft
we envision we create say this misery we
make more dances come on make some
energy with me we make more dances last
time together now we make more dances
[Applause]
[Music]
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