David Abrams called salmon a kind of sacrament for the land and people and I agree. The Chinook and Steelhead no longer swim in this river. They no longer can reach this spot due to hydroelectric dams, like dominos, between here and the Pacific. The last nail in coffin and the last lock that bolted the door down, like locking them out of their own houses while they were away, was completion of the Grand Coulee dam in 1941. We knew better, but decided it
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The colorful cobbles brought life to the yellow-brown hues of the sky. Movement inspired by the clear shallow riffles crossing gravel bars, and the laminar flows across the cobbles. Piles of large wood strewn and buried at this delta, across what seemed like miles. Seems like a delta you'd see at the coast. Imagining of salmon getting to this spot (they did not).
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This past year has been full of explorations of river, rock, trees, topography, and what matters about these. Once again, I find myself dividing up things - reducing them to their parts then putting them all back together into ‘landscape’. One of the tenants of somatic work through work is ‘Whole-Part-Whole” (from Irmgard Bartenieff)
The Pacific Northwest is the land of watersheds and systems thinking. Inherent in the ecological research (at least freshwater) is a very holistic (though hierarchical) viewpoint.
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On a recent movement in nature outing, 3 of us went to the site with many ideas… I figured out from this last outing that if we gave ourselves time to just absorb the site, our exploration of movements that felt authentic and site-derived just came more easily. Each of us in our own experience, but still together.. writing, arranging found objects, and decorating the rocks with ephemeral art. The river and boulder boundary was a focal point - even
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Friday the 14th I put on a workshop - about the heart in dancing with someone you care about. I was touched by how much love and affection and fun was in the room! I sometimes forget that dancing is about closeness for many people. While I like that part of it, that has been the underlying thread - not the main point. Dancing and training in competitive-style ballroom sometimes makes the dance the subject, not the partner. Personal space disappears, and touch feels so ‘everyday’ that it doesn’t feel like closeness. In this workshop, I encouraged couples to put their attention on sensations
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I have officially started the Global Water Dance project here in the Pacific Northwest! I’ll include more information here - mainly video clips and project progress. The message of this project is protecting the water and calling the salmon back home, after being gone for over 80 years. Global Water Dance is a global project initiated by the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS).
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