Everyday we have the opportunity to make work. We get to dance and choreograph. But like any job and any profession, some days feel more like work than others. Then, there are those days that feel like a dream. This residency? It has been one dreamy day after another. I came in to the process hoping to learn how to ask the right questions of the work, of the dancers, of myself. My biggest question was, if we know where we want to end up, but we don’t know how to get there, can I at least learn to ask the right questions to find the path? So, we have been asking a lot of questions, building a lot of phrases, tearing everything down, and building it all again. All along clearing the path we hope leads us home. But, asking and exploring these questions has not been the best part of our time. The best part has been all of the “get to” moments that remind me how beautiful this art form is and how valuable the people who engage in it are.
I get to work with a team of committed, intelligent, mature, highly skilled, and endlessly open individuals that make asking the tough, the rudimentary, the basic, the boring, and the impossible questions possible. They are the reason for my dreamy excitement every week. We have definitely hit walls, found limits, and been frustrated but we have also laughed and played, and found joy and excitement. It has not been easy, but it has not been difficult either. It has been challenging and worthwhile and I think that has been the residency’s biggest gift: the gift of hard but rewarding and fulfilling “get to” days that leave us with a deeper appreciation for this art, more questions than answers and endless possibilities for more creations.
Harper Addison 