Dance with Pretty and Ugly
from Dance of the Butterflies
Los Angeles
January 2013
Filming by Valerie Suter
Dancing with Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly Gallery, Houston, Texas
March 2012
Filming by Valerie Suter
Spring Dance
Transco Tower, Houston, Texas
March 2012
Filming by Valerie Suter
Dancing with Matisse
Dancing by Valerie Suter, March 2012
Filming by Elizabeth Reed
Singing by Valerie and Elizabeth
Dancing Performed in Glassell Sculpture Garden, Houston, Texas
Sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly, Houston Triptych, 1986, "a formal response to Henri Matisse's Backs and to Noguchi's design"
WHAT IS PUBLIC DANCING?
My Mom seems to think it is HI-larious. A good guy friend finds it one part amusing, one part totally embarrassing. (What is she up to now!?) My partner in crime finds it joyful, freeing, expressive. For me, it is about radical presence to a world, and to places, that weren't expecting you to notice them - our everyday commutes, the street corners where we pass by so many strangers (without taking the time to remember the profound reality that they love), so many homeless (without knowing deep in our bellies: they hunger).
Sometimes the dance is an "ode". Especially when someone's art is nearby. When visual art is filmed alongside the dance, the dance can be a conversation with the spirit of the art and its artist.
For me, dancing in these spaces is many things (fun, exercise, amusement, creativity, listening) and prayer - prayer to a God, the only God, from what one religion I don't know - prayer for ways we can become a better world simply by noticing where we are and who and what is around us in that more alive, more sanctified space. Dance in these public spaces is my rebellious affirmation of living. It is a physical socratic method asking: how else, and how better, can we go about this living (together) bit? Could we pause, and feel throughout our bodies, what great good magic is here? But, that's just me! You're invited, of course, to uniquely define what you see, what you feel, and when, why, and where you dance.
Nota Bene. OK! Now that I've talked about it this much, I hope it's still fun! Yes! It is meant to be very fun and very silly and wonderful, mostly.
Sometimes the dance is an "ode". Especially when someone's art is nearby. When visual art is filmed alongside the dance, the dance can be a conversation with the spirit of the art and its artist.
For me, dancing in these spaces is many things (fun, exercise, amusement, creativity, listening) and prayer - prayer to a God, the only God, from what one religion I don't know - prayer for ways we can become a better world simply by noticing where we are and who and what is around us in that more alive, more sanctified space. Dance in these public spaces is my rebellious affirmation of living. It is a physical socratic method asking: how else, and how better, can we go about this living (together) bit? Could we pause, and feel throughout our bodies, what great good magic is here? But, that's just me! You're invited, of course, to uniquely define what you see, what you feel, and when, why, and where you dance.
Nota Bene. OK! Now that I've talked about it this much, I hope it's still fun! Yes! It is meant to be very fun and very silly and wonderful, mostly.