Please join us this week as we engage with Molly Rose-Williams and her the collaborators for Social Movement, which premieres on Saturday, November 17, 2018 at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. Purchase your tickets here.
Today we hear from collaborator Jesse Wiener.
Jesse Wiener grew up exploring movement in Minneapolis, MN, continued her study at Oberlin College and now resides in Berkeley, CA. Past dance projects include works with Nina Haft, Kyoungil Ong, Holly Handman-Lopez, Ann Cooper Albright, and Lili Weckler. She currently is in collaborative processes with Nina Haft and Company, Molly Rose-Williams & Co, and is a co-artistic director of Jiten Daiko, a Bay Area-based taiko drumming ensemble. When Jesse is not dancing or drumming, she teaches creative movement to preschool children and works with pregnant families as a labor doula, where she continues to learn about the power of bodies, movement and play.
What have you enjoyed about the process?
I love playing with this incredible group of people. It feels safe to explore many different parts of my movement-self, and each time we come together, there is something new to engage with. Each person brings such incredible and unique strength.
What has been difficult or challenging about the process?
It has been very physically demanding at times. Arriving in the space requires a level of dedication and presence that can be difficult to reach when tired.
What is something you've learned, or a way that you have grown?
Trusting my intuition/gut has been big for me in this process. My tendency is often to find middle ground within a group or try to facilitate everyone being as happy as possible. This can lead me to not really consider what I want, especially when there are many strong voices in a group. The level of improvisation and group awareness required in this process calls me in - it requires me to make decisions and to react from a deeper intuitive place. There isn’t time to question, “Is this the most interesting choice I could make? What will my fellow performers think of this?” I think this is the beauty of live performance art - things happen and then they are gone and everything and everyone is moving forward no matter what. As Michael Scott (from “The Office”) would say, “Adapt, react, readapt, apt.”
What is your favorite improv score and why?
I really enjoy “head to floor” - a score in which we bring one another’s heads to the ground over and over. I love how many ways there are to do the same movement/interaction. The score can feel tender, playful, aggressive. Even beyond how we do the movements, there are an infinite number of possibilities within such a simple structure - the composition of bodies in space, the interaction between movers and how we come to each decision we make. I loved talking to my sister after she saw our preview at the Art/Food Party fundraiser and hearing the multitude of things she saw in such a short time.
What question(s) has been raised for you?
Can one be social alone? What is authenticity? Why do I enjoy unison? – both being within a group doing the same thing and also witnessing a group in unison.
What is "Social Movement?" How would you articulate the connection between what we've been doing and the idea of social movements?
A group of people moving together.
Has anything in the process impacted the way you think about your own artistic practice? How so?
I love this idea of having a group score. People know what leads into what, and we can just play and explore within the structure. I find myself wanting to create group scores with other groups I am a part of - can my housemates and I have a group score that we spontaneously slip into? Are routines a score?
Dumplings or tamales?
Dumplings!
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Related posts and websites:
What is "Social Movement?" by Molly Rose-Williams
Dreaming/Preparing/Dancing: 5 Days until Social Movement by Molly Rose-Williams
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