Responses to Kent Alexander's & Mary Ramsayi’s performance
Are you making art or are you artfully
exploring what an interrelationship is
like for you
I am moved by the slowness. The
consideration. The sober but open
questioning that comes with age &
time. I am moved that you’ve brought
your questions here
-Carolyn Shakti Sadeh
Two serious or at least longer lasting
relationships in my life – one
a man of Mexican background
from Salinas, one a woman
originally from Hong Kong,
both from poor, working class
families. Dennis’ father had left
early in his childhood, his
mother worked in a factory &
sometimes went into trance-like frozen
states where she had to be prevented
from accidentally hurting herself – I
learned to like jalapenos. He left me
for a wealthier woman who could help
his career aspirations.
-Anonymous
I wanted to argue w/ you about using
the word race – it’s not what people think
it is. It is to me a shorthand way
of highlighting the belief that we are
more different than we are alike.
And that this differentness is reason
to be guarded and wary of the other.
I’m guessing the use the word is
-Donovan Rice
The question at the end
seemed to somehow tie the
whole thing together.
I felt a sense of
rambling throughout and then
the whole dream sequence toward
the end seemed to capture
my attention
and it was as though the
last question somehow verbalized
a thought I was having but was
not fully conscious of and actually
made more sense of the whole piece.
-Anonymous
What does being vulnerable mean
Hand hang with a
memory of a hold in
a heavy object
ringed finger hand
twitching plays
a thinking piano
a race market
pick a race
Sex drive
the word Drive
food drive
color drive
smell drive
touch drive
problems drive
culture – one per
person
-Daniel Lepkoff
I have 4 kids of color. And so often, particularly
when they were babies, I was assumed to
have a black partner. Now I see myself as part
of a “family of color,” yet when my kids, who
are most all grown & gone off to live their lives
now, aren’t with me, I look at my white self and
feel it doesn’t reflect all I am, all of the richness
of our family life. I want to adopt another four
and do it all again.
-Jody Wright
I loved it
moving–real–subtle–
humorous but deep
strong sense of caring comes through
dream story telling was very evocative –
I could see the story told by
the dream come to life –
characters and feelings
clearly drawn with simple but
effective gestures –
-Anonymous
Wanting to wander through a
landscape of projected film images
of interracial couples. Could I
have this dance?
-Kent Alexander
Provocative thought provoking
stirring dwelling in an uncomfortable
unwelcoming place and at the same time
connecting uplifting well done.
-Anonymous
Seeing two such different bodies do the same
movement in itself
opens and closes questions, flutters the
edges of what I expect my
brain is working hard at
unifying or separating this process
does not settle through the whole phrase
I love the thought provoking tape recorded questions
“Are you making art or are you making more pain”
-Christine Cole
Now that crucial interracial relationship
is with my mentee, 10 years old.
I am thrilled when an African-American woman I write/sing
with asks if Danielle is my daughter.
Thank the Goddess to find this in
this too-white valley.
-Kacenka Hoby
Soaring in that subtle, earthen way.
Turning is just the right thing to do at
the moment.
-Mary Ramsay
I remember
“Are you making art or are
you making more pain?”
I drifted and found it hard to pay attention during some of it.
Maybe heady/intellectual
I liked the end – I felt more let-in/connected to the real person, the performer.
-Anonymous
Last line was powerful ending.
Switches between music, talking, questionnaire, use of space inmoving worked really well
Part about Kent getting shot was almost too much – too sudden.
-Anonymous
Art or Pain?
I feel helpless in the face of pain and until recently I have judged art as superfluous to social activism. Feed the babies before paint for the canvas
I am changing my opinion
Of course feed the babies
and
paint for the canvas
but even more
The purpose of life seems
to increasingly be, to
create only beauty.
Peace and justice
are its true companions Amen!
-Deborah
How perfect, the variety of
fruit, earthly delight, we people.
How much is said in one gesture.
How long it has taken to hear
these questions voiced in public.
-Christie
Are you making art or are you making love?
You got to move to the blues, to the blacks, the pinks, the greens,
the browns, the yellows those dervish spilling yellows & ever
the mean reds. What works is the familiar – perhaps an
earth tone palette? What creates desire is the strange –
an exotic palette of lapis lazuli, malachite & electrum.
Can you combine palettes? Is there only one way to paint?
Only one landscape to envision? Only one question to answer?
-Karen
the dream
was walking
spinning
with you
as we
made art
together
to night
I was spinning
sitting
with you.
together
We made
Art
-Amanda
Is it art you’re creating
or more pain?
Dreams are oddly profound
Making sense of the dream
-Liz
In my dream, you are balancing on
a blue ball. It is turning,
you are walking. Faster and faster.
It feels precarious.
Kent jumps down from the ball
and Mary jumps down.
They begin to do the tango.
-Ann
You are making art…
sharing collective dreams
Putting the inside out
Thank you for the honesty and courage to share
yourselves….and asking us to share ourselves.
You are art, Yin and Yang, sitting over the bumps
of our collective consciousness and fears.
Thank you.
-Lee
Are you making art or are you making more pain? How do we fix on the target of our impulse to love and make love. My nurses were balck women during the first days of my life and black beauty defines beauty for me. I love the melting pot, hybrid vigor, Gopi and Bistek, Ben and Kirme, all the aging couples with babies bought or rescued fromaround the world. We are all one people.
-Davio
Art or Pain
Pain or Art
Art is Pain is Art Pain
Ow
Questionnaires
walking telling
acting out dreams
simple, seems so
answer these simple loaded questions
life goes on
-Melinda
Bouncing black ‘n white bellies – two toned hands
Are you making art or are you making more
Pain? This will be one of those pieces that change my life – for
This moment and many other moments. There’s a training
a Buddhist practice called lojong – I might not have spelled that right – but AA does something similar – transforming
the mind with slogans – are you making art or are you
making pain has the kind of power to snap you
into something. The fruit, the racial questions
the movement was engaging.
I thought about my interest in black men.
Never investigated why but every question
Seemed relevant. It’s the two tone look of your
Faces together – your different hands
-Suzy
Am I making art or more pain?
This is something I ask myself
Regularly. So I ask God, what do
You want me to convey, express,
let me be your instrument.
And the goddess and the gods move
my limbs like butter and boulders,
free my voice like a singer, like
a mute, hurl me through space,
give me props, and costumes,
text, facial changes, and all the
time I set my intention. What
do I want to say. Everytime
it is love. Everytime it is
laughter. Everytime it is beauty.
Everytime it is transformation.
I used to be a congested
cylinder but now the pathway
is clear.
-Rythea
Responses to Rose Oceania’s performance
Thank you for exploring the absurd
I felt okay to think of some
little bit of that creature
inside of myself.
-Anonymous
Now we get to
see the back of
back stage
-Daniel Lepkoff
Liz Taylor meets Cher lands inside a
shrunken mad bird on a wire above
a courtyard . the wire breaks the
bird lands unharmed, at least in
body but misplaced in mind
her eggs have turned to apples
her potential children to food
-Carolyn Shakti Sadeh
What is the meaning of the grimaces, gestures & noises?
Laughter: Puzzlement
-Diana Carroll
I felt vulnerable, scared – like I have felt
crazy too and hidden. Afraid to go big
w/my thought/feelings. Going big is really
fun….being with the animal side
loving using all my senses.
-Donovan Rice
The guru within (us)
my trip to Puna
it’s definitely my path to enlightenment
the hair, the fear, the distractions
from food & sex
the closeness to crazyness
& comfort
-Christine Cole
A very human non-human
Reminds me
-Anonymous
I remember Olisa, at 5 yrs old. When
you are little, you look in the mirror
& try things out. “What can I do?”
Olisa was looking in the side
door mirror as we drove along. She
suddenly turned to me and
said, “Mom, look, a frog.” And she
had her tongue coming through
the gap in her teeth – and the
two remaining teeth looked like
eyes.
-Jody Wright
Land-O-Lakes woman on acid meets
Cousin It meets Carnival – meets
my funny bone.
-Kent Alexander
I know this critter – inhabiting me
inside. So great to have her out in
the open.
-Mary Ramsay
Is this a picture of mental illness? Are we supposed to laugh? Are we laughing at you or with you? I was uncomfortable not knowing which.
Clearly it was OK to laugh – so it made me question my assumptions
-that a person with mental illness is so out of touch with reality that they’re incapable of self-awareness / being able to laugh at themselves
Thank you for making me laugh and question my assumptions.
-Anonymous
i like the dressing room.
can she come for Christmas?
you’re so amazingly
committed.
Uhmm…when youput your arms
out and leaned to your right,
i could have watched
that for a lot longer.
wanted you to go to the left.
-Anonymous
Dance. in a box.
-Anonymous
Witch apple goblin
creature meets bozo the clown.
I don’t know what to write
The piece was just great wacky fun
-Deborah
Little crooked finger.
Little chicken sky is cracking.
The chimpanzee in me, we, I
Need to let out. The parade
Of fish kites//She sees through
Eyes that were in France yesterday.
I have known her for lifetimes.
-Christie
I am tormented by inward apples – this appalls me.
my apples. must I point them out? Appended in apology a
granny green. Eating gratuitously. & red rolls away.
-Karen
Red apple Green apple
Red dress “Green mind.”
-Maya
unresolved
this obsession
hidden
in something
too big for me
to wear.
forgotten,
when
the music plays,
I dance.
-Amanda
Fighting, feeding, self
funny and pathetic
the dictated body
struggling to balance.
-Liz
There are no words inside the bag. (with drawing)
-Kathleen
Do you want to come out and play?
Only if I can be the Wicked Witch of the West.
If you want to be the Wicked Witch you have to
be very bad.
That’s OK.
And you can’t talk.
Not at all?
Not even one tiny bit.
Can I have a costume?
Yes. And you may have 5 apples.
-Ann
A puppet has the power to ease our fears, be our friend,
Make us laugh, and bring on tears.
Ask any child.
-Lee
Was presented in a bog wig looking strange, moving and vocalizing in grunts as her fingers and hands emerged froma red velvet garment. 6 green and 1 red apple made their appearance and danced in and out of the dress.
-Davio
Martha Graham in Lamentations What is WRONG with her NO Cave Man Pieta? Madonna on steroids one of those accidents on the X files where the Indian woman melds personalities with an air force pilot that’s it!
-Melinda
Astoundingly funny – engaging – homely, endearing – let
me take you home. You let us look – took your time
trusted. I want an apple so bad I can
taste it. Really really worked! Animal witchy hairy
energy – my solstice celebration.
-Suzy
Responses to Rythea Kaufman’s performance
where to begin with this one
big fat smile across my TV self
that hasn’t been since age 13
but so loves the “real show” instead
of the screen version
good job Rhythea of working out
father mother boyfriend reality projected
fanciful fun well charactered
selves . makes me wanna
write my own show
hmmm what dilemma will I
play with
-Carolyn Shakti Sadeh
What to say about that?
Best to stay clear of intimate relationships.
I met someone recently who wants to
date me – I say projection!
However, am I one of those who
wouldn’t join any club that would have
me as a member? If someone likes
me, I feel they don’t know me, & when
they get to know me, I’ll be rejected?
Oy, but that’s another reality show–
name that introjection.
-Anonymous
Projection or reality.
I am watching the action.
The character changes
The actress’ style
assuming different roles/personas
What is projection
&
What is reality
You never know for sure
-Diana Carroll
I enjoyed the ride ….kinesthetically I got a
vicarious kick out of the gestures, postures &
movements. I found myself looking forward
to character switches. I wanted to shout
out my vote.
-Donovan Rice
That was awesome!
I find it inspiring to see something
so well laid out, so funny, and
that clearly touches on a popular
pastime (projection, that is). I just
had wished that the truth was
somewhere in the middle, that Louis
wasn’t a total asshole, but
both extremes were projections.
-Anonymous
Duh woirld da
therapy &
clean living
every body’s
shopping
around here
as usual
I been away
and Christmas
arrived
since I left
it’s reality or
it’s – a funny
accent – with many
hats….
-Daniel Lepkoff
Such good fun, entertaining, thoughtful
good timing, silly,
great physical transitions
we get to laugh
Holy Cow! Great opening speech on
projection is thought provoking
Will you trail a specific thought through
to its origin? Pleaze!
-Christine Cole
Reality
What do we want to know
about the deep unknown parts
of total strangers?
The boyfriend theory:
When you first meet you fill
in everything you don’t know
with what you want/wish for.
They are perfect.
The enemy theory.
You meet someone,
don’t like something they do
and then everything
you don’t know about
gets filled up with the
worst thing you can imagine.
They are the worst.
-Jody Wright
Very funny-
What impresses is
The sublte body language
and connection with the
varied characters –
Projection is reality –
Interested to see
how characters could learn
some self awareness – with humor
Clear transition from character to character
very believable character with subtle
body language – vocalizations appropriate
to each other.
-Anonymous
Wondering what it would be like to
be a dream snippet in the game show
projection? Spinning my male self around
and around hats & scarves & slippers & 70’s
Music. Reality? I laugh & in laughing
lose myself in the moment. Toasty fun
like hot dogs at a campfire – And the
answer is – all of the above, and lots more!
-Anonymous
Projection or reality
I want to meet Louis nw. I just
want to see who she is talking about.
The Louis then & the Louis now – would
he look the same, smell the same, walk
the same? Would he
be the same with her as he is with me.
Etc, etc, etc. Stay tuned for the
next episode of mystery theater.
-Mary Ramsay
Funny, creative, honest, brave & definitely zany.
-Anonymous
Responses to Kaz Dance HUMAN Theater’s performance
“Making What Matters” – performance of work created in their physically integrated dance workshop
funny how the chaired people
are ground for me.
also like a brick chimney, the
other 2 dancers the smoke rising
& then I see a caboose
the late-comers jogging to
catch a ride
on that slow steady choo choo
train
round silent wheels
shiny face of man in purple
shirt
long extended female dancer
making such use – delight
of wheelchair surface
like a delicious couch by the
fire & the ground – 2 women
in chairs & for a brief moment out
of chairs – the rolling ground
-Carolyn Shakti Sadeh
A Line
A Form
A Dance
Arthritic hips preferable to arthritic minds
A reach, a pull, a push
Amongst the temporarily able-bodied
different degrees – what do we know – it all matters
A grace of wheels and legs
A grace of connection
A line
A form
A dance
-Anonymous
Graceful, full of life
Raises the ? of Who is “handicapped”
interaction between dancers coming together
Supporting one another > Synchronistic movements
A resolution of what at the beginning
looked like separation, division
Coming together in harmony, unity
-Diana Carroll
Not enough space, gotta get away
I’m here & then I’m there
Constraint gives me something to push off from.
Self is separate & when touched grows, comes alive.
Circles contain and release – stretching my
thoughts towards being let go & connected
at the same time.
-Donovan Rice
The shapes & forms that were
created were quite refreshing, I
am used to seeing so many shapes
pop up over & over and the chairs
brought new shapes and
ways of seeing movement expressed.
Music was intoxicating, made me
feel very soft & receptive.
-Anonymous
Occasion, THE occasion
An occasion, to
stretch awareness –
when does the stretching
start & when does it
end. The presenting
of what is to be
presented then the
to be, begins.
Details & more
details – pressed together
lips, flat wheel
accordian, horn
and sad sad
music – a wading pool
of sadness.
-Daniel Lepkoff
Supporting, searching, creating
relating and sharing.
Nicely crafted piece, well done.
-Anonymous
The flow from arm to chair to torso
to legs makes something else, something new.
It breathes, a creature at once
vulnerable and ferocious. I am skipping
stones across a still pond early one
summer morning. The mountains are
reflected in the gray water.
-Mary Ramsay
Lost in fragments of a past –
Montrose VA Hospital & the long green halls
that reminded me of school days gone by
memories of early mornings lying in bed
trying to bring back more than shards
of dreams that dissipate with the dawn.
Talk to me – whisper your secrets and
I will open my heart to your words of spirit.
Soaring, I am elated to fly & know you –
like butterflies – land where I live.
-Kent Alexander
Purple, grey and black
Blending together.
Some on wheels, some on feet
Reaching out
Together we meet.
Sharing hands
Sharing chairs
Sharing a smile
Dancing a while.
-Jody Wright
WOW!
Wonderful open warm
connections –
Moved me – surprised – gentle & strong
visual – compelling connecting purple
Mobility of expression
smoothness of rolling
strength of connection
All bodies different
old-young able, less able more able
one heart
we carry each other
however we can
Touching hands – feet
Linking together reaching out
to all of us.
Smile and enjoy your grace
revel in your enjoyment
of moving together.
It is grace and spirit
and connection-
that moves us-
-technique is secondary
at best.
-Prakash Laufer
closed eyes opening eyes
sitting standing
even the pillow is purple
stand up > fall back to chair
- liked that although it’s not
real
not something you would do everyday
try to stand
and realize, oops, today I just can’t
walk
oh look, I noticed that I couldn’t stand
and the lines between the 4 continue
I watch his knuckles, her flow, strength
and pride,
slide to the ground.
-Christine Cole
- memory
- the experience of the present, how the memory has and is expressed through movement, the dance
-Anonymous
I love this music.
Strange shapes and colors.
I’m wanting to be let in with some eye contact.
Maybe some more stillnesses in the duets (one duet moving while other pauses) would hold my attention better.
Abstract.
Unison phrase strong.
“What matters” to me is the people performing and I’d like them to connect with me more directly: eyes, faces, hearts, words perhaps.
-Anonymous
Color-coordinated wheel chairs
Outside looking in!
I used to run, be athletic, dance
Now I limp where I want to go.
So I kept placing myself in the group
In my imagination, trying to decide
Where I would fit in. Looking for freedom
Though I don’t know if lavender is my color\Maybe I could be jade-green renegade
And still be part of the team.
-Tom
Who is the helpless one?
Who is empowered?
It’s somewhere in Belgium
I think, Brugge perhaps
The ocean is rising
The city mostly underwater
Now. The old century
Cathedral has given
Way to purple minnows
Sloshing up the street.
Weaving their way
Along the corridors of
Ancient time.
Civilizations lead and follow
Now, returning to
Primordial time come
Again to render it all
Anew. I hope.
-Deborah
purple manifest, what is my destiny? how do I touch, stretch, connect, work my way back to you? here is the rising sun & there is the setting. so much between harmonious & voluntary. Is my will to purple flower symphony or grey cloud overture. we stretch to the sea our seamless purpose stream tempered steel wheels our chariot.
-Karen
Where are the limitations?
Where is its home?
When you open your eyes,
You find it only in your mind.
Fluidity like a slow brook
Arches of the rainbow
Beautiful bodies soaring
All can make wheelchairs disappear.
Who knew!!
-Maya
what does matter?
bodies, able and willing
to move…or not.
forms move, solidify
the wheels keep turning
in time or out of time
to the music sweetly playing.
-Liz
The streets of Paris. It is autumn
and the mood
is melancholy.
Jesters and citizens meet at cafes.
When you rub your head
what does it mean?
Two heads meet
the earth shifts underfoot.
-Ann
Circles. Spinning
circle dances – grapevining with muscle and metal
circular muscles push and pull
faces electric with life
dance for all of us
dance human
-Lee
Four people in purple and gray rolled or glided onto the floor. The music was hurdy- gurdy or a harmonium, turning into a piano piece that evoked old French films – like Jacques Tati. One woman had a purple knee. The only man had a shiny pate. The group made structures and the wheel chairs scooted quicker than an “able-bodied” person could walk to get into position. What I liked best was 2 people sharing a wheel chair. I think of chairs as a private extension of the occupant. I’m glad they broke that taboo.
-Davio
wheelchairs so hard metallic bare skin
barefeet don’t mix but there they are
my mother’s electric wheelchair how many times
that thing bit me as I assembles and dis
assembled it for trips to the park
the weasel. we called it the weasel and had
a laugh. A bare leg so out of place next
to that metal but so beautiful.
mysterious. its knobbly and red it moves,
it bends but has a story.
-Melinda
As a PCA (personal care attendant) and a friend to a man and a woman with MS, I kept casting them in the wheelchairs. I don’t feel either of them would do it, but I wish they would. I wish my grandmother whose hands resembled claws or flippers - worn away by painful arthritis – I wish she would have consented to dance mudra. She swore motor oil was the only thing that helped her hands and knees. She’s only use one kind of motor oil – Kendell oil. Its motto was “Pour a quart of Kendell confidence.”
-Suzy
so, what matters? is it movement that matters?
is it music? is it the piano? is it feet?
is it together? is it individual?
is it making this piece that matters? Or is it
something in the piece?
is it what matters to me, or are you trying
to give me a clue as to what matters?
is it how it looks? am I supposed to know?
whose story is it?
why does it matter?
-Anonymous
These nets
hanging around
draping over our
shoulders, our feet,
ghostly grey, folded
for the future use,
we pray will set them free.
They tire of the wait.
They will not be blind
for us, they will
find their own way, and
set our wheels in motion
as they fly.
-Kathleen