Day 1

Today we gathered to set up our work space at Sea and Space and talk logistics, and to lead one another in short "workshops." It was bliss to see and be with these amazing people today. The last few weeks of dealing with logistics attached to the abstract notion of this residency has been lonely and sometimes quite unfulfilling. When we all met this morning everything I have been doing for the last year to bring this thing together felt purposeful and simply fun and joyful. I have missed a sense of group. And this is clearly an amazing one.

Cesar and I tag-teamed on Guillermo Gomez Pena/La Pocha Nostra exercises. Cesar led us in walking in a circle in step with one another for five minutes and then moving through the space in relative darkness while blindfolded, exploring the space first by walking and touching and then with the whole body: five bodies moving about tentatively at first and then with curiosity and determination, Alison hangs clothing by the hangers from her arms and moves around the space, Liz and Brooke tugging on opposite ends of a dress, giggles erupting here and there, rolls, crawls, sliding on backs, leaning into walls, Brooke crumpled over a box of plastic wrap, Cheryl and Alison embracing in the center of the room. I was elated watching from the outside, realizing how much I miss the explorations of the body, consciousness, touch, movement that were daily in my life for so long. I then led the ethnographer/specimen exercise from La Pocha Nostra. Different levels of comfort. Some more at ease as ethnographer, some as specimen, the self-consciousness of being seen from far, from close up. Cesar remarked on his awareness and discomfort with being the only male. Smelling one another and touching an ear or hair as a lover would. Looking closely at skin, touching sweaty armpits. Placing the three specimens in relationship to one another to finish. Alison taught us double dutch, or at least attempted. It seems like surfing. You spend a long time just waiting to get up, or in this case get in. Cheryl claimed to be rusty but was the only to get in even for a second. We talked about having some double dutch time each saturday. I want to. I am determined. Felt a present focus in trying and watching others trying that could have stayed with me for many hours. Brooke sat us in a circle and taught us to tie a sturdy knot between two lines. We made a circle of knotted rope portions. Alison said it felt like camp. Liz led us in a quiet ritual of washing the floor as a group, squatting, crawling in a line across the space. Cheryl led a writing exercise of creating a poem based on ideas of home, each sentence starting with "I am From." It brought up a lot of darkness and difficulty for many it seemed, though there was much honesty about the how and why of that in sharing afterwards. It was perhaps a bit of an unexpectedly hard way to finish the day and I wished we could have washed the floor again afterwards. Cheryl shared her impetus for leading that particular exercise: each of the artists is about the enter into the unknown of the month, the time, the space, this particular structure, and she imagined: perhaps it is good to take a moment to acknowledge where we come from in terms of background and childhood, but also what we, as grown individuals, value so deeply that it gives us a sense of home, from which we will start the month.