Joy Ride Screened and Alive: Adventures of Unavoidable Embodiment
This event took place on Jun 27, 2018
$16 General Admission
$13 NWFF Member
About
Joy Ride Screened and Alive shares three films, a reading, live dance and an historic documentary from six Northwest artists working in multi-discipline, multi-gender, multi-ability dance and performance passions, identities and locations. They align to uncover the common celebration of embodiment through re-abling and resourcing the generous creative spirit of presence in their unique arts. They are Wobbly Dance’s Erik Ferguson and Yulia Arakelyan (Portland), Gender Tender’s Syniva Whitney (Seattle), Karen Daly (Eugene), Corrie Befort (Seattle), Karen Nelson (Vashon Island). They collaborate annually at Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, offering a workshop experience called “Start where you are.”
Films
TIDAL
(Wobbly Dance, US, 2017, 12 min)
Cinematographer: Ian Lucero
TIDAL is an exploration of the relationship between the rhythm of mechanized breath and the rhythm of the oceans. It is a fantastical film, where breathing masks transform into diving masks, ventilator tubing morphs into costumes, and an ancient diver who calls the ocean home, draws us into his world. We fall, we dream, we dive. We transform from human to jellyfish and everything in between. This film is a continuation of the exploration of Wobbly’s dark, dream-like and sometimes absurd aesthetic. Costume and set design by Jenny Ampersand. Original music score by Sweetmeat. This film was funded through a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council and Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant.
Waking the Green Sound: a dance film for the trees
(Wobbly Dance, US, 2015, 15 min)
Cinematographer: Ian Lucero
Three mysterious beings concoct a botanical fugue among the trees, revealed through the peculiar landscapes of dancers/co-directors Yulia Arakelyan, Erik Ferguson and Grant Miller. Journey into the fantastical, dream-like and vibrant scenes of Waking the Green Sound: a dance film for the trees, directed by Wobbly Dance, in collaboration with cinematographer Ian Lucero and musicians Sweetmeat. This film was funded through a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
10TH AND PIKE
(Syniva Whitney, Seattle, WA, 2016, 5 min)
Choreographer, Editor, Director: Syniva Whitney
Performers: Will Courtney + Syniva Whitney
Music: Ariskany Records
A short film featuring Will Courtney and Syniva Whitney of GENDER TENDER engaged in a performative experience they call “The Renovation” in a studio space in Seattle well known to some, unknown to most.
Reading + Moving
Excerpts from Joy Ride: My One-legged Journey to Self-Acceptance by me, Karen Daly, tells my story of losing my right leg to cancer at age 11 in the 1960s. This was an era when “cripple” was an accepted word to refer to someone like me, and the choice for the disabled to live either as a “cripple” or as “normal” was a difficult one either way.
I chose “normal” and how my life unfolded after that is my story. I would look for love in all the wrong places, and it would surprise me in the right places, too. I would meet generous people of all abilities along the way, ski, sail, and swim with self-referred “gimps,” and create opportunities for career and travel.
And yet I kept important parts of myself hidden from those around me, and especially from myself.
When I discovered improvisational dance and began work with Karen Nelson and later with Alito Alessi, I found my inspiration and the life I was meant to live, one without secrets. I found the courage to shine the light on those hidden and terrifying places.
I wrote Joy Ride to come to terms with the secrets I kept. I wrote to remember and embrace all the things I tried so hard to forget. I wrote to celebrate finding a relationship with my body, soul, and spirit through movement and share its extraordinary gift of joy and freedom.
And I wrote because I hope others would find something in my life that would remind them of their own bravery and their own joy ride.
– Karen Daly
Documentary
Common Ground
(Steve Christiansen, Alito Alessi & Karen Nelson, Eugene, OR, 1990, 20 min)
Joint Forces Dance Company and Independent Video Services
A documentary of a 1988 workshop using the dance form Contact Improvisation to bring together people with and without disabilities to find common ground in dancing. The beginning of what became known as DanceAbility.
Live
Dancers from the Seattle Dance for PD® program join Corrie Befort in presenting an interpretation of Pina Bausch’s Nelken Line. The Pina Bausch Foundation has made the Nelken Line choreography freely available and it is currently being performed and filmed by communities around the world. To see videos and find out more visit pinabausch.org/en/projects/the-nelken-line. Seattle Dance for PD® program: stgpresents.org/education/parkinsons.
Artist bios
Wobbly
Syniva Whitney
Karen Daly
Corrie Befort