Let's have a conversation about having a conversation

Written in December. Updated today:

In November, I had the privilege of seeing/witnessing/participating in Sadie Weinberg's piece "Happiness; an experiment." Sadie has been working on this piece for over a year and in fact, I saw the piece nearly a year ago in another venue. The piece was great, but I'm not actually writing this blog about that dance. I'm writing this blog to unravel the amazing conversation I had with Sadie immediately following the work.

Because I'd had two experiences with the piece, I could clearly see its development. I appreciated the growth the piece was able to undergo within that process. At the after-conversation, I approached Sadie almost right away and stole nearly 30 minutes of her time.  I wanted to tell her how much I appreciated that she'd allowed her work to evolve over time. And because she was so open to hearing my experience, I was able to talk her through some of my own ups and downs within the piece without apprehension. I was able to tell her the things that had concerned me in the original version and how some of her changes in this version allowed me to shift in my perspective. I was able to share with her my journey - not just the good or the bad, but quite simply my journey. She was open to and interested in all of it.

It felt like such a relief. I'd really enjoyed the piece and to be able to talk to its creator in such a candid way was…well…foreign to me.

Okay, maybe thats not all together true. In grad school, I was able to talk with some of my colleagues about our work without letting our egos enter the conversation. We were most concerned with the work. We trusted each other and respected our different aesthetics. We could see the work from both our own perspectives and desires, but also from the other's perspective.

This has gotten difficult for me in my current situation and (I may be making an assumption here)...I think it is an issue in San Diego.

How do we talk to each other about our work??

I attended the Choreolab performance that the La Jolla Music Society offered up in late Janurary (more on that in another blog). I do have some issues I feel need to be raised surrounding the details of this event, but one thing was very clear - the simple feedback from these artists allowed the various works to blossom internally. I wondered what might have been gained if this panel were to include some of San Diego's nationally and internationally known choreographers? We have it within our own community to grow and evolve our work, if we could only open ourselves up to give feedback with respect and receive feedback with an open-mind. Communicating from a perspective that supports the work - that's all.