Visit at VA Puget Sound

Thanks to the veterans and Anne Peterson at the Beacon Hill VA Puget Sound. We had a charming visit.

Highlights include meeting Jack who used to be a ballroom dancer AND played drums in a husband/wife band when swing dance drove ballroom out of fashion. You could see it in him too, long limbs and a certain presence even with his age.

Another bright spot was a sleepy vet that wandered right through the middle of the dancing to get to the coffee on the other side of the rec room. It was such a nice reminder that dance doesn't always have to be this precious thing pedestaled upon a stage but is really just another simple part of life.

As soon as I got home I got a nice note from Anne thanking us for our performance!

On a more serious side the experience let me to some further contemplation on the role of arts in the world. Upon first arriving at the hospital I feel shame. Who do I think I am trying to make a DANCE of all things considering mortality, loss struggle. Here I am youthful and ridiculously able-bodied in comparison to the residents, living a fairly sheltered existence.

Who do I think I am????

Of course none of the vets or the staff were thinking this. They are pleased that we have come, they are enjoying it. And I come to terms again as I have over and over with the truth that it is ok to be who you have become. Not everyone should be a doctor or a soldier and not everyone should be a dancer, and that is ok. It is ok that life places each of us in different roles. I am what this life has presented me, just as they are. I don't take issue with them for fighting wars that I don't believe in, they don't take issue with my years of plies and tendus and futile acts of movement.

They are happy to see us. Instead of guilt, I will feel happy to be seen.

I have a right to tell this story even if I am most likely farther from it than they. We all have a right to it. We all end up in it. We all have to watch those around us enter into it. It is OUR story. I just happen to have been placed in a position where I can tell the story. They were in a position to patch wounds or to fight and sadly to kill, but they rose to meet what they were given. I am in a position to be seen. I have a forum to 'speak'.

Maybe sometimes the graceful thing to do is to put aside our private neurosis, to not shrink humbly away on account of our own insignificance, but to do whatever thing we have been given with as much dedication and integrity as we can muster.

Maybe seeing a thing through is an honorable thing, regardless of what path you have stepped onto.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show!

Josephine's Echopraxia

is excited to be participating in this year's

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2011: Seattle

One Night Only!

Friday January 28th, 8pm

On the Boards, Merrill Wright Mainstage

100 West Roy St, Seattle WA, 98119

Tickets $15 http://www.ontheboards.org/special-events/award-show

or call 206.217.9888 Tue - Fri • noon - 6pm

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is an experiment including dance audiences in the usually closed door process of arts funding, an acronym (Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance) The A.W.A.R.D. Show! gives audiences (along with a professional panel) the opportunity to award one deserving choreographer a $10,000 grant and two runners up $2,000.

Josephine's Echopraxia is excited to have another chance to dance upon On the Boards' beautiful and expansive mainstage. We have further developed our work from Northwest New Works and are bringing you the next chapter, Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] While excited to be a part of this innovative performance and granting format we are focusing our energy on the truest expression of where stifle needs to go next instead of focusing on the competitive aspects of the show.

We would be honored if you would join us to take in these developments. Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] will bring you performances by Marissa Rae Niederhauser (dancer and choreographer), Spencer Moody (musician and composer), Allie Hankins, Meredith Horiuchi, Meredith Sallee and Rosa Vissers (dancers) and Cameron Elliott and Eric Fisher (musicians).

We hope you will join us for this intriguing evening of dance that includes performances by Waxie Moon, Quark Contemporary Dance Theatre and tEEth with a Q and A and vote after the show.

To help bring Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] to The A.W.A.R.D. Show! please make a gift securely online at

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=30857. I have partnered with Shunpike, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, as our fiscal sponsor. This means your donation to Josephine's Echopraxia and Shunpike will be tax- deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

For more about The A.W.A.R.D. Show! please visit http://www.joyce.org/about/special_events_awardshow.php

Major funding for this program has been provided by The Boeing Company.

Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture and a smart ventures grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. Developed in part during a Flight Deck Residency at Open Flight Studio and at MLK Ballet.

Josephine's Echopraxia is an Associated Program of Shunpike http://www.shunpike.org/

Thank You VA Puget Sound!

This morning Spencer, Allie and I did a short and casual performance at VA Puget Sound. The audience started small, but curious passerby soon crowded the hallways to peer in the window. They were a kind and pleasant audience and it was such a nice experience to dance with the intention of just creating a soft and gentle diversion. Obviously this is not my interest for most performance creation, but for this beautiful sunny day it was perfect to dance sleepy lullabys for smiling elderly.

Rehearsal Photos for stifle

Our drummer Ryan Crase has been taking cell phone pictures during rehearsal. They are fun to see so I thought I'd share them.

Above: Spencer Moody (composer, guitar and voice) making some notes.

Above: Cameron Elliott (guitar and Piano)

Above: Spencer and Me (check out my superb fashion choices- now that is style!)

Above: Dancers (left to right) Me, Rosa Vissers, Meredith Horiuchi, Meredith Sallee and Allie Hankins.

Above: Meredith Sallee, Spencer Moody and Cameron's foot at On the Boards