Hours before I was going to begin the Open Studio, my mother called to tell me my grandmother had transitioned. I thought about postponing but I felt my grandmother’s spirit telling me to go ahead and dance. It was a holy time dancing into the sunset. I heard the mothers encouraging me to rejoice, to “make a joyful noise!” And so I did…
IN-PERSON LAB
Sunday 6 October 2024 | Activating in a window of possibility in a public, family-accessible space in Takoma, Washington, DC
VIRTUAL PORTAL
A temporary, soft-time, virtual community portal for participants in the Open Studio, online from 5 October 2024 to 15 October 2024, facilitated through the Dancing Mother WhatsApp Community space
PUBLIC ARCHIVE
A collection of videos, photos, voice recordings and shares from Mother Mother and other dancing mothers who participated in the Open Studio
Choose Your Adventure…Enjoy the dance!
Mother Mother welcomes everyone to Open Studio #0001 in a voice note while hopefully nursing Luminous Glory back to sleep for her morning nap. She shares how she came to choose the location for today's Open Studio + some of the logistical labors and magic that goes into preparing to dance in public spaces with munchkins. She also begins to imagine what other worlds of togetherness become possible when we gather intentionally in soft-time portals, even if we are joining in from different geographies and life rhythms.
Mother Mother dreams into possibilities the day before her first Open Studio at her favorite place to dance in Washington, DC. She is there with the her 3 youngest munchkins who delight in the abundant space of the roof terrace at the Kennedy Center. Before they dance on the roof they enjoyed 2 dance workshops on traditional and modern hula as part of the Dance Sanctuaries program.
Mother Mother captures a piece of her solo-bodied movements after the others mamas who joined her in the Open Studio have left the space. The setting sun is her dance partner and she experiments with staying in the light as much as possible. While she is dancing she hears the mothers inviting her to rejoice for her grandmother who became an ancestor that morning, and to “make a joyful noise!” This is a dance of celebration, peace, and gratitude.
SYNTHESIS 1: In the early sunrise moments the day after the Open Studio, Mother Mother reflects on the divine timing of setting the Open Studio series in motion months before her grandmother’s transition, and the intense energy to that led her to activate the moment on the exact day she did. She talks about how good it felt to be dancing in community with the mamas who joined her in the space and in spirit. Mother Mother also acknowledges her very achy back and the slow labors of recovering herself after full days of movement and mommy labors.
SYNTHESIS 2: Mother Mother deepens into the consciousness of her new reality of a life earthside without her grandmother, who transitioned the morning of the Open Studio. She wobbles through emerging language about the nebulaic now moments of processing the magic of the Open Studio experiment alongside the soul-deep sensations of an uprooting of everything life has been so far. Mother Mother celebrates the possibilities of soft-time creating abundant opportunities to stretch, expand, and split time, so that she can breathe and be with all sides of this moment. She expresses gratitude for the divine timing of the Open Studio and begins to unpack what it feels like to be simultaneously growing more consciousness of what Dancing Mother is becoming and also witnessing her grandmother’s early ancestral ascension.
SYNTHESIS 3: In this final voice note of the Synthesis process for the Open Studio, Mother Mother talks about the movement practices the mamas discovered in their moment of togetherness. She tells a bit of the story and evolution of the give thanks movement prayer and how Ixchelle’s question about survival inspires a movement exploration about what feels good in our bodies. Mother Mother shares about the origins of the ringshout, its connection to her movement practice, and how even though she had intended to activate a ringshout with the group at the Open Studio, spirit revealed another way for the dance to flow. Mother Mother also continues to process and reflect on the divine sequence of moments and the meaning of her grandmother transitioning on the morning of the Open Studio, and what she feels is expanding and awakening for Dancing Mother.
Virginia, USA: Jasiri shares the movements that came to her during our Open Studio journeys. She danced with us in spirit from her own space and in her own time. Her dance explorations inspired us to move and feel into new ways of being and togetherness. Thank you, Jasiri!
Follow Jasiri for more beautiful movements and creations!
@imjasirinklati | Linktree
Trinidad & Tobago: Ixelle brings us into her vibrant world of movements and invites us to feel deeply into what is possible when we open ourselves to play and discovery. Intimate, raw, and fluid, her dance inspires us to continue reflecting on the question she gifted us for our Open Studio field explorations, “what does it take to survive?” Thank you, Ixelle!
Find Ixelle and more of her beautiful movements, art and stories!
@ixelle_isava