{Pockets of possibility} Night on the roof
Spin
Inside the Creation Stories of Dancing Mother
Pockets of possibility
Night on the roof
by Mother Mother Binahkaye Joy
Mother Mother captures a fleeting moment of movement in her own body on the roof terrace of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one of her favorite places to dance in Washington, DC. In the background her children and Bushman play and enjoy the open space and the beautiful night.
3 things Mother Mother is celebrating about this moment:
Arriving to the space as a family: We traverse many roads, multiple buses, the evening rush hour, and walk nearly 2 miles roundtrip to make this moment possible. When we reach the magical space that is the roof terrace, there is a physical and energetic exhale that happens. It takes so much energy to get here, and even though I always want to stay longer, I have learned to be grateful for the time we have there. It is a holy portal that always nourishes me as a creator, and I love sharing the space with my children.
Insisting on this moment for my dancemaking: As it would be, after all my labors of preparation, and travel, and arrival, and integration into the space, and wearing the baby, and doing multiple bathroom runs, and serving all the obligatory snacks—after all that, these few moments of me being in my dance practice on the roof terrace are precious, and I will protect them from one more random, non-emergency request that I decenter my movement discovery once again. For these few minutes on the roof where the wind partners with me and I can feel a levity not otherwise known in the fixed walls and ceilings of home, where the ground is smooth and bare and I will not trip over a dump truck or smash my heel on forgotten raisins, where my outstretched arms won’t knock into any books or shelves or cabinets—for these few bits of freedom I will hold the space for myself and everything else can wait.
Sustaining the continuity of fluidity in my movements when I am solo-bodied and when I am holding Luminous Glory: I love that even when I pick the baby up and become a shared-body again, the dance is just as open, soft and expansive. I have practiced for all these years since my first child was born how to dance with my children. The dancing helped me get them born, so it has always made sense to me to keep dancing as a visible mother, and to learn how to dance with them in my space, on my body, around my feet.
Explore more
Watch the video of this moment + listen to a recording of Mother Mother’s read of the movements in the Spin Archive portal.
Explore more
Watch the video of this moment + listen to a recording of Mother Mother’s read of the movements in the Spin Archive portal.
What are pockets of possibility?
As a multitudinous mothering entity who is holding, nursing, wearing, caring for, listening to, supporting, feeding, comforting, teaching, and being with one or more children at almost every minute of every day, Mother Mother dances, writes, and expands into all of her creations in the soft moments, or pockets of possibility, as they naturally arise throughout the swirls, pulses and undulations within any given span from one sunrise to the next. As her life is fluid and ever shifting, her rhythms of creating are unscripted and unordered, happening at all hours of the day. Mother Mother’s pockets of possibility evolve and stretch as wide and long, or as tight and short, as any single moment can make itself out to be. A fertility priestess for many years now, Mother Mother is well-practiced in making the most out of whatever seconds or minutes, and occasionally an hour or two, are available. She lives inside the knowing: Time is all we have. We have all the time we need.
