When HOME isn't HOME-Y

"It's hard not to just fall into the cliche..."

"When I think of home... actually, I try not to..."

"I'm not sure that when you ask about HOME, you mean what I think of... my idea of HOME isn't comfortable. Actually, it's really traumatic."

"HOME could be a lot of things... what are you actually asking for?"

"Well, my definition of HOME probably isn't what you think."

Pic from HOMEbody. Photo by Thomas Kay.

........

In the research of HOMEbody, I honor all of these experiences and reflections of HOME.

I don't have any expectations except that everyone has a personal experience and their own definitions of HOME.

When I hear these statements, my reaction is to want to give the narrator a giant hug, hold them close, and say "I am here to witness and hear your experience of HOME, whatever that is." But I recognize that my embodied, very physical reaction is not always appropriate, especially when HOME has been physically traumatizing.

But, as we continue this process, I do want to say:

HOME is not always HOME-Y. The conflict between our expectations and our reality is sometimes very real.

HOME is not always comfortable or safe.

HOME can present illusions just as it can present grounded comfort.

HOME means different things to different people; all of those experiences are valid.

HOME is not necessarily permanent.

HOME can be a prism that reflects and refracts many different lights.

....

What does HOME mean to you?

Rising Tide is next week... Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          

Contact: Sarah Carlson 

Founder/Artistic Director, DanceLink

610-653-4182

scdancelink@gmail.com

Lehigh Valley performance premiere

“Rising Tide” testifies to the power, experience and perspectives of women.

Allentown, Pa. (Sept 10, 2019) — The IceHouse Tonight presents “Rising Tide: a dance showcase featuring feminist perspectives”, which brings together five regional companies to the Bethlehem Ice House on Friday, October 4 at 8pm and  Saturday, October 5^that 3pm & 8pm. Continuum Dance Theater, DanceEthos, DanceLink, JCWK Dance Lab and Olive Prince Dance present works that testify to the power, experience and perspectives of women.   Tickets are $20/$15 student/senior.   Tickets available at: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/18836

“Riffing on the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, we titled the program “Rising Tide” to suggest that by focusing on women, all are enriched,” states Sarah Carlson who is producing the event. The program features five regional dance companies, all directed by women. 

Continuum Dance Theater, led by Founder and Artistic Director Sarah Parker, brings a new world premier work to the Ice House for Rising Tide.  Inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi (the mending of broken pottery using lacquer resin laced with gold), POWER|FULL examines the ways in which women’s struggles become part of their whole story and a source of their power rather than a cause of their imperfection, weakness or deterioration. Like Kinstukuroi's philosophy of bringing beauty to the process of repair, the cast of POWER/FULL creates a narrative of empowerment...a story held together with golden seams.

In "Absence," danceETHOS explores the social pressures assigned to female identity and community and the subsequent assumption that when a woman chooses not to adhere to those expectations that there is something lacking in her world. Choreographed by Artistic Director Alexandra Pobiedzinski, the piece ebbs and flows between control and release, dependence and rejection, to offer an abstract glimpse into the strength, vulnerability and intimacy that females experience as they navigate the complex realm of womanhood.

DanceLink  premieres a new work “UpLift” which chronicles the journey of four women as they navigate the perils of oppression. Choreographed by Founder/Artistic Director, Sarah Carlson, the dance looks at the complexity of identity in community. At once acknowledging struggle and celebrating strength, the piece weaves a moving tapestry of communal connection  in the midst of trial.

JCWK Dance Lab, an intergenerational, all-female contemporary company, presents excerpts of HOMEbody - a piece reflecting feminine experiences of home: home as structure, home as physical body, home as geographical place from which we leave and return, and home as states of rejection and acceptance. Composer and Muhlenberg College musician Paul Fejko created original music for HOMEbody. 

Based in Philadelphia, Olive Prince Dance presents “She persisted”, an excerpt of a full evening length work based on the concept of the “invincible” body as a fairy tale of our own making.  Floating, temporary, rising from the muddy ground is contrasted with images of an echoing of emptiness, falling hard to a stand still and discovering the symmetry in our experiences.  The body becomes a conduit for both the vulnerability and indestructibility necessary to prevail.

A Q&A will be held after the Saturday matinee performance to allow the artists to share more about their creative process. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Rising Tide has received support from the Pennsylvania Partners for the Arts administered by the Lehigh Valley Arts Council.

About the Artists:

Sarah Carlson(producing director) is the Founder & Artistic Director of DanceLink which seeks to bridge people, ideas & and understanding through the power of movement. Sarah danced professionally for 10 years in NYC with companies including Alexandra Beller/Dances, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Clare Byrne Dance, Paul Mosley Dance and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.  As an independent choreographer, her own work has been presented throughout the US at venues such as the Joyce Soho in NYC, On the Boards in Seattle, and The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard as well as in Benin, Africa. Sarah is a co-director of the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange & the editor of the Lehigh Valley Dance in Review. Sarah has been on the dance faculty at Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Cedar Crest College, Lehigh University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Sarah received a BA in French and European Studies from Connecticut College and an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington. 

About the series:

The IceHouse Tonight, a response to a growing night-life scene in downtown Bethlehem, targets the potential college-age and the "restaurant row" audiences in the center city. The performance series is designed to mirror the charm, independence and sense of contemporary urban life represented by the current trends in downtown Bethlehem. The IceHouse Tonight will produce a performance schedule that nurtures the production of new artistic works and the development of new regional arts organizations. Additionally, The IceHouse Tonight will provide a stage for collaborative and

 innovative programming from well-established regional arts organizations.

Returning HOME for the first time

In the beginning of each rehearsal, we sit in a circle and "check in". We discuss where we are in this moment, what we're bringing into the studio, and how thinking about HOME has influenced us during our time apart.

Two of the dancers are undergraduate students at Widener University and have been embarking on this journey as part of the Widener University Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities program. 

Early in the process, Erin and Kyleigh had recently returned to their childhood homes after their first year away from college. When we came together, Erin reflected:

"Whether this is based on my age (and growing up) or another factor, since returning home from school, I've found myself considering a wider meaning of "home." Coming from a small town within the Lehigh Valley, when asked, I identified Allentown as my general home. Now, I believe I have expanded to include all of the Lehigh Valley and down to Delaware County as my home. I've found myself more likely to travel and explore this newly defined home, and in the process of this travel, I've spent less time in both my physical (structural) home and Allentown in general. I notice that in this expansion, I feel as though I am able to learn and experience more through new places and events."

Dancers performing JCWK's work in the Lehigh Valley

Is your body your HOME?

Included below is a reflection by Dance Artist Sarena on BODY as HOME.

"What does it mean to call my body home?

To have the complete sensation of feeling all parts of myself

As one singular organism

Orchestrated to a single harmony

Vibrating with all passions that make me feel alive

It is about reversing the chatter

That scorns my bodyweight, and my personality

By remembering what is beneath and between all those self-conscious stories

A remembering of my consciousness itself

That some force animated me to share my persona with this world

That every day when I open my eyes 

I can make choices

To see light and beauty in everyone and everything that I touch

It is a deep feeling of safety

An indeterminable trust

What does it mean to call my body home?

It Is to know that I am never alone

That I am in all ways

All one"

Reflection in Poetry

Below is a poem created by Dance Artist Sarena in reflection of the HOMEbody process.

Home isn’t a place

It’s a feeling that swells inside of us 

When we’ve stopped living in longing.

When we switch the story from needing more

To having enough exactly as we are right now

And with this, a settling arrives,

The body begins to stop running marathons for the mind.

The body is granted the time and space to heal itself.

The heart beat slows

And you feel the soft rush of complacency

A tender sensation, like being caressed by someone you love.

To have a home, to be home

Are such separate entities

To be home, to feel home

Are worlds apart.

Who makes the walls that separate us from coming home?

My mind, my stories, my window, my world view, 

My thought patterns, my fears, my future projections

There are millions of ways to build walls

But the body won’t thank you

The soul won’t thank you

The spirit will long to be free from the cage you’ve built

Do we have the power

Right now. In this moment

To break down the walls and and speak a new story.

With this next breath.

“Inhale, I have arrived.

Exhale, I am home (thich nhat hanh).”

HOME in lanuguage

Virtual high fives and hugs and appreciation for your thoughts, words and reflections on HOME!

In a Facebook discussion, Michael Lancaster suggested that he and several other authors use my post, Defining HOME, as a writing prompt on PLACE and HOME.

See the comments on Defining HOME for some of Michael's written reflections.

In a group chat, Michael shared:
"Reflecting on Home, friend Becky Patterson who wrote The Ranch that Was Us, author Becky Patterson offered this poem as a touchstone for home"

As a researcher in this process, I've been gathering articles, stories, and artistic reflections that other folks (artists, writers, musicians, bloggers, news organizations, dancers, athletes, yogis...) have shared about home. I'll continue to share that research here.

I'm so grateful to Michael, Scott, and Jenner for embarking on this creative challenge as we all sort out what HOME has meant and what it develops into as time passes.

Comments...

Hi, Dear Readers!

For some silly reason, I can't respond to your comments, so I'll be posting here with a link to your original comments and the post. ::fist shake::

From Michael's Comments on HOMEostasis:

Hi, Michael! Thanks for writing and reading! Yes... so many thoughts, ideas, studies, and research circling around. I find it interesting that you mention hunter/gather groups because they don't identify with a place, rather a state of being. In looking at home, we're wondering asking this question of ourselves, especially because our current world/ career/ life trends tend to be pretty mobile, or at least fluid. I look forward to continued conversations! ~JCWK