Artist statement self-interview (2009)
L- why do you make what you make?
L- “making” makes me listen more to what’s around me and have more trust in my relationship/response to it all. “making” makes me more receptive and bossy, simultaneously. “making” makes me ask questions and it asks questions of me. “Making” allows me to be in a process of figuring out (which is more and more where I am most at home) and challenges me to finally decide on a “thing” that is somehow complete/finished/ready (ever more elusive). “making” connects me to where I/we are now and where I/we have been, and to what changes and what seems to stays the same.
L-For you as a maker, what seems to change and stay the same?
L- I continue to love dancing, even though there are times when it I can’t find the reason for it, can’t make sense of it, get confused about it, get confused by it, even then there is a deep spark of “yes, dance!” It’s play. It’s animal. It’s of humans. It’s easy and easily complex. I continue to be interested in how and when the audience co-create live performance and how to draw attention to this co-creation. I continue to think art is important. I improvise more than I used to. The processes of “choreography” and “improvisation” are more linked than they used to be in my art making. I love that art making is now so relational and connected to friends/collaborators/other live human thinking animal bodies. I miss drawing.
L-You said you think art is important. Why ?
L-There is so much telling me art is extra. Fluff. For me, it keeps feeling like something more necessary in human experience/existence (even when it is just fluff). It can blend reflection and revolution. It can stop, motivate, and/or change us. It can be anything. It can even pretend to be nothing. Especially in performance, it’s the immediacy of being attentive (even simply in-attendance) with other live bodies as something unfolds in time. I like that I don’t exactly know why this is so important but I know when I feel it.
L-You have not updated your website in some time, Is there a way you can quickly, at least partially catch me up on what you are currently interested in, what you currently value, what you are up to?
L- How about a list. As a dance maker what I currently value:
Listening.