we are all in pieces
holding a moment between our fingers
waiting for the kettle to boil
getting dressed when half-asleep
going down a goat trail
running our hands over the deliciously knobbly surfaces
with the taste of forgotten passengers
soft moisture on our faces
being torn away
coming to a place outside time, beyond geography
counting our bones
hearing the light
ghost fingers, invisible touch
lying like a broken puzzle
Reindeer bride ghost
the shaman called her up
she’s eating the forest
and regurgitating the people
Yoko Ono and mountain man’s love child
Arrival in a strange homeunsure of her footing
a nest, a womb, an island
maddening lost moments, regrets, grieving
back to business
sweeping a dirt floor
finding her true path
time for coffee
listening to her ancestors
there was a tsunami
bones became sand
reborn in the wrong skin
a petulant predicament
time to end the discussion and listen
His look crumbles her
Her need rebuilds her
Some high ideal calms her
The axis of the earth revolves her
Her cliff-face avalanches
she arrives
Points of impact, fault lines, hanged,
preparing the dead, instinct, animal vs.human, war paint/groomed for battle,
desire, hunger, shame, disintegration, feeding on the fallen
eaten alive
Resurrection—leaving the tomb
a staircase
letting go of the body, the carcass
Grandmother’s story
led to the sound of water moving
stirring the landscape
tapping out a signal
becoming rock, hillside, landscape
moon passing behind clouds.
singing up the past and the passed over
sounding out the memories and the missing
calling across the valley from this body to the disembodied
there’s a vision in my vocal chords
it’s red like childbirth and deep as regret
I open my throat and ignite
they are climbing a snowy slope
their feet scrape, slip
breath in little clouds in front of their faces
three women climbing, pioneers, no footprints before them
gloved hand catches a rock, knee thuds to earth, eyes squint upward
some song in their ears keeps them climbing 2 3
they are standing on the edge of it
a blue vastness, an unapologetic arrival
and they begin to throw it all over
all of it
it careers, dives, spills, plunges, shatters, gets what’s coming to it
they are descending
in an acceleration of fur and feathers
gathering speed and sparks
igniting and alighting
devolving into a trilogy of smiling snarls
into legend
*
*
*
—choreographic text/research for 2009 collaboration in Lappland, Sweden with Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt (Sweden) and Heidi Durning (Japan)
leaving loved ones
cradling a dying creature
not revealing your heart
a survivor of violence
a wailing song
sharing someone’s pain
love from a distance
holding someone’s last moment
setting fire to the body
forgiveness
empathy
longing
*
*
*
—choreographic text for Luke Hickmott solo, Girls on Boys, May 2008