![]() I didn’t know Ana Mendieta personally, knew very little about her work, and her death was sudden and tragic in a very different way. Quite frankly, it scared me.Īnd so, I decided that before I would begin this daunting project, I would find a way to “name” this way that I am working now. I knew him well and I was a part of his community. It was also clear that telling some portion of her story would present even more challenges for me than telling the story of Ed Mock. When I began to research the life and work of Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), a Cuban born visual and performance artist who created work in natural landscapes (i.e., forests, rivers, mountain sides, the ocean, etc.), it was clear from the beginning that I would continue this way of working in order to bring her story forward. Suffice it to say, we summoned the spirit of Ed Mock, and he showed up. I have a difficult time articulating the power of what happened for the artists and for many of the audience who witnessed/participated in this ritual event. During that process, I incorporated spiritual rituals from my religious practice to conjure the spirit of Ed Mock in a way I had not attempted before. Though my spiritual practice as a priest in the Yoruba/Lukumi tradition known as Ifa has always been an underlying source for my creative work, it was through the making of He Moved Swiftly that I brought my spiritual practice to the forefront and engaged my collaborating artists and performers in the ritual process as well. This creative process was reinforcing a way of working which had begun for me two years ago when I made the 5 ½ hour site specific work, He Moved Swiftly But Gently Down The Not Too Crowded Street in honor of my teacher, local dancer/choreographer Ed Mock who died in 1986. During the making of EarthBodyHOME, I decided to play with the problematic idea of labeling my work. Or allowed for the un-namable aspects of my work to remain un-named. Until very recently, I didn’t have a way of describing my work that felt genuine or allowed for the full expression of my It is understandable, and yet for me (and many artists that I know), it continues to be problematic. ![]() I have resisted the confines of existing labels though I realize most funders and some audiences unfamiliar with an artist’s work request a descriptive moniker in order to give a context for, or sum up the nature of what you do, your aesthetic, movement genre, etc. ![]() AS A DANCE MAKER over the past ten years, my work has been in an evolutionary state. ![]()
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