March 22, 2020
The Quarry Project Update
Well, here we all are, in the same boat, reliant, entwined, interwoven, vulnerable.
Daily, we learn new skills and remember what we have forgotten. We step carefully, with loving attention for each other. Our creative practice gives us guidance as we breathe into the chaos and ground down in this shifting landscape and challenging time.
Last Sunday, The Quarry Project ensemble gathered at 1pm in our separate homes/spaces to train in the skills required to be present and powerful people. We rehearsed the material that makes up the dance and shared our writings and films on our site, strengthening our bond and keeping the project ready to present when the clouds lift.
HOUSE - Household, family, community, company; residence, dwelling, abode, domicile; to lodge, contain, keep, store, hold, retain, give shelter, take in.
Each HOUSE dancer brings her memories and awareness of the fundamental need for a safe space, a home. This scene holds the wide spectrum of emotion - disappointment, sadness and loss with compassion, grace and dignity. Here are the HOUSE inhabitants
anna goodling
Anna is a dancer, farmer, artist and writer. Growing up on a Vermont farm, off the beaten path, gave her a deep and rich love for the beauty of nature, which daily inspires her engagement with the arts. She discovered the magic of site-specific dance and improvisation while studying at Hope College, and has since been seeking out the many ways she can incorporate dance into her daily life.
mary chris debelina doyle
Mary Chris is a dance artist, teacher, choreographer and mother of 4. She holds a BA in biology from Dartmouth College and an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College. She sees science and art as deeply allied and continues to explore this connection in her own work. When she’s not dancing or folding laundry, she can be found at the top of mountains skiing or hiking. MC is thrilled to be a part of The Quarry Project, dancing outdoors, surrounded by history with amazing people.
amy lepage
Amy (co-choreographer) first met me in 2010 at the Flynn Theatre when we were part of an evening of Vermont Choreographers. She and Hanna Satterlee became co-choreographers of my tribute, Dear Pina, and from that our friendship has grown over these past 10 years. She lives in co-housing with her two sons and through her business Emerge Therapeutic Yoga and Wellness and is well respected in her field as a somatic educator, birth doula, and functional movement yoga therapist.
tai nixa peterson
Tai joined The Quarry Project in Fall 2019 and is honored to be in the HOUSE and part of the Vermont dance community. Originally from New Hampshire, she started dancing at age 3 and never stopped! Her mind, body, and soul are most joyful and balanced when she is dancing and surrounded by nature. Tai has a degree in Anthropology from St. Lawrence University and recently moved to Central Vermont where she works in fundraising for a nonprofit whose mission is to eradicate preventable and curable blindness.
hanna satterlee
Hanna is a lifelong mover, dancing around the world and inside of many amazing collaborative performance experiences. A choreographer who considers nature her most inspiring partner, Hanna is thrilled to dance upon the Quarry water within the bellows of such ancient stone. With her heart’s home in the green mountains, and a passion for both the form of dance as well as connecting people to it, Hanna founded the Vermont Dance Alliance, a non-profit organization and serves as the Executive Director.
lucy schmid
Lucy is an educator, dancer, improviser and a creature of the Maine coastline. She loves exploring the edges of her physical body in relationship with others through the arts of contact improvisation and improvisational dance composition. When not contemplating the depths of the Quarry, Lucy is directing the Central Vermont Playback Theatre Troupe and finding ways to center embodied learning in schools.
Here is a clip of the HOUSE and the trailer created from our work last summer. I will close with a quote from a guest who witnessed a 2019 rehearsal:
I liked seeing the HOUSE movement quite far away, dwarfed by the massive stone walls. I loved the colors of the dancer’s costumes reflected in the deep, like rippling columns, and how the house structure drifted and framed the dancers, unveiled as they gradually drew closer.
Sending out love,
