Photo: Julia Barstow

Engaged Connections
October 25, 2020

At the end of September, the TABLE dancers met near the quarry at Jay Southgate’s very long outdoor granite table to improvise, six feet apart, with the gestures from the Table dance. The longing to be right next to each other and feel/respond to the energy was palpable. It was hard to keep a distance. Luckily the wind was blowing and masks were part of the costume. Julia was home from Oregon, and having completed her quarantine, she captured this scene gathering.

The work at hand is indeed about our connections to one another and creating new, temporary ways of being together at a distance while we wait to be in the home of our dear friend, to share food, admire a new painting, discuss dances, spread out a plan on the table, or just lean in to this beloved.

Since August, I have been taking walks with each ensemble member in their own turf, getting to know one another in new and delightful ways. If it weren’t for CV-19, we would not have had this opportunity.

In strange and beautiful ways, CV-19 has given us to one another and to new experiences. Surprising, expansive and nourishing conversations have occurred with people reaching out across great expanses and saying, Look, listen, this idea, this work is inspiring me in this moment and might inspire you as well.

Pina Bausch was the inspiration that brought me together with two people, each on the ends of the age spectrum; a Venezuelan dancer in Argentina and an Israeli painter who looks deeply at his surroundings. We have been in discussion since March about the process of making art.

Last week, I got a song from a 2019 Quarry Project band member with this message attached – This reminds me that tenderness is strength. How much I loved this song was a testament to this moment of opening; me who has been a music snob for most of her life found and continues to find this song so moving. I hum it as I work in the garden, I get teary thinking about it. Here are two versions: The composers playing the extended song, and another couple doing a table dance to the shorter version.

May your day be filled with creative moments and may you stretch across the divide to another who, just like you, hungers for that connected engagement.