Coming Home Changed

Written by Collaborator Bonnie Brooks

Plunging in to work with the Dance COLEctive and Margi Cole on the production of REboot feels mighty familiar.  It’s a new way of working with Margi, yet it’s on familiar (and nearly familial) ground.  Ms. Cole and I have gotten used to working together.  Yet each new time we take up a new shared assignment, I am struck again by the good fortune of finding a collaborator who offers so very much.

Bonnie at work! 

We met in 1999, when I moved to Chicago to chair the Dance Department at Columbia College Chicago.  A grad of the program (who’d gone on to earn an MFA at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Margi was already teaching part-time and had spent a number of years working with Julie Simpson managing the Dance Center’s presenting series before refocusing her energy on her own dance company and on her work as an educator.  Through a series of what I’ll describe as fortunate circumstances, she advanced within the Dance Center team to become associate chair of the Dance Department for several years, giving me the “first round” of close collaboration.  We discovered we balanced each other out remarkably well.  I was often out fighting institutional admin battles, Margi keep the operation running back in the office.  I came quickly to appreciate her exceptional work ethic and the dedication she brings to what she does.  And I felt awe observing her juggle sustaining her small modern troupe, her teaching duties and student mentoring, and her admin work without, it so often appeared, missing a beat.  As time went on we came to be friends, friends who could actually work together (it’s kind of like being able to cook with someone, either you can or you can’t). 

When it came time to decide, post-chairmanship, if I would accept our Dean’s request that I take up leadership of the dance presenting series, I answered, “I can do it…if you’ll let me hire Margi to do it with me.”  She was the only person I knew who, I was certain, would be able to hit the ground running and who could read my mind as fast and accurately as I could read hers.  And so we did it – the relentless work of fundraising, producing, scheduling, keeping the internal bosses updated on all things financial, and doing our best to keep our guest artists informed and happy (that latter isn’t do-able at the Dance Center without the amazing Kevin Rechner and his tech crew, it truly takes a village).   Today, Ellen Chenoweth now runs the presenting series and continues to benefit from all the knowledge, skill and history that Margi brings to that work.  All I can say is I could not have done my part in those challenging years without her.

Last summer in beautiful Maine!

Mind you all the while Margi sustained her artistic project with the Dance COLEctive.  When she told me three or so years ago that she’d decided to re-imagine the Dance COLEctive’s mission and re-orient towards project work with a wider frame of participating artists, I remember thinking, “that’s gutsy and generous and practical.  Just like Margi.”  Giving up a steady ensemble of dancers for is no small decision for a choreographer, but Margi wanted a bigger and more flexible world.  Since making that decision, she has forged through several years of testing the waters and new short-term collaborations, she has added several solos to her personal repertory choreographed by the likes of Margaret Jenkins and Deborah Hay, and most recently she participated in a three week international residency at the Art Omi Art Center in Ghent, NY.  You can read about that in her blog posts here.

Now we are a few short weeks out from the first public performances of the Dance COLEctive since the big change.  It’ll feature Margi’s choreography plus work by Colleen Halloran and Pete Carpenter.  I’ll write about the concert in more detail an upcoming blog post.  But what she’s doing, in a way, is coming home changed.  She’s working with familiar dancers and collaborators.  The concert will be in a relatively new space dreamed up and realized by an old friend.  She’s dancing as well as choreographing.  And she’s got a back-up producer in Third Way Projects (that would be yours truly) who is also doing some re-inventing in post-institutional life.  This time I get to work on her project.  How grand is that?  It’s definitely different, but it’s also definitely like coming home. 

Opening September 14.  We so hope you will be there!

Week One at Art OMI

In 2001 Deborah Hay asked a room full of artists in Findhorn Scotland, including me, “What if where I am is what I need?”.  Deborah has been asking herself this for a long time so it was not new to her.  But, it was a new idea for me and I ask myself this question often now, in different moments on different days for different reasons.  It has been echoing in my mind ever since I arrived on July 16.

Where am I?

Art Omi (OH MY)  is a not-for-profit arts organization with residency programs for international visual artists, writers, translators, musicians, and dancers. Art Omi believes that exposure to internationally diverse creative voices fosters tolerance and respect, raises awareness, inspires innovation, and ignites change. By forming community with creative expression as its common denominator, Omi creates a sanctuary for the artistic community and the public to affirm the transformative quality of art.

Omi International Arts Center is located in beautiful Ghent, New York, two and a half hours from New York City. Omi is situated on 300 acres of rolling farmland with spectacular views of the Catskills and the Hudson River Valley. The Fields Sculpture Park is a public exhibition space featuring over 80 contemporary sculptures. Open year-round, the park provides thousands of visitors the opportunity to experience the impact of important international contemporary sculpture in a striking natural setting.

Art Omi

My Quarters

My Room

My Room

My View

What do I need? 
Time
Space
Curious minds and bodies
Inspiration
Meaningful Dialogue
Permission to focus on process without product
  

 What is happening?

Week one was a whirlwind of meeting new people (check them out here), sharing what we are curious about in the studio and in the world and deciding together where to direct our creative and collaborative efforts for the next two weeks.  We have begun the collaboration phase and are spending our days in and out of the studio experimenting to see if our ideas hold any water.  Some things have already revealed themselves as interesting and desirable to pursue.  Other ideas have been explored and filed away.  We are working toward an informal showing at the end of the residency.

Is Where I am What I Need?

Our studio Space in an old Barn

I am sure of it.  There is so much magic in the coming together of strangers as a clean slate with an abundance of generosity in our hearts. Everyone has been open to each other’s offerings and knowledge and accepting of the person I am in this moment.  I have been reminded that I still have the capacity to deeply feel and be present, which has felt far reaching for me for a while.  I am truly enjoying and growing from this experience and I am very excited to see what else will transpire as it continues to unfold.   More soon!