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MEMBERSHIP Dancers’ Group – publisher of In Dance – provides resources to artists, the dance community, and audiences through programs and services that are as collaborative and innovative as the creative process. Dancers’ Group’s membership program is a fee-free model. We value connecting (with you) and sharing (what you’re doing). If you’re interested in connecting, JOIN as a Community Member. Visit dancersgroup.org for more information and resources.
WELCOME by ROWENA RICHIE, Guest Editor
“LIFE IS FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE.” So declared the tagline of a Dow Chemical safety campaign when I was growing up. Dad worked there as a safety engineer. How do we engineer safety? What do we make spaces safe for? Who do we make spaces safe for? Dow distributed shiny two-tone green stickers with nested figures: a little round figure inside a triangular figure inside a rectangular figure. We were told the sticker carried the message: Look out for your safety,
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and the safety and care of your community. This issue of In Dance is dedicated to care. To unpacking what our art form and our community are experiencing and exploring when it comes to practicing and performing care. How have our views of care and safety evolved in recent years? “The pandemic and its ‘bubble’ confinement logic gave us the sensation that safe- ty lies in solitude and inactivity. But safety is not the same as care, which requires interdependence and the risk of contact. Relationality is key.” 1
Performances to the Community Calendar Dancers’ Group promotes performance listings in our online performance calendar and our emails to over 1,700 members. Resources and Opportunities Dancers’ Group sends its members a variety of emails that include recent community
Think of this In Dance issue as a care package! Containing pieces on: • Communication as care • Aftercare • Curation as care
• Dance company as care company • Care for our past and future selves • Care for the earth
notices, artistic opportunities, grant deadlines, local news, and more.
• Care for immigrants • Care for the archives
32/ Space to Speak by Zackary Forcum 38/ See What Happens by Wendy Rogers and Piper Thomasson 43/ He is Killed as a Scapegoat But Reborn: Brontez Purnell and Nijinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' by Brontez Purnell 46/ A 'Thank You' to Life
14 / Curation as Care by Bhumi B. Patel 16 / A Jam of Our Own by Olivia Treviño 18 / Casting a Lens on Communities for 15 Years: Lenora Lee Dance by Heather Desaulniers 22 / Funny Little Monsters and Being Safe Enough to be Dangerous by Erika Chong Shuch, Interviewed by Rowena Richie 26/ The Echo Between Kink and Performance by Kegan Marling
Dancers’ Group gratefully acknowledges the support of Bernard Osher Foundation, California Arts Council, Fleishhacker Foundation, Grants for the Arts, JB Berland Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Koret Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation and generous individuals.
What is self-care, if relationality is key? There is a movement afoot to replace ‘caregiver’ with ‘care partner’ to shift the perspective, respect the care dynamic, represent reciprocity. But care too often becomes imbalanced. An estimated 43.5 million people in the United States provide unpaid care to an adult or a child. 2 Those providing care develop “caregiver burden,” a state of complete overwhelm as a consequence of isolating, exploiting or undercompensating. If you happened to visit Dolores Park during the early part of the pandemic you would have seen white circles spray-painted all over the lawn. A micro-community sprang up inside each ‘safety bubble.’ Risking contact! To lift our own and each other’ spirits. Look inside these pages to see ample evidence of care in dance — pictures, rituals, jams — elevating and amplifying what’s right in front of us. Care that includes people at the edges. Care for every single life.
DANCERS’ GROUP Artist Administrator Wayne Hazzard General Manager Kat Koenemann Community Resource Manager Shellie Jew Administrative Assistants Alex Tiscareno
Danielle Vigil
Dancing Earth Celebrates Their 20 Year Anniversary by Emily Levang
Bookkeeper Michele Simon Design Sharon Anderson
Carefully yours,
Cover photo ©Labverde by Laryssa Machada
1 Kristof Van Baarle, Felipe Cervera and Helena Grehan, “Stranger than Kindness,” Performance Research: On Care vol. 27, no. 6-7 (October/November 2022), 4. 2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8412180/
Photo by Warren Franklin
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