Lori Belilove’s Isadora Duncan Dance Company

On Wednesday, April 9, Mystophur, Feebster, Maestro Stein and I were invited to watch Lori Belilove’s Isadora Duncan Dance Company rehearse.

Julia Cesare was dancing with them after being out of the studio for a few months, but any audience member without prior knowledge never would have known. It was fantastic and thrilling to be able to watch them at such close range (we were in the dance studio with them as opposed to watching from a theater seat). Also amazing was talking with them about the intention behind each piece, the music, the connection between and among the dancers, the emotional experience of the dancer and the audience members.

After the rehearsal we went to the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation headquarters a few blocks away. We had snacks and wine and talked about the possibilities for collaborations between the Duncan dancers and the Art Monastery. The conversation was an explosion of ideas from all fronts. The energy in the room was brilliant, sparkling, poppy. We watched videos of previous performances and listened to music by La Monica and imagined the overlap.

These are the moments that make all the stress and sweat and lack of sleep worth it. The magical moments when two groups of professionals in seemingly disparate fields come together. Synergy!

Thank you to Pheebs for letting me borrow her camera and to Ms. Belilove for letting me take the pictures.

While these images get more and more abstract, I have to say that it reflected the experience of being there the longer and longer they danced. There is something in Duncan dance that for me recalls Chi Kung– the movement of energy and emotion and invisible power through the body. It is somehow quite emotional, dare I even say that it is spiritual? And if I were to go that far, wouldn’t it make an awful lot of sense to have a dance project like this in an art monastery? A cloister even?

On Wednesday, April 9, Mystophur, Feebster, Maestro Stein and I were invited to watch Lori Belilove’s Isadora Duncan Dance Company rehearse.

Julia Cesare was dancing with them after being out of the studio for a few months, but any audience member without prior knowledge never would have known. It was fantastic and thrilling to be able to watch them at such close range (we were in the dance studio with them as opposed to watching from a theater seat). Also amazing was talking with them about the intention behind each piece, the music, the connection between and among the dancers, the emotional experience of the dancer and the audience members.

After the rehearsal we went to the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation headquarters a few blocks away. We had snacks and wine and talked about the possibilities for collaborations between the Duncan dancers and the Art Monastery. The conversation was an explosion of ideas from all fronts. The energy in the room was brilliant, sparkling, poppy. We watched videos of previous performances and listened to music by La Monica and imagined the overlap.

These are the moments that make all the stress and sweat and lack of sleep worth it. The magical moments when two groups of professionals in seemingly disparate fields come together. Synergy!

Thank you to Pheebs for letting me borrow her camera and to Ms. Belilove for letting me take the pictures.

While these images get more and more abstract, I have to say that it reflected the experience of being there the longer and longer they danced. There is something in Duncan dance that for me recalls Chi Kung– the movement of energy and emotion and invisible power through the body. It is somehow quite emotional, dare I even say that it is spiritual? And if I were to go that far, wouldn’t it make an awful lot of sense to have a dance project like this in an art monastery? A cloister even?