I am sitting here about an hour after the completion of the first Near...Further Aurora and Annie performance (I don't know a title we are really going by). I am really happy with how it turned out. I had 6 audience member sitting in my cramped bedroom in the PowerHouse with an internet source, a video camera, an amp, a borrowed Mac, and a headset. We listened to Chicago and watched images appear on the computer screen as I responded with words and images. It was great to hear the audiences in Chicago and New York and they could hear each other. Laughter carried from one end to another. Sometimes laughter was provoked by unseen movements and sometimes ununderstood jokes.

Even though I could not see Aurora or the Chicago audience, it felt intimate. I imagined what the audience looked like, how they were sitting, and what motions they made when they were asked to do so. I wonder if they thought about the New York audience, and if they didn't, our sounds reminded them to. And even though I know Aurora the best, I could not imagine her or the movements she made. I can imagine how she moves naturally, but I do not know how she moves when she is moving with my moves. I wonder what she wore. When I told my mom about this performance, she said, "Aurora, the one with the tights?" I wonder if my mom also remembers Aurora's tattoo, it was hard to miss in that piece.

Tonight was really nice. I am really pleased with what went on, especially that which I did not see.

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Today I finally put into words a habit I have. I realized that I usually understand in my body before my mind and sometimes I have difficulty trying to put into words that which is mostly in my body. I think when I am tired and/or stressed the body to mind process slows. Often when I try to put into words that which I feel, and don't yet understand in the mind, I cry. It is not that I am sad, it is that I feel pressure in my body and in my mind. I am not good at giving definitive answers in words.

Sunday December 10, 2006

1. With socks on your feet, push from the fetal position to a sort-of-one-handed-sideways-downward-dog-like-position. Poisoned by time shipwreck. Is this racism?

2. Thorasic spine flexes, thorasic spine extends, thorasic spine flexes, thorasic spine extends. Push one hand to the floor, straighten that arm, circle it around the ball and socket joint. Roll on your back.

3. Fan your fingers. Make a fist. Throw dust into the sky. Switch arms. Spiral down, spiral up, spiral down, spiral all the way down. Don't forget about your face.

Saturday December 9, 2006
Fun with Parents or Movement Telephone

1. Make a two-count arm phrase. Repeat twice. Look to your left and learn what the other person is doing while you are repeating your arm phrase.

2. When you have repeated your own, do the left person's phrase, while they are doing the phrase to the person at their left.

3. Repeat until all the arms in the room are bouncing and all the heads in the room are spinning. Laugh

Friday December 8, 2006.... posted after close to a full night's rest.

1. Feel a strain among the esophogus and the intestines. Place your fingers on the eyelids and run them out to the temples and down the cheekbone.

2. Run to you left. Stop. Go. Run north. Slow to a power walk. Turn a corner. Skip into a run. Dash. Stop and look everywhere you've been, but not in the order you went. Give yourself whiplash.

3. Gaze into someone's eyes (it doesn't matter who, unless there is an Emily near you). Breathe and gaze. Grab her waist and press your lips together. Fall onto your knees. If someone approaches, repeat.

Thursday December 7, 2006
posted the morning after

1. this involves a prop
I lift it three inches above my right shoulder. I flex my spine and femoral joints. I give words to the prop as I slightly shake it.

2. this is about a Life Magazine
I stand with straight legs (I could be hyperextended in my knees. I don't quite remember.) I am bent at the hips, about 50 degrees. 68% of my weight on feet, 32% on my hands. I shift from two hands down to only my left hand down, with several repetitions.

3. this relates to spaghetti
I kneel. I let my pelvis float towards my heels as need be. My shoulder pushes my right arm forward and down. My right hand pushes my elbow towards my ribcage. My right hand extends.

Tuesday December 5, 2006
Actions or Positions?
Do I define by motion or station?

1. Press tongue to roof of mouth. Feel the line run down your spine.

2. I wait for others to join. I force others to come with me. One leaves, but I am not alone.

3. We cope with mountains. And we carry on.

Monday December 4, 2006
How do we document the body?
A practice in representing.

1. Laying on back with arms and legs spread to the side, buzzing lips toward the sky. Sense self and only self. Eyes are open, but see nothing.

2. Walk backwards in circles. Eyes focus on one object. Keep the object in eyesight while circling

3. Sitting with left knee bent and left foot flat on ground. Right leg is stretched out, but it is not straight. Lean back and let the weight fall on the sacrum and lumbar spine. Relax abdominals.

This week this blog will be dedicated to an ongoing performance project with a friend in Chicago. Everyday this week each of us will record three memorable movements our bodies have made; I will record mine here and she will record hers on her blog. We are using these forums to communicate over extended distances (New York to/from Chicago). These blogs give us the opportunity to express that which is the closest to each of us, our bodies. On Monday December 11, we will learn, feel, and represent each other's week-long experiences by embodying that which was recorded hundreds of miles away, simultaneously. Please follow along with this experiment.