alt + F4 for normal screen






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The relationship between choreographer and dancer is precious, as is the relationship between choreographer and musician, light designer, director--any artist or technician.  It is so precious to me, that I wanted to make this a main focus for the making of work.  The hierarchy of the position choreographer-dancer was to become diminished, and the dancer as artist was to become very important on a functional level.  I wanted to lose my ego as a choreographer and create something that would have a group-spirited mind of its own.   I studied and worked, for this to occur.  Amidst failure as well as success I explored the possibilities of shared responsibility within creation. Release developed within me as a source for shared creativity.  THE LITTLE THEATRE, (1980-1981) This work marks the beginning of the concept “Responsible Anarchy,” though at the time none of us knew what we might be developing.  In fact, it is possible that this work has taken different forms in all its participants since the time when it first occurred.  Though I had been working with groups occasionally, and mostly within the context of education, I was much better known as a soloist in the early years of my career.  It was economically possible to tour internationally as a soloist, and the cost of taking a group anywhere was prohibitive for me.  I applied for grants repeatedly in England and was told that my work was very important, but I was sure to survive and my students were not at all secure so it was hoped that I could understand that I was not to be funded and they were.  I began to see this as a problem and eventually left England mostly because I was unable to create a financial base for my work.  In the fourteen years I was there I received only 2500 pounds.  That was indeed tragic.  But, as with all great difficulties, it produced a very positive spin-off. I worked as a soloist so consistently and diligently, that I was able to develop a great sense of independence and intuitive discovery in the real time of performance.  I discovered an inner voice of creativity that was based in RELEASE concepts.  In my independence and devotion I made funding bodies and external factors outside the art practice itself irrelevant.  Essentially, I flowered in a island of isolation, having no one but myself to please, interest and define.  I learned to make my own boundaries, and to create the laws of my own choreographic existence.  Two people who followed me on this journey have been valuable beyond any credit that I could give.  They are Peter Hulton, who had the kindness and good nature to watch rehearsals and give me supportive commentary, and Colette King who often didn’t say much but showed so much with her tears as she repeatedly told me “Lass, I am so moved.”   Without them my formation as an artist would have never been possible.   I continued to be interested in group-work, though not often having a chance to make it.