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“Why should we
dance? Because we can.
It’s a gift we have been given.” |
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| “My body is not satisfied, it wants
to move, move, move. My body speaks it’s own language.
I want to learn that language.” |
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| “My body is a nutshell, cosy in its
state of enclosure, reluctant to open, distrusting of the outside
world, not ready to crack open… yet curious, tentative,
testing, then retracting… protective of my heart, wrapping
arms around my body…. “ |
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| “She looks tired from all the folding,
the doing-ness of the day. So much to be done. A tear wells
up from my heart. One day I will not be here to see the folding
of the cloth. This ancient ritual of cutting and measuring;
a woman’s practice. She only stops briefly to rest and
feel the cloth or her under skin underneath her breath spaces
forgotten passed by in the business of folding cloth layer upon
layer corner to corner making ends meet.” |
The Moving Stories of Women was about women learning to speak the
language of their bodies.
Two intentions merged to create the project- to raise public awareness
of expressive dance and movement therapy in Western Australia, and
to share the beauty and wisdom of this work with more people.
We took a group of twelve women, some dancers, some not, through
a series of nine workshops over nine months.
They learned to tune in to their impulses, follow their own rhythms,
recognize their characteristic gestures, and try out new elements
of movement.
Most importantly, we gave them spaces to unwind, spaces of silence
and emptiness that for most women are so rare. We gave them questions
and prompts during the workshops to stimulate the written responses
and drawings that you will see here on the walls. We gave them fabric
and buckets of dye, and let them loose. We took them to the beach
in the wind with metres of coloured fabric and asked them to close
their eyes. We put them on imaginary stages and they sang, danced
cried and shone. We invited them to lay on the floor and just breathe.
When they where ready, they gave back to us, allowing themselves
to move, allowing themselves to be seen.
And, we recorded it all.
Marie photographed the women, each and every session, all day
long. None of these photos are posed. None of them were lit or photographically
staged in any way. She worked with available light and fast film,
enabling her to respond and document as a women from within the
group. The images where printed in her darkroom on Ilford Portfolio
Paper.
We devoured each morsel of writing, typing it up and carefully
patching it together with the photos to create a collage of femininity.
The images, stories, artwork and fabric in this collection are
captured moments in women’s lives; feeling, embodying, sensing
and expressing themselves through movement. It was a wonderful journey,
deep, long and difficult sometimes, but filled with the juice and
succulence and the joy of being women.
It will be sometime, and probably only through hindsight, that
any measure will be made by each woman of the value of this particular
community dance project. It will be different for all of us.
None of it would have been possible without the commitment of our
group, or the generosity of our sponsors and supporters.
- Artswa
- Canwa
- Government of WA
- City of Fremantle
- Creative Spaces
- Constellation Films
- Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery
- ANZ Bank
- Imagesource
- Digital Artworks
- Mark Brophy Estate Agents
- Safe Tac VRD
- WPC
Exhibition: Photos, Stories, Artwork and Fabric
at The Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery
14-23 May, 2004
Rebecca Byrne – Creative Director
Donna Hamilton – Project Manager
Marie Foster - Photographer
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