movement research on the move... a (love) letter
from the executive director
Throughout the life of Movement
Research, the organization has served artists in their early movement-based
investigations. Over time, Movement Research has developed specific
platforms that provide a critical and safe place for the artists'
voice, to protect the life of the 'emerging idea' at its most fragile.
The Performance Journal, for one, has always been by and for artists
and progressive ideas over its 14 years of existence. Our free weekly
series, Movement Research at the Judson Church, for another, regularly
brings varying dance communities together around the celebration
of investigation.
In the case of this Festival, the organization is taking another
step to ensure that its mission of research and development is being
advanced. By giving the Festival, originated in 1991 by Sondra Loring
(a MR Artist-in-Residence at the time) and Julie Carr, back to the
artist community in terms of focus and curatorial oversight, we
ensure not a 'correct', 'best' or 'perfect' view, but a broader
and deeper view into the artistic currents of today. This year,
a curatorial committee of seven artists have honed the focus and
programmed the festival, bringing over 150 artists and 11 venues
together, all on slim resources. (Think what we could do with more!)
This new structure is a work-in-progress, like the artistic work
itself, and next year we hope to form a different group of artists
to serve on committee. Artists are the veritable think tank in research
and development.
Movement Research distinguishes itself from its sister dance organizations
in the overall dance ecology in that it is not a presenter with
informed curatorial focus but rather more a laboratory for research
and development of emerging ideas. Without strong presenters, artists
have no place for fully realized, fully produced works to interact
with audiences. But without support for the early investigations,
these produced works are less informed by innovative thinking. An
artist at our MR Town Hall meeting last spring suggested that Movement
Research is the closest situation artists have in the U.S. to a
real laboratory for experimentation, nevertheless it has got a ways
to go, in part given the scarcity of resources in this country for
such work. That comment is both a celebration of what Movement Research
does manage to do and a call for progress! Within that spirit and
our modest means, we intend to do as much as possible to more fully
realize this sense of laboratory. Join us at the Festival! Come
early, some venues have limited seating! Experience artists of multi-generations
working 'improvisationally'. Watch, talk, jam, dance, take a class
or workshop, argue and celebrate! Keep the discourse going. And
support artists and Movement Research!