Another wonderful performance of I Love It - a collaboration between myself and Heidi Nagtegaal. We were really pleased with the result this time, and very happy to work with Jeremy Todd as part of his Not Sent Letters Project. May 4 2013, Western Front, Vancouver.
Some landscape detections I made last summer for The Hammock Residency (Vancouver, 2012).
Finally, a set of three dance letters are on their way to dancers in Berlin, Italy and Vancouver B.C. Each letter is a customized response to the answers that people sent me in response to some questions and queries regarding various things including memory, place, travel, trees, longing, and listening. The letters contain a series of images and suggestions in response to these themes, allowing the recipient to experience a personal and private exchange. If this sounds a bit vague, well, drop me a line and perhaps I can send you a dance in the mail, too.
The latest edition of my zine, Fictional Anatomy, is out - this one is called ‘I feel hros’. Hros is old German for horse, and my family name, Rosner is based on this word (I guess we were people who took care of horses … ). My zine is a journal of my latest explorations in dance, sound, imagination and writing. So far there are three editions and it’s carried by raumschiff zine distro (Berlin).
Some pics from my recent work with choreographer Anne Cooper. ’What I Imagined’, Choreographed by Anne Cooper, with Mirae Rosner, Performed by Anne Cooper and Mirae Rosner, Vocal and Image Direction by Dale Genge, Lighting Design by James Proudfoot. Firehall Arts Centre September 21 & 22, 2012.
Some pics from my recent work with choreographer Anne Cooper. ’What I Imagined’, Choreographed by Anne Cooper, with Mirae Rosner, Performed by Anne Cooper and Mirae Rosner, Vocal and Image Direction by Dale Genge, Lighting Design by James Proudfoot. Firehall Arts Centre September 21 & 22, 2012.
A short music video / dance film, in collaboration with Ken Tsui and a number of other fine people. For the song ‘Dot’ by ‘Uncle Skeleton’.
(Source: vimeo.com)
Dance Letters at Thoughts on Text, a Hammock Residency project at Access (Vancouver August 2012).
During my stay at the Hammock Residency, I’ve been investigating the connections between intimately sourced personal movement and letter writing. I had the opportunity to set-up my typewriter in the gallery space and people visited me to receive a dance in letter form. Each person was interviewed and we had a short conversation around various topics. From there, I wrote personalized letters which they took from the gallery to read and experience at their leisure. I asked them to write me a postcard later, giving impressions and feedback about the experience. The contact between us was quite relaxed yet intimate and surprisingly physical, but only in an indirect and sometimes even metaphoric sense. If you are curious about the content of these letters, drop me a line. The project is ongoing and although there is something fruitful about a personal interview process, the letters can also be initiated over long-distances.
On August 4 2012, Prophecy Sun and I showed our work-to-date concerning memory and the body. We performed a sound and performance installation at The Hammock, sourcing from first memories of the snow, blizzard, injury, old skiis, duration, and mutual assistance. ’Remarkable Concussions and Other Memories of the Snow’ is the beginning of our investigation into the body/voice and its capacity to find expression in simultaneously physical and metaphoric modes. As we performed, we released memory and associations from the body, through movement and sound, sending reverberations out towards our audience. Further development will included expanded investigations into the notion of uniting sound and embodied performance, discovering how we can quietly transmit our experiential process through presence.
‘Parks Canada’ in the Hammock
Prophecy Sun and I are workshopping some ideas for a new performance as part of my Parks Canada series - an ongoing set of performance and video investigations into the relationships between bodies, culture, and nature.
Previous developments have occurred in collaboration with dancer Holly Holt and media artist Jesse Scott, inlcuding ‘I am a star: universal landscape detection methodology’, a video performance that aims to mimic scientific instruments with the sensing & somatic body.
For the Hammock Residency, we’re investigating a new performance inspired by slides of a family trip to Banff, imagined soundscapes, and the intersection of memory and fiction.
A work-in-progress showing on August 4th will display some of their recent findings, with plans for the finished work upcoming, in Fall/Winter 2012/13.
The Hammock So Far
From May - August this summer, I’m an artist in residence at Heidi Nagtegaal’s Hammock Residency in garden-like East Vancouver. Originally, I set-out to sift through some old material and recombine it in slightly new ways, although, along the way things have shifted a bit to become a little more site-specific. The Hammock site is a welcome influence on my work, and in fact, becomes the context and sometimes partly the content of my research here. It’s a powerful spot, with many guests, ideas, and materials - all gently swirling together in a kind of dance of community.
The first manifestation of my research was an event last week involving gardening, local bc wildlife animal masks, and a bonfire. It was a ‘secret’ performance and guests were invited to sit around a bonfire and enjoy roasting apples on sticks, corn, and wine. They were asked to focus on the fire - this was the only rule - no matter what happened around them, they should keep the conversation and merriment going and not turn around to face the performance.
The audience’s back space was soon populated by a group of five small animals who gardened the Hammock garden. Partly a midsummer’s eve ritual, five of us wore masks depicting raccoon, fox, mouse, squirrel and porcupine, and slowly added new plants to the negative space around the fire. Of course, the audience did steal a few glances our way, but surprisingly, some of them really tried hard to not even give us one glance. In the end, there were two ‘gifts’ of the work - our guests were given the chance to connect to new people in unexpected camp fire gathering, and the Hammock received a new garden.
This work was billed as a ‘secret’ performance, but from now on, the gardening animals will be called ‘Small Animal Gardening Collective’ and we will appear through various future actions, possibly gardening even more unexpected spaces. The first group of Small Animal gardeners included Brittany Burkhard (Mouse), Luciana D’Anunciacao (Fox), Jocelyne Chaput (Raccoon), Hailey McCloskey (Porcupine) and me, Mirae Rosner (Squirrel). It was a magical evening and couldn’t have been done without the sincerity and dedication of the small animals, Heidi Nagtegaal who hosted the fire so beautifully, and my sister Meghan Rosner who designed and built the sweet yet scary masks. Thanks!
In general, my research here in the Hammock is based in my interest in exploring the connections between bodies and landscapes and as the summer progresses this will manifest in several directions including new work on my landscape detection series, a third issue of my zine, and the creation of two dance letters to be sent in the mail to Germany and Italy.
the campfire
Brittany Burkhard as ‘Mouse’
Ahhh! The Hammock on CBC
Interview with Heidi Nagtegaal and fellow-artists. Describing a very special place.
Who’s under there? At the Hammock Residency all summer. Working on gardening, performance, dancing, writing letters.
What letter does this look like? What is Martha spelling? Dance Letters project starting-up at the Hammock in May and June.
"‘The dance class was incredible - I loved the step-by-step build up, it was a very comfortable atmosphere, and I enjoyed every minute of it - I got a lot out of it - getting back into my body - the movements felt so natural - I loved how it brought me into the present moment - I now know a new way to move, interact and live in my body - Thank you!’ - Nilesh"
This is a quote from one my students in Seoul. A wonderful dancer who attended my series of classes at Art Space Mullae.
