Monica Anna Day #3
We continue riding the waves — of covid, of our creativity, and of our capacity — respecting limits while also, defying them.
But the time has finally come. The performance of Placeholder takes place tomorrow, Saturday, November 14th at 3pm EST (10pm in Cyprus). I will be alone (well, with one steadfast friend!) in a black box theater, livestreamed from the Gallatin Galleries on the campus of NYU.
I will say right now, this was not the journey I expected when I proposed it back in May. In many ways, it has challenged everything I have taught for years, while also, asking me to layer new ways of knowing with those that come easily to me. Like everything else in life right now, it feels like I am trying to make sense of a story while also living in the middle of it.
As every aspect of performance that gives me confidence gets stripped away — no live energy in the room, no faces on the other side of the screen, no ways of taking the temperature of the group — I must go with what I have. My own sensations. My own knowing. My own instinct.
Some people think that getting on a stage is frightening, but they have no trouble in front of a camera. I am the opposite. My nervous system prefers the live link to other bodies. It is not lost on me that I have been displaced from my own comfort, while discussing displacement.
I guess we should take comfort in the fact that the Universe has not lost its sense of humor.
Look forward to seeing you…uh…to being seen that is..on Saturday!