Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar27

all the pretty horses

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This post is about a new performance project that I am developing.  I would love for you to share this information with friends.  This project grew out of my desire to create performance that would benefit horses, and is part of my company’s “horses helping horses” project.  It is close to my heart.  I am especially excited about this project because our partners, Little Brook Farm, are so deeply woven into their upstate New York community and have taught literally thousands of children about horses.

All the Pretty Horses is a community-based, inter-species dance project with “throw away” horses that have been rescued from abuse or slaughter and now live safe and happy at the equine sanctuary Little Brook Farm, in Old Chatham, NY. The performance is a benefit for the sanctuary and will take place September 22, 2012.

Also participating in the performance are the riders and vaulters from Little Brook Farm, area student dancers and the professional dancers from Paula Josa-Jones/Performance Works.

All the Pretty Horses reveals the depth and heart of the human-horse bond and the beauty and possibility of horses that were thrown away or consigned to slaughter. It shows us that when we share time and space with horses, learn to listen to them and communicate through the language of movement, we become more compassionate, more connected to each other and more a part of the shared earth.

What we need:
We are seeking 20 dancers and gymnasts to participate in this world premiere event. You will have a unique and exciting opportunity to work with a professional dance company and the horses and riders from Little Brook Farm. No horse experience is necessary. Participation fee is $100, which includes all classes and rehearsals. Participating dancers will receive a certificate at the end of the project. Saturday rehearsals are twice a month from April – September. For more information or to join the project:
josajones@gmail.com

We also need financial support:  Funds are needed to pay professional dancers’ fees, travel and production expenses. We raised start up funds from Kickstarter and need to raise an additional $5000 to complete the project.  You can make a donation here.  We deeply appreciate your support of All the Pretty Horses!

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Mar26

movement, stillness

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Photo:  Pam White

The theme of the dance workshop I taught in Boston yesterday was movement and stillness. Asking dancers to be still is somehow counter-intuitive.  After all, we are movers.  And yet I find that a stillness practice – consciously alternating between movement and stillness – brings out the color and texture of the moment.  It takes us deeper into what is unfolding right here, right now. It teaches us to listen and to see the wildness in the small, the quiet, the humble as well as in the dramatic and the riotous.  There is a boldness in stillness, and for the performer, a kind of audacity.  We have to trust that our audience will stay tethered to us in the still and the quiet.  Like a conversation in which the rushing river of ideas quiets to a lake of receptivity and depth.

I love translating my practices as a dancer into a language for the poet, the painter, the parent, the worker.  That is the idea behind my ebook, Breaking into Blossom:  Moving into an Improvisational Life.  It is about finding a deeper, more embodied creative engagement regardless of your work, your passion.  You can order it here.

Mar25

the wild dog

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The other side of Cho, Spanish Galgo, and former street dog of Cadiz, Spain.  It takes a lot of restorative yoga to be able to sustain cross-country gallops when you are 17-years old.

Today I am off to Boston to teach my workshop, Cookbook for the Bonehouse.  It is exciting to me to return to Boston to teach.  Many years ago, Pam and I were among the founders of Green Street Studios, which has become a vibrant center for dance and performance in Cambridge.  I developed my chops as a choreographer in Boston, and made many dances with many fine, generous dancers.  Tomorrow’s workshop is at the sister studio, The Dance Complex, another hive of creative energy for movement and dance.  So I am going home.

And not.  I feel a profound difference now which has to do with my long absence from the conventional concert dance scene and from Boston in particular.  I am older, and I have spent the past 13 years in two different kinds of studios.  The one with the wooden floor where I move and stretch like a dancer, and the other – the arena, the field, the paddock, the stall, the saddle, with my partners, the horses.  I feel a little like the wild dog coming home after a big tear across the fields.  But there is a cosiness there too – a desire to settle and nestle into the moment.

Mar23

the limits

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Dogs in Spain do not enjoy the same pampered lives that many dogs here do.  We first became aware of the Galgo issue through Greyhound Friends in Hopkinton, MA.  The director, Louise Coleman had just founded the American European Greyhound Alliance with a special focus on the dogs of Spain and Ireland.  She had begun to bring some dogs out of those two countries.

At the time, we had just lost our beautiful greyhound, Luna, and we wanted to adopt an older dog.  That is how we came across Gordita (above), who was ten-years old and had just delivered another litter in Spain.  Gordie lived to be 17-years old, and was the most endearing and maddening dog ever.  She had a bark that could cut glass.  Literally make you jump out of your skin. She had this wonderful, galumphing, paddling run that she kept up until about a week before she died.

Because of Gordie, I learned more than I wanted to about the sadistic treatment of these beautiful, sensitive dogs.  They are used for hunting by the gypsies, and cruelly disposed of if they do not perform or if they are too old or ill.

Many people think we should not try to save dogs or cats or children outside our own borders.  I find that argument specious.  Compassion and love are not contained by the borders of a country.  We should help wherever we can, and wherever we are drawn to help. Over the years, I have rescued cats from Russia and Mexico, dogs from Spain. I remember being in Tijuana and seeing a skeletal, mangy, white dog near the place where the ugly fence that divides Mexico and the US runs into the sea. We could not catch him.  I can still see him.  I had to let him go.

I learned something there about the limits of power.  About accepting that I personally cannot save everything.  That rankles, at the same time I know it is reasonable.   But I will always try.