Privy: the home stretch …

I think I’ve been working on this solo forever.  OK.  Four years.  I’ve been working on Privy for four years.  The process began shortly after the first iteration of (re)Birth back in 2010.  I was fortunate to begin this work while in residence at the Bates Dance Festival that summer.  I continued the work into the fall while in residence at Billing Forge Community Works.  Then it all seemed too close.  I needed distance … a little perspective.  So my focus shifted to The Garden Center and the idea of offering (re)Birth in a series of performance salons there.  Since then, Privy has returned to the front burner for stretches of time only to be overshadowed by one thing or another.   Each time, however, the work has re-emerged with a whole new layer of depth.

Most recently, thanks to generous funding from the Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship and a grant from New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), I set out to finally bring the work to completion and to share it in a few salons at The Garden Center this summer.  Set and prop components have been accumulating over the last year.  With assistance from two generous young women, Rebecca Puretz and Rosie Karabetsos, I began shaping the pile of antique doilies I had collected from near and far into a sculptural element.  The birdcage that had been sitting in my garage made its way into the studio and into the set somehow.  New movement material developed.  Old movement phrases resurfaced in new configurations.  Overall, May proved to be a productive month.  I don’t know, the piece seemed to be ripening … and then I sold my house and I moved to Massachusetts.

So, now that I’m settled into my gorgeous little loft in Holyoke, I’m easing back into this Privy thing.  I’ve brought the set elements home and am beginning to reconcile all the ideas that have been marinating for all this time.  While the schedule has been extended once again, I am looking forward to sharing the work with guests here in my home, at The Garden Center and beyond in the months to come.  So many of the ideas driving the piece come alive in the intimacy of home.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  In the meantime, here are a few images of the stuff of the piece as they’ve made the move from Hartford over these last few months.  And when it’s all said and done, I will have gathered quite a great cloud of witnesses who have contributed to the development of Privy over the years.  Many thanks to each of you for such support thus far.

~DG