“Dreams are personal myths, Myths are public dreams” –Joseph Campbell 

Featherweight is a physical investigation of the weight of the ancestors. Flocks of Birds, stories that run through the veins.

Featherweight at Work/Space

Most recently, I have been offered an artist-in-residence at the Work/Space theatre run by the LIDA Project and Control Group Productions. This space is a part of the Laundry on Lawrence in Denver, an awesome old laundry facility that has been transformed into a modern community of artists' studios. With this residency, I have access to studio time as much as need and tech support. The proceeds that come from door sales will come in will go back to support this great venue.

I have an incredible ensemble of artists, using improvisation and common language to ask questions in the studio, developing choreography and story directly from the knowing body....lineage, flocks of birds, tricksters and the nature of patterns. We are looking and feeling through the heart and blood. We are excavating the hidden call of the body to flock or separate from the flock.

We have been building a language for several weeks, now moving into the stage of improvisation and learning choreography, we will create a full length piece embodying the stories of the ancestors through physical dialogue character and images.

What is funded with Kickstarter?

5 performing artist/creators, 3 Musicians and several Visual Artists

The artists: Katie Anhalt, Shana Cordon, Maria Flegas, Mya Strasser and Musical Artist Sam Gathman, as well as visual artist Areia Li and others who will come into the picture soon. 

After working with these ideas and researching in solo for almost two years now, I have an ensemble. Everyday, I am honored by their contribution and perspective, by offering their time and energy, and by fiercely engaging in difficult questions through movement.  I cannot fill the complete expression of this work without the flock, and they have arrived, fully engaged. 

The primary reason for this Kickstarter campaign is to pay these artist-performers a handsome sum, as all who give their heart and blood should be! We will also recoup expenses for costumes and materials, and  to hire a technician and a videographer crew to document.  

The Development Featherweight

With a few old photographs sent from my mother, I was set on fire to research my lineage, leading to contemplation on the greater human story through mythological and archetypal images. I suddenly wanted to know what opportunities arise in me, what unreasonable behaviors, dreams, attractions and fears urge me, and that which the origin is ultimately hidden from plain sight? What are the letters hidden in boxes, the immortalized stories told by campfires, the hushed up questions of our universal experience?

In February 2011, I went into the studio to embody a few of these stories. My process began by allowing the body to speak first about this personal ancestry before assuming and projecting the stories.

What I found in the studio during this time was surprising and beautiful, my own personal myths: Flocks of birds; A Shaman and a Priest; A murdered woman in a polka-dot dress; Chants in harmony from the depths of the soul that reveal the truth.The landscape of Featherweight is of things known and unknown, light and shadow, that penetrate our everyday perception of where we come from and who we are at our core. In July 2011, I held the first work-in-progress open rehearsal with a few invited colleagues, to share these findings about the personal part of this journey. 

In August, as an artist-in residence at Denver Performance Research space, I performed a two hour structured improvisation with environmental installation to further experiment with an archetypal image that had been emerging in the rehearsals. DPR is an open studio during the First Friday Artwalk in Denver. During the evening, the space was open along with other galleries and patrons could come by at any point during the event and stay for as little or as long as they wanted. I created an installation of roots and chose feathers as the only one material/object of play. With this I went into a deeper  investigation into the sacred universal symbol of flight within the spirit world and serving as messenger. I find it interesting to create a structure for improvisation in public view, where the presence of others and condition of being seen, allows for a different type of energy and focus of the work in question. 

Where are we going?

This project is a crucial step in the development of the final expression of this piece in May of 2013, which will be the complete interweaving of all these three past research performances. We will have the audience enter into an environmental sculpture of woods, threads, objects and sound-scapes, navigating through this "Life Path” to share in the dynamic physical performance of these stories and myths that have evolved from knowing the blood.

Links.

http://jannameiring.com/Site_2/Space.html

http://thespacecreators.com/places/laundry_on_lawrence

http://lida.org/

http://www.controlgroupproductions.org/