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Update #8: oh my people....we did it....
I am so grateful to you all, that I can't find my words. When that happens, I often turn to Mary Oliver, whose beautiful lines never fail to hold what needs holding...
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
thank you.
thank you.
thank you...
I'll be in touch real soon about getting your goodies to you. Looking forward to seeing many of you next week at Cultivate! sweet dreams!
in gratitude and community,
Katherine
Update #7: I feel a happy dance coming on...
I'm already doing a happy dance, because I feel so sure we will make our goal in the next 14 hours. But nothing like a little dramatic tension to really inspire the masses, eh?
I want you all to know how much I appreciate what you've done, (and keep doing!!!! special big hugs to those of you who have gone back in and increased your pledge...!) to help Cultivate come to life. Because of your help, I will be able to pay the 20 artists who are coming to Bethlehem, to feed them and give them a comfy place to sleep. I'll be able to offer deep discounts to folks in my community to come take classes, perhaps trying a dance class for the first time in their life!
You are near, you are far, you are busy with your own amazing and brilliant lives. But you take the time to send your support, your energy, your faith, your pledges...
You all have a home in my heart, and a home in this community up here in North Country...
14 hours left to go. $1147.
Shimmy shimmy shake!
in gratitude,
Katherine
Update #6: 99 beautiful backers!
For backers only,
Posted on August 12, 2011
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Update #5: 51 hours left and closing in on our goal!
Oh generous open-hearted lovers of the dance!
You are amazing! Thanks to you we are getting so much closer to our goal of $7000!
51 hours left, and $2823 to go. This means together we have raised $4177...truly incredible. I know we are going to make it. I have such faith in you, and our extended community.
If each of you finds a moment in your day to reach out to someone you know and ask them to consider making a pledge, I know we will meet our goal in time.
Talk about your dramatic endings! :) This is really getting down to the wire!
I know we can do it. I am so grateful to each and every one of you for caring enough to back this project. Cultivate couldn't happen without you...
Stay tuned! We're almost there!!!
Update #4: 4 days left... diggin in our heels!
dearest Backers...
I apologize for the radio silence these past few days...many of you know that I just bought a house in Bethlehem, with my partner, Libby. Very exciting days these are! (today is actually moving day!!!) All kinds of cultivating going on...
The new house is beautiful, vegetable gardens and perennial beds, a fire pit, a babbling brook, nestled in the woods yet in the heart of town...and, most exciting of all...our new home has a dance studio! Truly, a dream come true. A place to nest, put down some roots and a home base to gather the tribe! I look forward to the pleasure of your company there one day soon.
For now, the pressure is on to meet our Kickstarter goal. 4 days left and just over $4000 to go. My gratitude to each of you is deep. I am so moved by your generosity. I'm especially touched by those of you who have kept a close watch on our progress and gone back to raise your pledge. That is the kind of commitment and support that will make all things possible! Thank you!!!
I believe so much in Cultivate, and what it means, not just to my community here in Northern New Hampshire, but to all the small, growing, dedicated art communities out there, gaining their momentum, nourishing the wide circles of all those who benefit from them.
If you can take a moment today, and reach out to someone you know, someone in your own community who knows how important these kinds of grass root actions and endeavors are. Ask them to join you in your support of Cultivate by matching your pledge. Send them the link to our Kickstarter page, let them know how grateful we all would be if they make their pledge today! I know we can pull this off!!!
And when we do, we can high five each other and say,
" I feel happy of myself!!"
lots of love and thanks to all of you!
xo, Katherine
154
Backers
$7,184
pledged of $7,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on August 14, 2011.
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Thanks for connecting to Cultivate! Keep connected with updates!
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Get a shout out in the program! Plus, I'll send you a one of a kind, hand-stamped patch from my "To-Do List" series
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Thanks for helping! I'll send you the above, plus a ticket to opening night!
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Cool...this really helps me get things done. I'll send you the above, two tickets to the Cultivate performance of your choice, and a color copy of the poster, featuring all 20 artists of Cultivate.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Hey. Thank you...honestly. This is so generous of you, and means so much to all of us that are working hard to make Cultivate happen. To show my thanks, I'm going to send you the above, plus one of my original one of a kind "word|bird" mixed media collages on wood, 4"x4".
Pledge $250 or more Pledge $250 or more
Holy cow. I am so grateful. You are making a huge difference here. I'm gonna send you all of the above, plus one of my original Art Hoodie Collage Sweatshirts, in your size, made just for you. When you wear it you will know you helped make magic happen.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
You inspire me. No, really...you do. To prove it, I am going to make a dance for/about you/because of you. And I'll perform it as part of Cultivate, after telling the audience, from stage, how none of this would be happening without your generous support. And I will video it and send it to you. And then you will know how very much you mean to me.
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Now you've gone and done it. You know...to show my deep gratitude, I am going to make you a one of a kind improvisationally designed and pieced art quilt. It will take me a few months to make, but it will be worth the wait. You'll be part of the design process, and I can even incorporate some fabrics that are special to you. Because you are special to me. Thank you...
Project By
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Katherine Ferrier is an independent dance artist/educator, poet, visual artist and curator who has been improvising and making dances since the late 80s. She earned her B.A. in Dance and Women's Studies from Middlebury College, and M.F.A. in Dance and Performance from Sarah Lawrence College. A co-founder of The Architects, an improvisational quartet with a collaborative performance history spanning nearly 20 years, she is also the founder and Artistic Director of Immediate Theatre, an ensemble of movers, musicians, video and visual artists, lighting and set designers, collaborating together to create spontaneous dance theater works. An improviser at heart, Katherine delights in composing in the moment, be it with fabric, found objects, words or bodies in motion, and her various forms of creative research continue to inform and provoke each other, becoming quantum partners in a life-long practice of paying attention. She teaches and performs regularly throughout the US and abroad, and curates and directs Cultivate, a festival created to nourish a growing community of contemporary dance-makers and dance supporters in Northern New Hampshire. Katherine's writing about dance has been published in Contact Quarterly and Kinebago and occasional observations on teaching, dance-making and collaboration show up on www.reportsfromthefield.wordpress.com.
Congratulations Katherine. and thank you for the poem.... only you would think of that. I need some grass and grasshoppers now, but the rain is pouring down-- which is sweet in its own way.
Hopefully I can clear a space in my schedule next year for Cultivate, as I surely do need some cultivation!!!!