8 Voices of Inspiration

These eight voices are a constellation of artists from the past who have made profound contributions to the performative arts.  In our collaboration we have been collectively reading texts written by each of these voices for a six-fold effect:  

1. Listen to the ideas and perspectives embedded in the written word of artists of the past.  
   
2. Allow the action of reading to conjure an imaginative meeting of the past in the present.  
   
3. Acknowledge the dynamic relationship between preservation and disintegration as we look to the past.  
4. Read histories through the meshing of other histories, as a way to open up the possibility of understanding, and potentially find new meaning from seemingly fixed texts.  
5. Find potential confluence and rebellion with the past in the development of a new perspective.   
   
6. Contribute to the lineage of ideas through a visceral knowledge of what has come before.       
   

Bharata Muni

Abhinavagupta 

August Bournonville

Vaslav Nijinsky

Martha Graham

Merce Cunningham

Maya Deren

Pina Bausch

* Photo credit - Tim Summers