This is the first project I created with Mount Holyoke College students. The central compositional premise is a layering process I call “meanwhiling.” The stage picture is dense, rarely comprising just one image or relationship. The project was devised in close collaboration with twelve undergraduates from the Five Colleges, and came out of a semester of research that included “mad-lib” Mary Oliver poems, stories of maternal legacy, reflections on desire and longing, and the relationships being built in the studio in real time. The candy necklace worn by the dancers is a playful and nostalgic reference to the work’s title– an “heirloom” that can be easily (and simultaneously) destroyed and enjoyed.
The short process video below was created by my student assistant, Izzy Thompson-Pomeroy, for her independent study on dance and the moving image
