Dan: In relation to you, where am I?

We chatted with Lisa and KatiePearl the other night. Lisa was happy to hear that we’d been on a long winter break from making things. We were excited to hear about her show in Philly and their origami/sky workshops for Milton.

Our grant “time” is almost over. We agreed a year ago that our collaboration would focus on how we might “address the disconnect between our work and the audiences we want.” It was an interesting and exciting topic, an equation that related to proximity and promotion of a non-product product. I was jazzed to eventually know all the answers.

Our shared topic has been a challenging fit for them, in their 18^th year, working on a show across the United States that requires more community than control. In our first summit, I remember Lisa saying something to the effect of, “I know what a PearlDamour show looks like.” She said this as a matter of fact, because she actually does know. And I think it’s this recognition of self that makes our topic so relevant for them.

In contrast, I have no idea what a Haymaker show looks like. When I admit that, I also don’t know who should see our work. Both of those ideas are complete fuzz in my brain.

But our shared topic is interesting for us too. I see it as a mile marker for the future, when we do have more perspective on the basic components of the equation. More importantly for now though, the show we created trying to scale this exceptionally difficult topic forced us to take big steps in the room. In fact, I think what we shared in New Orleans may have been our first, unguarded gesture as a group. Together, we seemed to be reaching out and asking: Do you feel this too?