THE STOMP, THE WHIRLWIND

Last weekend I flew to Denver. It seems Brigid has mastered the fine art of something or other, and I was lucky enough to see her thesis exhibit, which was also the culmination of a residency at Platte Forum, where she's been living and working for the past two months.

Ross also flew in from Seattle, and Bryce flew in from Indiana. The three of us met at the airport and scurried off to PF to see Brig and help set up the exhibit. Have I mentioned that these two are engaged to be married? Looks like we will be adding another goofball to the family.


There were many elements to Brigid's show, but it all centered around dance and dancers.

My mom was there, too, stitching these paper panels into a sort of thread-drawing quilt.

Projectors were set up here and there, intersecting with each other, shining through this fabric, across this room, on that wall. Some images were of the thread drawings, fading in and out of each other.

Another part of Brigid's project involved a group of middle school girls. The girls learned some dances of various traditions. They danced and filmed and edited their film. They made flip books of the dancers.

We managed to go back to my folks' house to get cleaned up before the opening.




The opening was packed--dancers and their families, Brigid's gazillion friends and teachers, the awesome Platte Forum staff and their volunteers.

One of the highlights of the evening was a perfomance by Brigid and Amanda Bishop, flamenca extraordinaire. Mandy has been dancing for years now, and is entrancing. While she danced, Brig mixed video projections in response. There are some amazing photos of the performance up on the Platte Forum website, but of course a photo doesn't really capture dance and film.




I suppose I've always known that dance is narrative, but I honestly haven't watched many dance performances. The emotional narrative Mandy dances is striking and intense.







There were some unexpected aspects of the work, too. From one end of the gallery, looking through projections and lights and fabric, other viewers became part of the piece. My dad spent along time performing his role as viewer-dancer.


Brigid filmed and interviewed women from different dance traditions: Spanish Flamenco, Mexican Folklorico, West African, Native American, and American Jazz Tap. Their portraits were displayed at the gallery entrance.

The next day Ross and my mom and I went to see a book arts exhibit at the Art Students League. Funny how this "book" looks a bit like a whirling flamenco dancer to me.

And it turned out that Judy, the founder and artistic director of PF, had a book in the exhibit.


There were lots of sculptural books, butt there was a table of books in the more familiar book format. One of my favorites was by Sarah Bryant.






In anticipation of seeing my dear old childhood friend, Kate, and meeting her new baby, and her two step-children for the first time, I enlisted my mom's help for the final touch on Diego's sock monkey. My mom is pretty handy with the chain stitch.



Diego's monkey lounged about, enjoying the sun on his first day of life.

He visited Brigid, back at the forum.

And spied on Ross' homework.

And finally made it home, to his owner, baby Diego.



Leo's Halloween costume was pretty terrifying.





If death removes his mask, do you think his real face might be sweet, like this one?

And then Bryce's band played their final show together. Ross and I had never seen them live, so we felt lucky to get the chance before they disbanded.

Brig sang on a couple of songs, so I got a backstage pass.

I know, you never go to MySpace anymore, but just this once...they're really great.



And then the lights came up and the brooms came out and the letters on the marquee changed and the Bluebird staff kicked us out onto the street. And the sun came up. And there was brunch to be eaten with my folks, and planes to be caught, and one flight to be canceled (Bryce's), and turbulence to bump through, and pages and pages to be read, a paper to be written, groceries to be gotten, cats to be fed...


But word on the street is that Brigid successfully defended her thesis. She is now a Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Media. Embody will be up for another week, I think, and she and Mandy are doing another performance on Friday. You should go.