“I Am”, electronic, acrylic, 2024 (Inspired by singer/songwriter Katie Hemming)

Artist Statement

I am inspired when a dancer exudes authenticity in gesture and flow, which I try to capture on paper. I pick up a pencil when I cannot dance myself, or when words are not sufficient.

Dance improvisation, with its unprepared gestures and subtle shifts, fascinates me. These moments of authenticity are what I strive to depict. It’s not the fancy turns, tricks, or jumps, but an individual’s vulnerability exposed in movement that I find alluring – postures within poses, unscripted.

“Impact”, charcoal, graphite, 2024 (Inspired by choreographer Rosie Trump’s dance company With or Without Dance, featuring dancers Melissa Ennis and Heather Rodriguez).

My process is unpredictable and continuously evolving. I mainly use charcoal, graphite, and acrylic, but I also explore electronic paintings and enjoy painting on various objects.

I often draw people I know, capturing their essence in raw moments as a way to stay connected to them. Usually they have affected me deeply. I hope to inspire others to keep moving, as even the smallest movements are sacred.

“Birds”, Charcoal and Graphite, 2024 (Inspired by “Murmuration” choreographed by Corinne Undercoffer and Melissa Ennis, Reno Dance Fest 2024)

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Erica Wilson explores the meaning and need for movement through improvisation, video, music, photography, writing, and drawing. She started Mövgram Dance in Reno, NV, which led to the creation of the annual Reno Dance Festival. Erica is a certified NCPC Pilates instructor, has attended Cornish College in Seattle, and is continuing her education in movement therapy and kinesiology.  She recently taught movement in Germany but is now living in Albuquerque, NM, and is working on her books, Not Words and Keep Moving; A Book on Space. Erica’s creations can be found on Instagram @erica_movgram, on YouTube as Movgram Dance: Not Words, and on Facebook as Mövgram Dance. 

“Ozora”, electronic Airbrush, 2024, (Inspired by Choreographer Rosie Trump’s dance Company With or Without Dance, featuring dancer Ozora Cheek.)

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Move in Joy and Power, 9×12, mixed media on paper, 2022

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Artist Statement

In addition to art-making in the two dimensional drawing and painting format, dance has always been a huge passion and creative outlet for me since a very young age. Appreciating and experiencing nature has always been a source of healing and expression for me as well. Although these passions are cornerstones of who I am and I’m sure dance and experiences I’ve had in nature have informed my artistic practice on a subconscious level, consciously combining them in my artistic practice is a recent development inspired by my experiences and my fellow dancers’ experiences dancing in outdoor settings. In 2020, my dance class started dancing outdoors in different locations throughout the Capital Region of New York State to continue to dance safely as a group and we have been doing this ever since. At first it was a challenge but after some time we have learned to embrace it and it has had a profound effect on me and my artistic practice.

I utilize mixed media and print-making techniques to create a visual space where dance, creative movement, nature, and art-making intersect to evoke the feeling of moving as one with the elements of the outdoors. The imagery depicted is inspired by photographic references, video references, and recounted memories of adventures exploring movement in outdoor settings.

Dance Memories, 9×12, mixed media on paper, 2022

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Rebecca Zeh is an interdisciplinary artist who grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY. In 2012, she received her BFA with a concentration in drawing from Pratt Institute. She has had a passion for the arts and art-making her whole life and has exhibited her work in several art galleries and businesses throughout New York State, including The Art Center of the Capital Region, Saratoga Arts, LARAC, Albany Center Gallery, The Hallway Gallery at Second Street Studios, 344 Storefront, The Blooming Artist Gallery, Spring Street Gallery, Paul Nigra Center for Creative Arts, North Country Arts Council, among others. Her work has been published in Barzakh Magazine and The Crit Zine by Symmetry Art Space and she has been featured in The Daily Gazette and 518 Profiles Magazine. In 2023 she was the recipient of an Honorary Mention Award at the Annual Expressions Juried Art Show at North Country Arts Council in Glens Falls, NY.

In addition to supporting her own artistic practice, she is passionate about curating and installing art exhibitions and helping to facilitate exhibition opportunities for other artists in her area. She is currently working at Arlene’s Artist Materials/The R Gallery as an Assistant Curator, Custom Framing Specialist, and Sales Associate in Albany, NY.

Rebecca is also a lifelong dancer. She has been taking improvisational dance classes with the same dance teacher, Lili Loveday, since she was six years old and continues to dance to this day. Her unique experiences dancing outdoors with her dance class strongly inform her artistic practice and she strives to share these experiences with others through her mixed media drawings.

She loves to travel with her husband, and visits art museums and galleries as much as possible! Her home, which is also her studio, is located in Ballston Lake, NY.

Shadow Play II, 6×11, mixed media on paper, 2022

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It feels wrong to dance

when there are people out there

who prioritize weapons over the welfare

of their children,

Who choke on power and greed

while the rest of us struggle to breathe.

It feels wrong to dance

on the graves of the thousands of people

who die daily

from war,

from hate,

from fear gone viral.

It feels wrong to dance

when respect for ourselves,

our neighbors,

our country

has been reduced to a sad, tattered rag

flapping in the wind.

It feels wrong to dance

on the surface of a planet

that has done everything it can

to support and nurture us,

and that we have only deceived and decimated.

Who are we to dance?

When so many can’t walk

or run

or sleep

without being targeted.

Who are we to dance?

When so many can’t safely leave their homes,

and so many others don’t have homes to leave.

Who are we to feel the joy that comes

when movement meets music

and creates magic?

It feels so wrong to dance,

to float across the floor to a beautiful melody

when there is so much chaos, darkness

and ugliness in the world.

Maybe that’s the point.

Maybe dance is the antidote to this poison,

a light in the darkness.

When you dance, you can’t scream hateful rhetoric.

You can’t throw rocks or blame.

You can’t break windows or bones.

Your anger is channeled

and transformed into calm.

When we’re calm, we can hear each other.

When we’re calm, we can help each other.

So even though it feels wrong to dance,

perhaps we must.

Perhaps we must dance

because we need its magic.

The magic that happens when chaotic emotion is transformed

into powerful rhythm.

Perhaps we must dance

to reintroduce balance, flow,

beauty and peace

back into the world.

Perhaps we must dance to save ourselves

and to save each other.

So dance, my dear dancers,

but do it with purpose.

Dance here, now, so your light can shine.

Dance to listen.

Dance to understand.

Dance to empower and inspire good in this world.

Dance with trust, reason, and compassion.

Dance for others

and dance for yourself.

Remember:

We are the music makers,

    And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

    And sitting by desolate streams; —

World-losers and world-forsakers,

    On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

    Of the world for ever, it seems.

-Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy

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Katie Flashner, a.k.a. The Girl with the Tree Tattoo, is a published author, blogger, and dancer based in mid-coast Maine. She loves exploring her creativity through nature, movement, and the written word, and revels in living in a place where there are more trees than people. You can catch her wandering through the woods on Instagram at @thegirlwiththetreetattoo.

Sarah Groth is an interdisciplinary performer, choreographer, teacher, poet, and mixed medium visual artist. After achieving a degree in Contemporary Dance and Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico, Sarah set out as an independent artist and traveler. She has had the privilege of moving, creating, and performing with renowned international artists across the world. Sarah has been published in the Albuquerque Journal, Blue Mesa Review, Daily Lobo, Stance on Dance, and Forty South. Sarah is committed to addressing the complexities of humanness in conjunction with self and community — aiming to bring the intensely intimate forward, creating openness within juxtaposition and identity.

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It happened laying on my back

Under an aggression of stars

A realization

That I can be inspired and awestruck by the sky

Because I lay on the earth

And my earthy body gives me everything I need

To localize to a point

That can perceive

In the way that earth matter holds me

I can be wrecked divine

By what the stars can show me

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Tracy Broyles is an embodiment facilitator, dancer, energy worker, writer, artist, and storyteller. Tracy is invested in creating experiences that allow people to engage with her life-long research into how the unseen worlds of the psyche, emotions, energies, and ancestors braid into our tangible physical reality.  She has been based in the Pacific Northwest for more than 20 years. To contact her or learn more about her work visit tracybroyles.com.

Sarah Groth is an interdisciplinary performer, choreographer, teacher, poet, and mixed medium visual artist. After achieving a degree in Contemporary Dance and Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico, Sarah set out as an independent artist and traveler. She has had the privilege of moving, creating, and performing with renowned international artists across the world. Sarah has been published in the Albuquerque Journal, Blue Mesa Review, Daily Lobo, Stance on Dance, and Forty South. Sarah is committed to addressing the complexities of humanness in conjunction with self and community — aiming to bring the intensely intimate forward, creating openness within juxtaposition and identity.

The post EARTH BODY SKY MIND appeared first on Stance on Dance.

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Liz Brent-Maldonado is a multi-disciplinary creator of art, writing, and holistic educational experiences. Originally from Colorado, she attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and lived in Kyoto, Japan before moving to San Francisco in 2009. Liz loves design, research, travel, colors, and coffee. Whether curriculum or comics, her favorite projects feature magical realism and the everyday infused with otherworldly or surreal elements. For more: www.sparkle.vision.

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“Betty Ann’s Hula” (2014), Oil on canvas, 16″ x 12″

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“Doorways, Frigiliana” (2013), Oil on canvas, 30″ x 40″

This painting pictures a moment of choreographic process from the making of a dance film in the village of Frigiliana, Spain.

Dancers left to right: Amy Quanbeck, Madeline Seers, Rebecca Levy

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“Maya” (2008), Oil on canvas, 24″ x 11″

Picturing Maya Guice

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Julia Allisson Cost was born and raised in upcountry Maui, Hawai’i by a family of many artists. She is passionate about making anything by hand, in particular: capturing the world on canvas through painting, transforming her paintings into textile designs, and the physical and emotive experience of dance and choreography. She earned a double BA in Studio Art and Dance from Scripps College and a MFA in Dance from University of California, Irvine. She is a painter, textile designer, sewist, dancer, and maker of all kinds. See her work at juliacost.com.

The post Capturing the World on Canvas appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Editor’s note: The following illustrations and poetry were created by Sarah Groth for the fall 2022/winter 2023 print publication of Stance on Dance. Sarah’s only direction was to create something related to dance and movement. Enjoy!

Touched.

It sinks.

Deeper.

Everything inside.

Swirling. Holding. Pushing.

Opened.

The pieces are floating.

Blown into expansiveness.

Freeing.

The body emerges.

Gifted.

Beyond the bounds.

Ebbing in stillness.

Connections held.

The movement of becoming.

Sarah Groth (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working within the realms of dance, choreography, and mixed medium visual art. Sarah graduated with a BA in Contemporary Dance and Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico. She was a 2022 UETF (Urban Enhancement Trust Fund) Resiliency Residency awardee, working on an interdisciplinary piece, bodies. Sarah has been published in the Albuquerque Journal, Blue Mesa Review, and Daily Lobo. Currently traveling and working internationally, she is addressing the complexities of the body — aiming to bring the intensely intimate forward to invoke the heartbreakingly beautiful heterogeneity of being human.

The post The Movement of Becoming appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Editor’s note: The following illustrations were created by Camille Taft for the spring/summer 2022 print publication of Stance on Dance. Camille’s only direction was to create something related to dance and movement. Enjoy!

i found you swollen and scraped, scattered in pieces

Mixed media, pen and graphite on paper, and digital editing

Bodies are messy, grimy, grotesque, tuned, complex, specific, and unruly. Often, our relationship to our own is much the same. That relationship is informed by intersections of gender, disability, race, positionality, and perception, among much else. I created this piece with the idea that we often meet each other as an accumulation of layered gestures and symbols. I think one type of love is to meet each other with honor towards the uncertain, scattered pieces of ourselves.

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Here Again, Again

Graphite on paper

I drew this during a practice with a few others where we stayed in the same house but stayed wholly silent for two days. I was struck by how unfamiliar it felt to make decisions uninfluenced by obligation, routine, or internal pressure. The two days in themselves were a luxury to be sure; they compelled me to investigate what draws me to do anything: to speak, to doodle, to dance, to love, to act. I hope to be compelled from a rooted place, continuously met anew.

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A Thickness in My Sternum

Watercolor on paper

Once a day, usually in the morning, my sternum pops. It feels like this.

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Camille Taft, a Colorado front range-based mover and visual artist, is obsessed with texture, noise, and motion. Their training spans from the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and Gibney Dance Center in New York to various projects with Colorado-based artists, not least of which being dancing, planting seeds, and drawing with their housemates. Their primary dreams consist of communal dance and somatic practices informed by disability justice, liberation, and the earth. Follow them on Instagram @si.l.t.

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Liz Brent-Maldonado is the illustrator for the Discussing Disability in Dance Book Project. She is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in San Francisco, CA. Here, she discusses how she went about creating a color template and style for the project, how she researched each dancer to find the image that would inspire her illustration, and how she balanced the aesthetics of portraying disability.

Image description: Pictured is a rough sketch of a person in a wheelchair with one arm reaching toward the ground and another arm reaching above. Notes and other ambiguous sketches fill the page.

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How I Got Involved

The short story of how I got involved in the Discussing Disability in Dance Book Project is that Emmaly Wiederholt is one of those people who I trust completely when it comes to artistic and editorial vision. (And life in general.) When she asks me to be a part of a collaboration I say YES.

Emmaly and I became friends after meeting each other in the Bay Area performing arts community when I was working at ODC Dance in San Francisco. Waaaay back in ye olde 2014, we collaborated on the “Men Who Dance” interview and art project, which I spearheaded and illustrated, and which she edited and published online. Since then, we’ve collaborated on several projects for Stance on Dance. I’ve watched Emmaly build an incredible platform with Stance on Dance for content that I’ve not seen anywhere else.

Maybe most importantly, the mission of the Discussing Disability in Dance Book Project reverberates with me, as I believe strongly in elevating diverse artistic experiences. If I can support an effort to do that in any way, I will.

Finding My Process

In terms of my process illustrating the project, “time-consuming” is definitely a phrase that comes to mind! Back in 2018 when I started illustrating this project, I assumed we would be finished in six months or so. Well, it’s 2021, kids! Like most (every) project I’ve undertaken, it has required more time and energy than I ever expected. I was excited about it because it had a solid mission at its heart, seemed like a chance for me to grow artistically, and I could create pieces for an illustration portfolio.

The first part of this project was deciding on a style and a palette. I was nervous about my style changing over time as I drew these illustrations as well as staying consistent in the overall look. I created a set of possible approaches, which helped us discuss and narrow down a color palette and style to tie together the project. My style has evolved during this project, but because early on we chose a look, it has helped contain some of the natural evolution.

The colors of red, blue, and gray were essential to keeping consistency. I also committed to a certain level of realism because I didn’t want to hide any aspect of disability or to use any abstract qualities to promote a sense of energy only and lose the physicality inherent to dance. In general, I use gray for clothing to put more emphasis on the form of the body overall, and less on costume or fashion. I use red for a feeling of physical energy, and blue for tools or technology.

Image description: Pictured are color swatches of different reds, blues, and grays.

In terms of the process for each illustration, I read the interview and jot down any quotes that stand out to me that I think should be featured or integrated somehow. Then I do rough sketches and start planning the final image. Each artist interviewed provides images of themself they wanted us to use for reference or as part of our social media, but I also rely heavily on my own research online. Sometimes, I reference performance video footage or the artists’ websites and social media. I can never predict which image will be the one that leads to the final illustration. It usually just “feels right.”

*Art Nerd Alert* – Heavy on the Process Details Here

For these illustrations, I sketch in pencil on what’s called “marker rag” paper. I like this paper because it is semi-transparent and allows markers and the layers you can create with markers to shine or even glow a bit, rather than look flat or bleed out. One of the scariest steps in my process is erasing the pencil sketch lines and going in with markers. I’ve moved away from solid black lines for edges; I like a softer edge, so a combination of pencil and marker is where I’ve landed. But it seems scary if you were to observe my process because it looks like I’m completely erasing a finished sketch!

I use Prismacolor markers primarily, but I also started experimenting with Touchnew markers in 2020 because I like their range of skin tones better. I always double-check the marker color on a scrap piece of paper before applying it to the illustration.

When finished with the marker work, I step back or even walk away from the illustration for a couple of hours. Then I come back to see if any adjustments, additions, or corrections are needed. I may go back in with pencil if I want a little more definition in places.

The early illustrations included ink I applied with calligraphy pens for the featured interview quote, the name of the artist, and my signature. I moved away from this in 2020 and started using regular pigment pens for anything in black. This shift occurred because liquid ink in calligraphy nibs can be challenging to control and I had ink splatter ruin a finished illustration!

When finished, I scan the illustration and do color adjusting in Photoshop for saturation and contrast so the colors pop on a screen. I also adjust the size for website scale.

Final, Final Steps aka Feedback

One of the hardest things about this project has been feedback from the dancers and choreographers I am drawing. Clearly, if you want to do illustration work, you are more often than not collaborating with others (the writers, editors, etc.), so a thick skin and willingness to make changes is required. Luckily, I had editors who were my bridge and communicators of all feedback from the interviewees. This helped a lot as they could make requests diplomatically as needed.

Image description: In this sketch, a dancer is drawn from the side with both hands pressed against each other and raised above their face.

To be clear, most of the artists we interviewed love my illustrations and had no feedback! Or, they just wanted to add or adjust minor details. But a few artists had very specific feedback that meant I had to start over and create the illustration anew. And not being a digital artist, this was very time-consuming! (That phrase again…) But the time investment has been worth it to be respectful of my fellow artists. And, over the course of the project, it has led to a better understanding of my own limits and boundaries as a visual artist.

On the flip side, I did sometimes wish I had more interaction with the artists we were interviewing. I had only one in-depth conversation with an interviewee because I had a question about a photo he had submitted for me to use as a reference. It was such a lovely conversation and it helped me so much.

Balancing Acts

The whole project has been a tricky balance of overlapping art forms. Dance, photography, video, written word, and visual art are all stand-alone forms in their own right. I didn’t want the illustrations to look too much like copies of photography, even though I was often going for accuracy to the point where a few of the illustrations are very close to the reference photos of the dancer. At times I did feel the need to cite or reference photographers or other artists if the image was very close. But maybe I should have been more consistent and done this every time. I’m not sure. Capturing movement and the energy of dance in a static form is very tough. How is an illustration different than a photo? What energy is captured in a way that a photographer or videographer does or doesn’t capture? These are questions I am still grappling with.

I am also very grateful that prior to starting this project, back in 2015, I took a figure drawing course by San Francisco-based teacher and artist Michael Markowitz (of 23rd Street Studio). One of the big takeaways from that learning experience was how to see what is in front of me as I draw, to focus more on capturing what is actually there, and to be aware of a tendency towards overcorrecting for aesthetic bias.

This approach has served me well when drawing the human body because no human body is “perfect.” I wanted to be both sensitive and accurate when creating these illustrative portraits, and bias shows up in odd ways. For example, sometimes my drawing would be off in terms of body proportions because as I was drawing, my hand was “normalizing” body proportions without even realizing it. Also, I don’t think of myself as a very technically-inclined artist, and drawing things like wheelchairs requires a level of attention-to-detail that challenges me but I also find myself enjoying.

How has this project changed my perspective on disability and artistic journeys?

Looking back over the past couple of years, I do think my comfort and confidence with these artistic balancing acts have improved. This journey has also convinced me to finally start trying out digital art creation for the sake of saving time when it comes to making edits in the future (we’ll see if that proves to be true!).

This artistic journey has also led me to reflect and write more about my own career in dance, my body issues, and my experience living with a rare neurological disorder (Visual Snow Syndrome) in new ways. I am trying to acknowledge my own challenges in a way that’s kinder to myself but also authentic. And it’s no surprise that I’ve grown in these directions as awareness, acknowledgement, and authenticity are at the core of this project.

Pictured: Liz Brent-Maldonado, Photo by Shane Brent-Maldonado

Image description: Liz is pictured from the chest up smiling. She is wearing a zipped up hoodie and her hair is short with a curl to one side. A flower bush is blurry behind her.

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To learn more, visit stanceondance.com/discussing-disability-in-dance.

To learn more about Liz’s work, visit her Patreon at www.patreon.com/sparklevision.

The post On Illustrating the Discussing Disability in Dance Book Project appeared first on Stance on Dance.

BY EUGENE WILLIAMS; ILLUSTRATION BY CAMILLE TAFT

There were angels and dragons in the sunset

Lightning bugs rose in waves over the beans and corn

From the woods, the screech owl called

telling us your journey was smooth

Under the full moon the Corn Maiden danced

Eugene Williams was a wonderful dancer, steadfast disability rights advocate, enthusiastic friend and exceptional human who suddenly passed away in March 2017. He wrote this poem after visiting Zuni, Hopi and Navajo lands. He described seeing the Corn Maiden: “Her face was the full moon atop the tassels of eight-foot high corn stalks.” This interview was conducted with him shortly before his untimely death. He is much missed.

Camille Taft is an 18-year-old dancer living in Longmont, CO, who has trained throughout her life in primarily ballet and modern dance. With both her parents as visual artists, she has always appreciated the excitement that comes from a collaboration of mixed media, and was thus overjoyed to have the opportunity to work with Stance on Dance.

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