You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
Here are two other blogs of the Wroclaw experience:
Steven Leigh Morris on the LA Weekly
John Freedman on the Moscow Times
Rachel and I are working on a couple of projects for the continuation of this space, including a mailing list and an interview questionnaire to ask all the participants each year. As soon as we have those activated, I’ll put more information here.
I hope everyone made it back home OK!
- Dara
B and I spent the afternoon at Cathedral Island and the Botanical Garden, and got caught in a rainstorm on the way back. Our jeans are still drying.
Richard Schechner and Krystian Lupa spoke yesterday, but I didn’t see either one of them – some of us made pilgrimages to hear them speak, and also viewed 3 of Schechner’s films at Lalek. Instead, we had Greek food at Akropolis on the Square.
In the evening, we made a brief stop at the Festival Club, for some goodbyes. It was short. The place felt empty without the crowds of US Artists.
Pina Bausch’s entire company was there, sitting in a somber circle in the front room, reflecting on her recent death – B and I only heard the news of this when we got to the Club in the evening. B told me how she was glad we’d been able to see NEFES while Bausch was still alive – reflecting on the piece as the work of a living master.
Those of us who saw the Bausch piece yesterday, instead of two days ago, said that the performance was especially emotional, and the dancers wept at the end. Her death was sudden – we had heard that she was in the hospital, but not that her condition was that serious. Rest in peace, Pina. She is someone who can’t be replaced in our world. We were quiet last night, remembering her.
We are packed. B and K leave in a few hours, and I leave tomorrow morning.
We met in the morning for the US Artists Initiative closing session. Only about 25 of us remain, of a group that once numbered 60 with core participants, guests, and senior leaders. We went around and discussed what we would take away from the experience. Staying in touch and maintaining the community we have built was everyone’s first priority.
I said that I didn’t want the blog to die, and intended to check back in with all participants yearly with a short questionnaire – sort of a ripoff of this Atlantic-reported Harvard psych study. If this works, over the years, we’ll have an accumulated database of people’s responses to these questions over time. We can see what the long-term impact is of this project. I’ll be posting the answers to the Q’s on the blog each June. So this won’t be a daily active blog, but rather a growing archive. We’re also going to maintain an email list.
Some of these questions might be:
- What are you working on right now?
- What is a project you’d like to complete within the next 5 years?
- What, if anything, from the US Artists Initiative experience is meaningful to you right now?
M and M and others are going to help me think of good questions that will hold up over time. I think we should do an initial questionnaire now / this July, and then not do the next one till next June.
If response is good, I’ll also put more detail on our Bios page, and links to our companies / photos. It’d be nice to have this site be a more complete picture of us and our work.
