From Blog Director Jill Randall:

Lately, I have been thinking about dance writing and dance publicity. How do we share/invite/entice/preview a work for our potential audience members? Along with San Francisco Bay Area artists Tanya Chianese and Heather Arnett, we are playing with this idea for the 7 days leading up to their show, Nevertheless, at CounterPulse from April 19-22. This is an incredible collaboration between the ka·nei·see | collective and Cat Call Choir. (Get your tickets here.)

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Photo: Rob Best

Today we hear from five of the collaborating artists in the project.

Can you speak about diving into the content of Nevertheless? What has been your experience over the past few months, or year, making and shaping the work?

Bhumi Patel (Cat Call Choir): It is important to raise the diverse voices of women and the experiences of women in a cultural climate that tells us we are objects, that we are less than, that we should not. The camaraderie and community cultivated in each rehearsal or showing or space sharing has proven over and over again that lighting the candles of women around me does not diminish my own flame. We are in this together. For me, the emotional arc that is created in Nevertheless is incredibly important, because marginalized peoples are often pigeonholed into an emotional landscape (one that is often filled with rage), and it is through this work that we get to experience humor, and joy, and sadness, and hurt, and an endless vast emotional landscape that includes rage, but is not limited by it.

Mallory Markham (ka·nei·see | collective): It’s been incredibly vulnerable to open up and make work about not only my own personal experiences but also speaking on a topic that affects so many women with different backgrounds, stories, and experiences. It has also been an immensely gratifying experience coming together with this group of talented voices and bodies to speak on something that feels critically important.

Chelsea Brown (Cat Call Choir): Diving into the content of Nevertheless has felt so important. The material is relevant, intimidating, satirical, and inspiring. Together, Tanya and Heather covered the wide emotional and political range of the female experience in the United States today. Sometimes rehearsals have felt very challenging and exhausting–singing about gender-based harassment isn't always the most riveting thing, but doing it side-by-side with an ensemble of badass gals makes it fun and therapeutic.

Vera Schwegler (ka·nei·see | collective): Diving into this work has been challenging and rewarding. When they discover what I have been working on, the outpouring of support from people I know, and those that I don’t, has been lovely. That being said, it has been scary to create something so vulnerable that affects so many women and men, myself included. It’s hard to go out into the real world, work, even the grocery store, after going on the emotional roller-coaster of this show.

Heather Arnett (Cat Call Choir): My ongoing experience has been excitement laced with extreme sadness. Sharing a creative process with Tanya and all of the wonderful and talented human beings that occupy ka·nei·see | collective and Cat Call Choir often whisks me away from the reality and tragedy of the material we’re addressing. Inevitably, I feel the weight of it all…sometimes briefly, sometimes not.

Find out more at kaneisee.org. 

Photo: Heather Arnett

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ka·nei·see | collective and Cat Call Choir

Nevertheless

• April 19, 2018 at 8pm
• April 20, 2018 at 8pm
• April 21, 2018 at 8pm
• April 22, 2018 at 5pm

Tickets: $20-$35 (Purchase tickets here.)

CounterPulse

80 Turk Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

​Performers: Heather Arnett, Mika Banks, Blair Bodie, Chelsea Brown, Rosanna Chiu, Clarissa Dyas, Mercilee Jenkins, Mallory Markham, Madeline Matuska, Rebecca Morris, Celine Alwyn Parker, Bhumi Patel, Emma Salmon, Vera Schwegler, Ali Toia

Lighting Designer: Linda Baumgardner

​Costume Designer: Carol Salmon

kaneisee.org

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