This past week, I got to check in with the collaborators for People Are You Ready, the latest project of Oakland based ensemble MoToR/dance. Today we hear from several of the collaborators: Evie Ladin, Valerie Gutwirth, Tammy Chang, Keira Armstrong, Heather Arnett, Dana Gerstein, and Dean Bosche. There are a few seats left for the Davis (Jan 30) and Bolinas (Feb 1) performances; there will be standing room only opportunities in Berkeley the day of (Jan 31, 4pm and 7pm). 
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Five words or phrases to describe People Are You Ready: 

Fun, engaging, evoking, inquisitive, gathering (Heather Arnett)

Stompy, gut hook, reverent, dance theater (Dean Bosche)

Invitation, transmission, protest, emotions of life, surprises (Dana Gerstein)

Please share a bit about the process preparing for the show: 

Heather Arnett: The MoToR/dance virtual gatherings during the pandemic fed my soul. I looked forward to them every week. Not only did they keep me connected to other people in the group but they kept me connected to my own body and voice. Some of the new material for People Are You Ready was mined from Evie’s “MoToR Mondays” Instagram posts. It was fun to go back and review them all and think back to that time of isolation and learning to do connection differently.

How does it feel revisiting works made during the pandemic? 

Valerie Gutwirth: At the time, making those pieces felt like a lifeline to strength, community, sanity, connection to each other and a way to express the rage I felt at the Trump administration’s lack of action and attention to medical science. Bringing them back now – as the nightmare has returned even more horrifically – elicits the same response, and a hope that sharing them will help fuel our resistance. 

About some of the pieces in the set: 

Keira Armstrong: We have a few pieces that braid multiple songs (their rhythms, messages, and music) together. These can be meditations on what is related vs. what complements or enhances. As dancers and singers it requires deep attention to each other to make sure that our disparate parts stay connected. It is an embodied practice in deep listening, precision, and being part of something bigger. I’ve loved weaving “Ella’s Song,” a song about standing up to injustice and fighting for our freedom, with “Sow it on the Mountain,” a reminder to all of us to consider the consequences of our actions.  

Another one of these braided pieces is made of three “Trouble” songs. While the messages of these songs are similar, they illustrate some of the different ways we hold worry, concern, trauma, and difficult experience: in our minds, hearts, or gut. How do we share this burden? How do we work through it? How does it shape us? How are we activated? How are we resilient?

What do you love about body music? 

Valerie Gutwirth: It’s music that transcends genre, geography, and levels of experience. I had conservatory-style music training from ages 5-12; my parents interpreted my gifts with melody and rhythm as musical. Dancing channeled those gifts in a more positive and growth-mindset direction. “Finding” body music through Evie and Keith [Terry], and having the opportunity to channel that as in MoToR/dance, enabled me to integrate my musician and dancer selves. 

Dana Gerstein: I love experiencing the rhythmic syncopation in and on my body in community with the other dancers.  When we are making music with our bodies together, I feel joy in my body.

Who do you hope will attend? The dream of the audience….

Keira Armstrong: I love that we’re performing in new places, to be able to connect with new people and communities. I also love hearing about who in my circle is attending this year: it’s a multi-generational group from many parts of life. We learn new things and get new energy from the audience whenever we perform so PEOPLE are integral to the experience of the show: what is funny, what stirs up emotions, what invites people to join us, what makes us all hold our breath, collectively, for a moment.

Evie Ladin: I know that Body Music is less known to audiences as a genre, but always elicits a very visceral response. The audience feels connected, heartened, emboldened, in ways that traditional cultural practices have created connection through art-making since the dawn of time. With this in mind, this season I wanted to engage the audience even more than we have. We live in such a consumerist culture, I wanted it to be easier for people to engage, to really feel a part of the experience, without thinking too much. 

Why live art, now? 

Tammy Chang: With everything happening in Minneapolis, the freedom to be here in the US, to be able to share our beliefs, to be READY…. These freedoms aren’t guaranteed. The freedom to make art is a liberty that no one should take for granted; in many authoritarian regimes, what we are doing is enough to silence, to imprison. While we are all in the same room together, let’s make art!

Keira Armstrong: The way we consume media and art these days is often very isolated, images, video are very curated. Live art is an opportunity to be in the moment and create something slightly new together, every time we perform. People Are You Ready is a chance to practice raising our voices together, organizing, and showing up for each other in ways that are resolute, disciplined, and joyful.
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Related pieces:
One Good Quote: MoToRING ON
Reflections on “Water in the Kettle” by MoToR/dance – Molly Rose-Williams