eliseknudson

My movement practice aims at the heart of the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘not-self.’ Perhaps consciousness is nothing more than the dialogue between these two categories of being. If that is the case, then embodied exploration of ones environment and the forces that govern it is one way to study what it is to be conscious, or, less broadly, human. Sources for my practice include Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore, Contact Improvisation, Free Jazz Improvisation, Nikolais and Louis and deconstructionism.

Finding emergent sound/movement/visual vocabulary in collaboration with my environment and the the others who inhabit it is the most radical and hopeful thing I can do. While I can never be free of the tapestry of sociocultural signs that weave through my body, I can pull at the threads to rearrange them and glimpse what lies behind. I can shun trained responses. This practice is useful for questioning deep seated assumptions in a world of deep divisions. My current practice centers around creating the conditions for emergent grammars to arise in diverse environments: urban, interdisciplinary, remote, solitary, digital and populated.

As my skin learns the textures of plants, people, gravity and cement, I am linked to them through somatic knowing.