AOA Season 5 Ep 4
Molly: Hello and welcome to a podcast about creating experimental art in trauma-informed and sustainable ways that support artists, our communities and the organization as a whole. I'm your host, Molly, and you're listening to Any Other Anythings.
Molly: In this season, we are focused on the latest project being produced by Grey Box Collective. It is titled Positive Ruminations. So this is an event that will feature four new works and each episode of this season of Any Other Anythings will feature conversations from the creative teams developing the new work, and we are really focusing on capturing the process and sharing out the things we find interesting along the way. Hope that you enjoy the season of Any Other Anythings.
Molly: Next, we have a conversation with the PAUSE… ensemble. And so PAUSE… again, is one of our more recent. performances. So perhaps you've seen it or heard us talk about it somewhere in social media. But enjoy this conversation with Jennifer, Jasmin, and Ri.
Molly: So, we just finished up our, like, technically second, but kind of first PAUSE… rehearsal. Could you each take a moment and just introduce yourselves so we can put, like, voices and names together?
Jennifer: I'm Jennifer.
Ri: I'm Ri.
Jasmin: I'm Jasmin.
Molly: Cool, and could one of y'all take a moment to just kind of recap what we do and how things have developed for the performance of PAUSE…?
Jennifer: Thank you. So, the beginning of rehearsal, we played with individual moments, little snippets. of expressions, and then as the rehearsal progressed, we shared and borrowed and flavorized and developed into more of the ensemble expression moments. What do we do? Working on that transitional grief. How individual it is for each of us. And then that sharing and developing amongst as peers and friends.
Ri: And I enjoyed playing with different kinds of fabrics and textures, even if we can't use them. But I liked the creative constraints of having different kinds of things to play with and touch and explore. And then moving into the fabric that's closer to what we'll be working with so that we kind of solidify the idea but it gave us ideational generating space.
Jasmin: The chips and salsa. Just like, how we were talking about in society how like life just keeps going and there's the pressure and then like you have your own little pot of grief.
Jennifer: Where they fit in with each other in the whole moving forward and internalized.
Jasmin: Kind of like a community, like a club.
Molly: Yeah, and I'm going to zoom that out for just a hot second to be like, what is chips and salsa? In the context of this. So we always like name the different like shared vocabulary, but also so it's not like, oh, let's do the thing where, okay, like we have the fabric, but like you're doing the other thing. And then like, it's really confusing. Just say chips and salsa. Especially when we're in a devising space where it's not like, okay, we're going to do spirals for all the 12 counts or, you know, there, it's another way to identify it. So what are some of the things that y'all are thinking about or that came up for you today around, like, the content itself or the form that we're creating within.
Ri: I'm thinking a lot about the transition moments and how to play with the fabric as a metaphor. So thinking about like when the fabric is on my head is this cloud of grief. What happens when it falls off or what happens when I have to pick it back up again and put it back on or when can I release it or like the kind of moments between, oh yay, AC. The moments between, like, the thing that was made. And how that makes, it makes it feel more fluid. Like, especially when we're in this long line. Just like, moving forward. And it feels really awkward to just be like, yeah, and then do the next thing. So, I like that.
Jennifer: I think for me, it reminds me how close to the surface grief can always be, no matter when it's happened in somebody's life. So, even if it's something from a very long time ago, those emotions are still very close to that edge of coming out. Being able to express them in this way. Just kind of therapeutic.
Ri: It was Jennifer's idea to do the fabric because we talked about, like, grief, like, putting like the clothing or how you can wear grief or like what would be kind of a symbol or a metaphor for like putting grief on yourself or over yourself and you came up with this really beautiful metaphor of the fabric and then the way you talked about it just stuck in my mind and I was like, yeah, that thing.
Jennifer: And I think because we had talked about it being transitional I think for me, seeing, when you make something from scratch, buy a big square of fabric. And, it's one thing, but when you turn it into a suit, it's still that square of fabric. It's just now a jacket that you can wear. Or, it's shaped differently, it fits you differently. And just that big square of fabric. It was just kind of a way for us to all kind of go, oh yeah, that's what that is.
Molly: So anything else that you want to like capture from this first rehearsal that feels important?
Ri: I think it's really nice to have a space that has a specific emotion that you can hold and explore and kind of just move through. It's really rare that you get that kind of focused energy to play with something difficult. That's it. That's great.
Jennifer: For me, it's cool to be, excuse me, in the second coming of PAUSE…, just to see how different it is with different individuals, different space, different time in my life for it, and just how it's always reoccurring, and it's always different, but it's the same, and it's not, but it is. All of the above.
Molly: Hey, listener. Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to check out another episode of any other anything's greatly appreciate your presence. Uh, be sure to check out the show notes for links to find out more about this podcast, the speakers and Grey Box Collective. Uh, you can also go to greyboxcollective.com/podcasts for a full transcript of this episode. Thank you again for listening. Thank you again for being here. Greatly appreciate it. Take care of yourselves and each other.
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