Embracing a New Portal

Kim and Juana explore the movement possibilities of the new loom.

Chip Morris crafts Mobile for Stage

In his studio, Chip Morris crafts a mobile from traditional machetes to serve as prop for our performance area.

Traditional Loom transformed for Stage

Susan Prins and Lucy design a special loom to serve as a stage prop. It was an incredible experience to witness a traditional artisan's openness to contemporary art making. Though Lucy had never built a loom of the size and with the materials we recommended, she was willing and open to creating it for us.

movement, mobiles and more

Life is full and we are full of life here in Mexico. We just got back from some creative time in the space that we´ve been working in. Chip Morris, the anthropologist, linguist, artist, that we´ve been staying with and collaborating with was able to create large scale mobiles out of all natural materials for us to move with. We´ve also had a large scale backstrap loom made for us by Lucy, the woman from Tenejapa who has been our weaving teacher. It has been such a pleasure to have time to explore, experiment and create in such a rich environment. The colors, sounds, passions and richness of life here leave me in awe.

arrival

succesfully stuffed everything into one backpack boarded plane saturday. stop over in Houston enough time to drink questionable espresso.
Boarded the slim avion to Villermosa warm tropical smiles and air enthusiastic mosquitos. We meet Susan and other chiapas pals. Decide to forgo the late night windy, twisty rollercoaster ride that would bring us to San Cristobal by 2 or 3am and choose to take advantage of the rockstar treatment and go to Palenque to sleep in the jungle listening to Howler monkeys in the distance and drunk partying american tourists nearby.

Some images from last January

Photos from the first trip to Chiapas are:
The dancers and their guide in the rainforest. Composer Terrance learning to weave. The ruins at Palenque, and Lucy, the dancers' weaving instructor at work (yes, all those patterns on her shirt are made by hand!)

CORE dancers' travel diary

Welcome! to the diary of dancers from CORE Performance Company (CPC) as they travel and work in Chiapas, Mexico as part of the creation of a multi-media dance/performance piece.
CPC is a professional contemporary dance company which performs nationally and internationally from its home cities of Atlanta and Houston, dance pieces created through an intentional collaborative method that deepens the experience of performance through vibrant synergies.

The 6 dancers: Kim, Kate, Blake, Patton, Juana and Jhon, and the artistic director, Sue, will be keeping a journal of their travels and work in Chiapas, Mexico as they continue a cultural immersion begun in Jan. 05. They're going on the trip to continue to their work with choreographer, Susan Prins, and to explore the Mayan people's weaving practices which are informing the creation of a new multi-media work by the company, Corazon Abierto/Heart Open.

So on this site you'll get to see what a "cultural immersion" means to performing artists creating work. This will be a sort of collective blog, but the people posting will identify themselves so please feel free to direct questions to any one or all of them.