Anniversary Gift

Speaking of Adam Kozie, who is my boyfriend...
He isn't moved by dance. Those are his own words.
What is it about dance that befuddles people? Is there another art form that gets this kind of black listing? Are there people out there who don't like music, or movies, or photographs? Miguel Gutierrez talks about a Perceptual Intelligence. He asserts that we can train our audience to have a perceptual intelligence in part by assuming that they already have one. By not dumbing down the work so that everyone feels that they "get it" we can create an opportunity for people to actually engage with the work and to cultivate a new sensibility. At least that is what I took him to mean. After spending some time around him I feel quite certain that he would let me know in a heartbeat if, in fact, that was not what he meant.  I think another hefty factor is that a lot of folks only get exposed to shitty fucking dance.
For the most part I feel fine about the smaller artistic community around dance. I like that it is a special club and that we dancers and dance lovers generally relate to the world in similar ways. But Adam Kozie is my long time boyfriend and his not being moved by dance puts a bee in my fucking bonnet. This dance making thing is an essential part of my genetic make up. I am who I am because and in spite of it. It is the reason I'm on the planet and I now know first hand how devastating it is to remove it from me.  How can my love not be moved by the thing I love, and in fact, am? Is there any planet on which this is acceptable? As you can see I've got a lot of questions.
A couple years ago on our first anniversary, I made Adam an anniversary dance called Big Year. I had two goals: to make a dance with an old shitty point and shoot digital camera and to move him, you know, with dance. Our first anniversary was this cruddy time in our relationship. It had a real Are we gonna do this, or not? kind of feeling and I felt it really strongly while making the dance. I cried over and over again while editing. I had hoped that the directness of it would help the "moved" bit along. This is just from me to you.
I don't think that I was successful in moving Adam, but I am curious about what came out of it. I did things I might not let myself do for public consumption and I like that. Most profoundly it is a marker in time for me. Yes, that is just the way it was. Phew, it is not that way anymore.



Adam is also an incredible drummer (INCREDIBLE), who you can check out here with a project called X-Ray Press http://www.xraypress.net/, though I think you'll dig 'em a whole lot more if you go here http://www.myspace.com/xraypress and play the song Chord & Mumble.

Ps-
Adam did really enjoy Diana Szeinblum's Alaska (which is fucking incredible) and had more to say about it on our way out of the theater than I did. And I love to talk shop more than anything!
You can pay On The Boards five bucks and stream it here http://www.ontheboards.tv/alaska BUT I tried it and had to wait for it to load every minute or so even after trying it on windows which Adam says is better with those things. Fair Warning.