Found Within a Drop

Photo by Jewell Cormier - "Drop"

One constant I’ve always been able to find within dance is rediscovery. In my movement, I’ve been able to find myself and my values over and over again, even when they feel lost forever. I’m able to relive moments from deep in my childhood and remember sensations that I previously thought worthless.

The choreographic process I have undertaken with SCD has been another opportunity for rediscovery through dance.  

The timing of this whole process has been rather ironic. I was feeling distant from my dancing and now I don’t feel so. Rediscovery.

Much of my life has been absorbed by dance and it’s always been the primary source of my thoughts and where most of my energy has been invested. However, throughout this past fall and current winter my mind has been taken over and I must admit I’ve been distracted. Distracted by expectations. By impulse. By voices from so many places and so many people.

Then, suddenly it was time for me to create a piece for a group of professionals that have raised me through inspiration, and while at any other point in my life I would have been feeling anticipation and energy, all I could feel was sheer disappointment in myself for being so utterly idealess. I knew I wanted to make something meaningful, but my mind was in the wrong place and I kept putting off my research for a concept until none other than the car ride on the way to the first rehearsal.

Until then I was thinking big, a complex story with a puzzling message, but eventually I realized that I wanted to start smaller. Perhaps a simpler idea, drawing from my childhood where one small question or idea could send me imagining for hours, was where I should begin. And in the passenger seat with a notebook on my lap I drew a small circle. It was me! And since this worry of distraction was so prominent in my mind I drew a triangle, a sort of dagger into me. The combined circle and triangle made a teardrop, and just like that I felt replenished. I had a starting point. A simple starting point, but to me it meant the world. I felt back on track. I had rediscovered my path.

Having the privilege of working with such incredible people whose work I find astonishing, made me rediscover the fun and playful aspect of dance. I couldn’t be more grateful for who I got to share my first choreographic experience with.

The creation of Drop is so personal to me because it reminded me of perspective, and also, of my passion. My love of dance is replenished, my dreams are restored, and my standards are remade.

Walking before I’m running...  

- Jewell Cormier