❃February❃

Dear friends,

What a time it is to be alive with you!

I wish for your joy and peace.
I pray for our resilience and learning.
May we keep holding each other, the earth, and ourselves in a loving embrace.

I am excited to share a recent experience that expanded and challenged my practice ❃

CultureHub LA Residency
In November, I had the opportunity to complete a residency with CultureHub LA for a solo work in process, PHOENIX.

^{PHOENIX is a multimedia dance performance that follows the cyclical life of a mythical firebird reflected in the menstrual cycle of the human womb. Transported by death, the Firebird journeys through the realm of the afterlife/womb/great mystery, an atmosphere of projected film, interactive scenery, sonic revelation, energetic forces, ash, and blood. Building on questions regarding rest, cosmic rhythms, and the divine feminine, the solo dance presents new mythologies about menstruation and offers an embodied ritual that honors menstruating people by exploring the womb beyond its reproductive function.}

The residency was filled with experimentation and conversation. CultureHub provides a space full of technology and time to explore freely. I would dance in a cocoon of projections, walk a few feet over to the computer, play with live visual programming software, explore an idea with a remote collaborator, and then dance again to remember the body. Engaging intensively with technology between dance cycles was a new and revealing experience.

I was fortunate to collaborate with
Lighting and Video Designer - Andrew Garvis
Dramaturg - Camille Litalien
Vocal Director - Yusef Seevers 
and Movement Researcher/Dance Artist - Bib Bauer
while receiving expert guidance and support from the CultureHub LA team, Stacy Dawson-Stearns, and Camille Weins.

I am grateful to have left the residency with more questions than answers. Excitement to keep deepening. This work is rooted in listening to the womb space, slowing down to follow the flow of a cycle. She is revealing herself. Before the community sharing at the end of the residency, Yusef generously reminded me, “YAY! It’s not done”. And so, we continue to research. YAY

Phoenix was developed
within the CultureHub Residency Program

Best wishes,
Cayla Mae