"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you."
- Octavia Butler 

Mycelial Movement was concieved at the intersection of Adrienne Maree Brown's Emergent Strategies, Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore ciphers, Ukranian folk dance, and, of course-- Mycelium.

I believe that the magic of contact improvisation lies within the relationships, strategies, and curiosities that emerge as we attempt to survive and thrive in the face of constant change. This same magic is ever present within the network of mycelium beneath every forest– a network of hyphee, roots, fungi, mushroom blooms, spores, trees, life, decay, interdependence and transformation that keeps the entire ecosystem in communication, nourishing each other and spreading messages of changes to their ecosystem.  

Throughout this piece, the audience is invited into the dance itself; from creating the container to finding unity in a folk dance, and then engaged in witnessing the improvised ecosystem. As bodies in the space with us, the dancers are invited to be inspired by the audience and I am eager to explore how having bodies of witnesses creating a witnessing container changes the space-- like adding more trees to the forest, they become a part of the ecosystem rather than separate from it. 

In the face of the climate crisis, it is more important than ever that we turn to nature to be our teacher as we navigate change and decay the only way nature ever does– in community.  I