Today is the last day of this work. GRIEF ENCOUNTERS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When i began on Monday i didn\u2019t know much of what would happen. If it would fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If people would come and if anything of any significance would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last night i was visited in my dreams by some of the people i have met this week through this work. In some way i realise as a dancer i am always working with traces of things, the echo as it returns, the memory of what has moved, and how in some way things still move in long after the encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday i sat with two men both had to leave their own countries.Both leaving families behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We held stones and together began building a wall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What looked like foundations of a house, one he had drawn 10 minutes earlier with his wife and child outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slowly he takes out his wallet and places two pictures in between the stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His wife and his daughter. We build a house and it needs a roof. So we find paper and make one. We both gently place the roof on the stones. he places 3 pictures inside of his family and himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told me their names and then begins to imagine a life together again, and i began moving and he spoke into the dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dance itself became a dance of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A hope dance..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a kind of leaning headfirst into the imagination of the possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stays for a while then we have a handshake. One of those handshakes that also leaves a trace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been changed by his presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I realise this process is a practice of sharing losses, and of listening, but also hidden somewhere in there is the practice of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A child runs up to me, we talk for 1 minute and I explain what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He does an impression of me dancing, smiles, and writes on the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I miss god.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he runs away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I dance and he looks back for a glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been changed by his presence too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man talks to me about a sculpture of another artist, an upturned boat made of grave stones. A dedication and reflection of all the people who tried to reach safer lands in little boats who could never carry them safely. This sculpture was just outside the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sit with the stones think about the walls that my house in wales in made of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think about home, and territory, and ‘cynefin’ which is a welsh word for habitat,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and the word Hiraeth in welsh is a longing, a deep one that is built into the bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our longing and our losses are also the foundations, or the rubble thats left of what we love or have loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I heard that this week a lot, the sound of longing. It’s in between the words, in the sighs. In the gestures or the absence of them…. one of the men wrote peace of mind next to a picture of one of the dogs from the children on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s hard not to see how all of this just belongs together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A giant web of mess, destruction, creation and beauty side by side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stones will all go back carefully into the fjord<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and be there long after us all..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carrying the stories….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I may have learnt from these conversations this week that Our losses are a way of navigation perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not in Somber way..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
if the desire for belonging and the feeling of home was a voice singing far far away<\/p>\n\n\n\n
you would have to stand so still<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and close your eyes so you could hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So that you could begin walking in its direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is the last day of this work. GRIEF ENCOUNTERS When i began on Monday i didn\u2019t know much of what would happen. If it would fail. If people would come and if anything of any significance would happen. Last night i was visited in my dreams by some of the people i have met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/caitomos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0657.png?fit=1179%2C2556&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Iu26-iH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitomos.com\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}