Year: 2024-2025
DanceForce Member: Glenna Yu
Artists: BIRDHOUSE
Community Partner: Bushel Collective
Audience: 65
County: Delaware
Pillow Fort Arts Center hosted dance/performance collective BIRDHOUSE for a week-long residency and offered a free movement improvisation workshop on Sunday, June 30th at Bushel Collective, daily open rehearsals throughout the week and a showing on Saturday, July 6th at Pillow Fort Arts Center. Each member of the collective led a different day of the week, including the open rehearsal and creating a short work included in the showing. A videographer was also present throughout the week documenting the process and will produce a long-form film from the footage that may be submitted to film festivals or screened elsewhere in the future.
On the first day of the residency (Sunday, June 30th), BIRDHOUSE director Raven White led a free, open-level movement improvisation workshop at Bushel Collective in Delhi. In this workshop, Raven led the group through an open-ended series of meditational movement improvisations with the core premise that “you are not wrong”. While many of us are taught throughout our lives that our bodies are shameful and we must only move as we are told, Raven cultivates a space in which humans can shed these oppressive structures and move with freedom. Taking place in a relatively rural area, where the community skews older and many face loneliness and isolation, the workshops were a welcome chance for people to gather with each other, move freely and tap into more childlike play.
This first workshop also served as an introduction of BIRDHOUSE to the local community. We were excited to partner with Bushel Collective for this opening event and grateful for their support as their position in the community allowed us to reach a wider audience.
For the rest of the week, community members were invited to join the collective for their morning improvisational session at the dance deck at Pillow Fort Arts Center from 9-11am Monday, July 1st through Friday, July 5th. These extended improvisational sessions are a core part of BIRDHOUSE’s creative practice and how the group begins each rehearsal. The sessions were followed by creative time for BIRDHOUSE. Different members of the collective led each day, giving each artist the opportunity to facilitate a workshop and direct the other members and giving the rest of the collective to learn from each other’s styles and approaches.
The residency culminated in a public showing of what BIRDHOUSE created during their residency, hosted on the outdoor dance deck at PFAC on Saturday, July 6th at 1pm.
We had 65 visitors over the course of the week, including many repeat visitors for the open improvisational sessions so that we were able to build up a shared language and foundation between BIRDHOUSE and the community members for improvisation by the end of the week. Participants ranged in age from 20 to over 60 and included a variety of dance backgrounds (from zero formal dance or movement training to those still dancing and actively creating work).