Reflections on Purpose in 2 Parts: Margie Gillis and Lucy Rupert
PART ONE My conversation with the world renowned artist, creator and teacher Margie Gillis (OC CQ) was intended to be about how she brings our art form to a greater audience, by using the inherent values and features of dance in non-dance, non-performative settings. Actually, my work with Margie was supposed to be in person, in a studio, through her intensive retreat but world and personal circumstances have made that impossible for the time being. Either way, we wound up at something more lively, and something ultimately about the how the values and features of our art form can support us in uncertain times. This is about dance, but also about purpose. Rigour and mystery. Opposition and balance. These word pairs can seem at odds with one another. Balance is good, opposition is bad. Rigour is good and must be used to transform mystery. All that may be true, but is only part of the picture. Mystery inspires rigour. The perpetuity of mystery is really what compe...