Body Tides– A mixed-media performance collaboration featuring the dancers of Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken and the artist Lauren Woods, with original music by Jack Ray.

The moon controls the tides of the Earth, transmits light in the darkness, cycles through phases of death and regeneration, serving as a metaphor for the soul’s journey.

Ancient people believed the moon controlled the rhythms of our bodies. ​If we disconnected from the noise of the every day could we sense these rhythms? What would we do if we could hear them? Would we keep talking, or would we dance?

Our relationship to nature is something to continually contemplate. We are in a time where accepting practices and beliefs of human dominance over the natural world is no longer sustainable. How can we reconnect to the cycles of the natural world and have a greater sense of community among each other? Can this sense of connection also give one greater understanding of the self?

What began as a kinesthetic approach to painting has gradually transformed into an exploration of themes of light, matter, sound, energy, genesis, and destruction. A type of creation myth unfolding in live performance, where the poetic and the ineffable are expressed through dance and altered space.

Body Tides was performed at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101

This video was projected behind the dancers. I created it from original paintings animated with Adobe After Effects.

Body Tides: Suite for Electrified Viola – original music by Jack Ray: lostshoestrings.bandcamp.com/releases

Video Animation: A Moon’s Journey, 2019