Fruitful Friction by Eva

On the last day, after Vicky has already returned to NY, Lisa and I decide that the most challenging and therefore fruitful and creative places are not where we see eye to eye, but rather, those where we differ. (With Lisa, there is this element in our relationship. Coupled with the immense respect and love we feel for each other, there are places of divergence within our work. Are we able to express them more freely, the longer we know each other, precisely because of our closeness?)

Some places where the three of us agree:
- that 'how' is more important than 'what';
- that we want to dive deep into the heart of the matter;
- we demand specificity, rigor, intelligence from our dancing (most likely partly a legacy of having danced with Trisha);
- we all train and dance with a genuine respect for the body, all have many years of experience in 'somatic' techniques - we all want to keep dancing, injury free, into old age, so use our bodies wisely;
- we are all fascinated by movement, any movement, that we see around us, (like Vicky's description of the woman she watched in the subway making small gestures, that have inspired her to make some wonderful minimal-gesture material).

Some places where we differ:
- Our attitudes towards improvisation. Improvisation plays a big part for all three of us in our work, but we stand on various ends of the spectrum. Where Lisa and Vicky use improvisation as a starting point, then tend to set material and make repeatable compositional choices, I prefer to stay with improvisation to the very end, all the way into performance;
- How tight or how loose we're willing for a performance to be.

Over the two weeks, we've often spoken about structure coupled with intuition.The rigor of form coupled with the flight of free expression.We look at the Gee's Bend quilts and their incredible surprises - of line, color, shape, pattern, texture - coupled with such a sense of what sustains, not just catches, the eye.

Noting our tendencies, Lisa and I speak about the challenge we have of acknowledging, and giving space in this piece, to our different work modes and sensibilities. We agree that we want to learn from each other, to stretch, to grow. Yes, even now, having passed 50, we have curiosity for the unfamiliar and even the unknown.