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Dear & Sincerely

collection of epistolary improvisations

by Corina Iona Dalzell

Dear Investigator,

 

Welcome to the ‘Dear & Sincerely’ collection. It is truly an honor to have you here.

 

Below are elements documented through a year long investigation into written correspondence and performance.

 

Since a formative solo project titled “Dear Gladstone” in 2011, I have often returned to letters as a foundation for choreography. Something about the rhythm of syntax speaks to my body. Something about how a single voice illustrates human relationships keeps me searching to create relatable and sincere performance. So I chose a question both broad and specific to guide my next artistic endeavor: What does performance reveal about letters?

 

I began rehearsing this project in October of 2017 while in residence at Studio Current, with a commitment to work through October 2018. It is the single longest process of my artistic career and an intentional practice of rigor, reflection, and refinement.

 

Being a collaborative creature I immediately sought a team. In an effort to work with a broad range of artists, I kept the rehearsal commitment small engaging different artists three weeks at a time. In total the project will completed 10 cycles. Seattle performers of all kinds (movers, writers, musicians) joined me to investigate new ways to both create performance from written letters, and create letters from improvisatory performance.

 

Our data is collected here in all its accidental perfection. Navigating these slide galleries you will find written thoughts, images from rehearsal, and video excerpts of amazing unplanned moments. May it fuel your own curiosity and connect you to something sincere and dear.

 

Sincerely,

Corina Iona Dalzell

Cycle I

Jordan Macintosh-Hougham and Margaret Behm joined the investigation. We worked with choreographed movement, constructed from written text. Letters we wrote became dances we moved. Solos became duets, experimenting with role and relationship.

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'Dearly & Sincerely' explores the fundamentals of the distanced formal form of communication, letter writing, through a medium of movement.

- Sarah M.F. Oxford

Juicy

Studio 

Current

Artwalk

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A group mindfulness process of embodied communication with people and non-human beings in our lives.

- Spring Cheng 

Jordan Colvard,

Helen Bates-Green,

Maia Veague,

Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham,

and Margaret Behm joined the search, expanding our sense of ensemble. 

CYCLE II

Responding to syntax and word association, the body writes its own love letter to the audience.

- Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham

CYCLE III

Studio Current

Atomic Season III Artists

Keely Isaak Meehan

Erica Howard

Corina Iona Dalzell

'Dear & Sincerely' feels like having an elementary school pen pal; the pure, childlike joy found through telling your stories and witnessing them intertwine with others' stories through both language and the body, makes this project special, and relatable to all.

- Margaret Behm

CYCLE IV

Investigators:

Sarah M.F. Oxford

Rachel Ferguson

Spring Cheng

Mercedes Klein

Brittany Gaudette

Jordan Colvard

Maia Veague

'Dear & Sincerely' is a second chance at all the interactions where words escaped you (or you couldn’t come up with a clever retort fast enough, or you were too polite to say what you were really thinking, or where you kept musing to yourself because it seemed ridiculous or unnecessary to say out loud), and the body wriggles in that revelation instead of simply going about its day.

- Maia Veague

CYCLE Vi

Investigators:

Breanne Schuster

Lynn Tofil

Elizabeth Sugawara

Julia Eckles

Caitlin Murphy

Spring Cheng

Jessica Chung

CYCLE VIi

Investigators:

Linsy Owen

Julia Eckles

Martina Morris

Breanne Schuster

Mercedes Klein

Margaret Behm

Ben Broderick Phillips

Elizabeth Bobrovnikov

Caitlin Murphy

Investigators:

Julia Eckles

Riley Mae Skinner

Mercedes Klein

Don Hutton

Ben Broderick Phillips

Jordan Colvard

Ryan Vinson-Jacobs

Liv Fauver

Spring Cheng

CYCLE VIII

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