Although I live a couple thousand miles from Salt Lake City in New York and I haven’t been there since I was a teenager, (many decades ago), I agreed to chair the board of Ashley Anderson Dances because I believed that Ashley’s intelligence, tenacity, love of dance, and ties to SLC would make something wonderful happen out there.
My prediction was spot on. In just over three years she has instigated Mudson, the learningtolovedancemore journal, performing opportunities for local dancers and residencies for dance makers from afar, dance/film/video screenings, this blog and of course 18-month old Anderson Edward Garrett. (She had a little help for that last one.) So it was with great pride that I read that she was chosen by City Weekly to answer the question: “Why do you create in Utah?” But more than the fact that Ashley was chosen, the insight of her answer made me proud that I know her and in some small way, help her do what she does. Her answer to the question was:
“I make dances because I am interested in the potential of the body to display and displace expectation; the way dances create physical logic that we follow, question and relate to our own experiences.”
And why Utah?
“… simple and complicated reasons. … It is big enough to have numerous dance companies and a general comprehension of concert dance. Yet, it is small enough that the resources are manageable and easy to access. There is the possibility for new audiences intermingling with historic patrons, and that conversation is of interest to me, as an artist.”
The full article can be found at: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-2-17130-why-i-create-in-utah.html
Ishmael Houston-Jones is the Chair of Ashley Anderson Dances.
loveDANCEmore 