|
Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak supports innovation and collaboration though the development and presentation of dance performances and other programs that engage the public in a deeper understanding and appreciation of the creative process.
I explore the body's internal impulses and its innate potential to express without further explanation. My body, collaborations, and performances serve as related laboratories for research. I value spontaneous composition, vulnerability, and a quiet ego, and pursue a virtuosic access to my memory, capacity for awareness and integration of the occluded aspects of my body and self. I ask questions and am drawn toward those that destabilize my assumptions about performance and the body.
I am fascinated by the collision, marriage, negotiation, and collaboration between knowing and not-knowing; planning and spontaneity; curiosity and control. My process involves research in the studio and in performance that expands my potential to move in a state of awareness where habit and new discovery remain in constant dialogue. “My Name is a Blackbird” exemplifies this approach.
I have stepped outside many conventions of contemporary dance movement, which feels bound by outdated habits that inhibit freedom in the ribs, belly, and pelvis — arguably the most expressive areas of the body. I have softened compulsive holding patterns and in doing so confronted the vulnerability that comes with letting go of parasitic motivations. Through this I discovered an emerging expertise in new movement and a renewed vibrancy to my curiosity about live performance.
Approaching “Stamina of Curiosity”, I find myself on new creative terrain. I am intrigued by what remains to be discovered about my potential to create movement performance that can be shared publicly in ways that inspire and are relevant for observers, regardless of scale.
–Molly Shanahan
|
