Scores for Dancing Across Distances

Scores for Dancing Across Distances is a series of poems that came out of my three-year residency at Dancemakers Creation Centre in Toronto, which took place between June 2018 - July 2020. The residency had begun in pre-pandemic life, when physical, close, and in-person participation had still been possible, but in the final year, with COVID-19 in our midst, the residency went online and was subsequently conducted via Zoom, messaging apps, phone calls, sound files, video files, and packages sent through Canada Post. For much of 2019, I had pondered on what it meant to dance with love and longing for long-distance lovers. In 2020, almost everyone in my life became a long-distance lover.

Openings and Obstacles

A set of tasks to dance with, alone or with others.

A set of tasks to solve problems with.

A set of tasks to fight with,

To love with.

Start with your body.

Follow openings.

“Openings” are pleasure, curiosity, or desire.

Follow openings.

Yield to or soften around obstacles.

“Obstacles” are pain, boredom, or resistance.

Yield around obstacles.

To yield is neither to push into nor to pull away,

But to soften around the obstacle

The way your palm might soften around a cactus

In order not to be hurt by the spines

Yield so that the obstacle is not ignored,

But is acknowledged, held with care.

Observe the consequences of each action

(One little movement in one part of the body

Connects to every movement in the rest of the bodt;

One little flutter of a wing in one part of the planet

Is related to earth-shifting events in another part)

Notice the changed shape of you.

Notice new pleasures, new obstacles.

Repeat.

Apply to everything.

(Start with your body.)

Touch Me Hold Me Let Me Go

An algorithm for dancing with the planet.

An algorithm for dancing with your beloved.

An algorithm for dancing from enough-ness.

To practice love in the midst of distress,

To practice care in the midst of distress

You may replace “me” with any part of the body that requires your attention.

Use Openings and Obstacles as your basic operating system.

Example:

Start with your body.

Follow openings,

Yield around obstacles.

While following and yielding,

You might find that your neck requires attention.

You might then say,

(To your beloved, say,)

“Touch my neck.”

Let your body receive this touch.

Let your body reorganize around this touch.

Notice your breath change.

Notice your weight shift.

You might then realize your head is tired and wants to rest.

You might then say, “Hold my head.”

Let your head be held.

Let the planet hold you.

Let your breath have its way with you.

Notice the changed shape of you.

Notice new pleasures, new obstacles.

Repeat.

(Start with your body . . . )

Apply to everything.

Touch Me Hold Me

Can be repeated in any sequence

According to the needs of your body in time and space.

This can potentially create rhythm, repetition, phrasing.

This can potentially measure time.

There is time.

Let Me Go is a moment to listen for.

When does it happen?

Have you been touched enough?

Have you been held enough?

Do you need more space?

For variation, or if you need to, you may also say,

“Don’t let me go.”

Let me go let me go don’t let me go don’t let me go.

Find rhythm.

Repeat.

Apply to everything.

The Territory Between Us

The territory between us

is the distance

between your hand and the back of my neck

This distance that is an ocean and a continent

This distance that is your flesh pressed into my bones

Touch my neck

Hold my head

Hold these words

these dreams

these hopes, these fears

Wrap me in your tentacle arms

and take me down to the soft bottom of your ocean

Let me touch the tenderness inside you

so that I may touch

the tenderness of the world

I dream

of your hands fluttering over my skin

like birds fluttering over the water

This water

lapping at my feet

lapping at my knees

lapping at my cock

my clit

my tits

my lips

The planet is drowning

The planet is burning

Hold my eyes

hold my eyes as I hold my arms

above the water

This water

rising from my tears

falling from the smoke

The planet is burning

The planet is drowning

Birds cannot land on my burning arms

The burning trees

The territory between us

is the distance

between my knee and the inside of your thigh

This distance that is my bone pressed into your flesh

This distance that is

An ocean, churning,

Dolphins, singing,

Aspens, trembling.

Birds fly over my burning skin

Proprioception

my spine is the snake and running the ocean is coming up my spine little dolphin jumping out of my open now I'm swimming in the ocean I'm sitting in the show swimming in the ocean I can feel the sand on my feet that comes in I can feel sad I'm touching your feet hold my hand what's the time now how can I touch you

I watch an eagle riding the thermals high

above the trees,

its wings not making a single beat for

an eternity.

I marvel at the engineering

that would let it listen

to the currents of air

the way you listen to the currents of me.

I stand here letting

you hold me

My knees buckle

My flesh falls away

I quiver in unfamiliar softness

I quiver I quiver I quiver

The kingfisher

rushes

through the air

head first, wings back

hurtling

towards the surface of the water

plunging

towards the promise of fish in the water

This water lapping at my feet,

lapping at my knees,

lapping at my cock

my clit

my tits

my lips

What happens beneath the water now

What does the kingfisher do now

to propel itself through water now?

Flying turns into swimming

flying turns into swimming

Now the kingfisher grabs its prey

Now the fish is struggling

Somehow

the bird holds on,

the fish in its beak.

Somehow it must change direction in the water.

This water

this water clutching at my legs

this water grabbing my belly

this water holding onto my arms

Don’t let go

Let me go

Don’t let me go

Let go

(repeat as many times as you need/want)

Swimming turns into flying

my spine the snake running the ocean coming up my spine little dolphin jumping out of my open now I swimming in the ocean now I sitting in the show swimming in the ocean now I feeling the sand on my feet coming in now I feeling the sad I now touching your feet holding my hand now what's the time now how I touch you now my spine the snake running the ocean coming up my spine little dolphin jumping out of my open now I swimming in the ocean now I sitting in the show swimming in the ocean now I feeling the sand on my feet coming in now I feeling the sad I now touching your feet holding my hand now what's the time now how I touch you

how can I touch you

how can I touch you now