Hello it’s me! I’m writing to let you know about a couple events I’m doing in April:
Some context for Thing One is: I have had a new development in my life, which is a passion for “Dance.” I came to this through the pedagogical stylings and witchcraft of Angela Trimbur.
If you’ve seen me out and about in the last year, I have probably talked about moving it to the beat. As someone who has been a writer/whatever for a while, I’ve spent a lot of time in my head (even when standing up!) but did you know that traumatic things that happen to you/to your community/to the world around you can actually make living in your mind quite painful? Turns out ole Van der Kolk was onto something there! This lil analytic mind is low-key failing to grapple with reality these days, and it turns out that the body was keeping some kind of score all along. Language feels limiting at the moment, and I’ve turned to what Ursula (the seawitch) would call, “BODY LANGUAGGGE, HA!” Turns out there really is one. A language, I mean…1
Working with Angela and the rest of The Company has been a big part of this new wave I’ve been surfing, and now you can finally see what I’ve been talking about! Imperfect inner child ballet extravaganza invite incoming:
You Are Invited
to the 2nd Annual Balletcore Recital. We sold out so fast on April 10th we had to add another show on April 11th! Are you impressed? I hope so. Anyway the second show still has tickets and I’d love you to come! I'm in a routine where Sleeping Beauty is trapped in the belly of a whale getting high on whale stomach fumes. And then it goes crazy! You’ll have to see it to believe it.
What else can I say? Well, being a part of this company has changed my life for the definite better? And possibly healed wounds that I did not believe were healable, often at the same time as body-rolling to George Michael? And everybody in my dance company is the hottest and coolest person I’ve ever met? And Angela is a special genius and leader in all the ways that I most respect in the world, (comedically, creatively, intellectually, spiritually, sexily, vulnerably, inclusively), SO, being part of her work has been a big fat honor. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, well come on down, get your tickets here!
This will probably need an entire devoted post in itself, but it’s interesting to meditate on how so many of us have become detached from our bodies in the year of our lord 2025, or forcibly detached from our bodily autonomy by fascists/TERFS. If bodily sovereignty is one of the first things they want to take away from us, reconnecting with the body may be one of the answers to…. reclaiming our… joy as an act of resistance?? Help, I also feel like individual joy can be a distraction when full fascism is in effect? Double bind alert!! But ultimately feeling like trash hasn’t usually made people more effective at resisting fascists, and let’s be honest, the people who maybe should feel like trash aren’t usually the ones who do feel like trash. So you probably don’t deserve to (feel like trash), and should do what you can to be nice to yourself. That said I also fully support other methods, of reclamation and resistance, including like, you know, haha. Ask me next time you see me!
Thing two…
THE GAY DIVORCE: LIVE!
Two weeks later, I’m going to be sharing a work in progress performance called The Gay Divorce. The project has been gestating for a couple years, like a Xenomorph in my chest, and you may have read some of the poetry here on this very substack. Over time, the project has become iterative, taking shape as both a performance and a book. On April 24th, I will be sharing an exploration of the performance part. If you are going to be in New York and are interested in coming, let me know, and I will get you a spot. It's going to be a very small, invite only thing, so seats are limited. It’s an intense project, with some very raw bruises and subsequent blooms, so I am both excited and nervous to share a version of it in front of real human faces.
And then…?
Stay tuned for details on a workshop I may be teaching at a dreamy conference upstate. Plus I’ll be performing another version of my Philly show soon, definitely here in New York, and sometime in a city near you! It was really really fun and magical, featuring a healthcare executive trapped in the body of a possessed doll, Rose Luardo, Alicia McDaid, the eerie music of Jim Strong as Santa, and of course BUFANA, everyone’s favorite Christmas witch. We truly did release the cathartic witchy darkness in December, and actually Santa handed over the reins for his operation to the Witch Bufana in perpetuity, so now every year we will be unleashed from the chains of family values to revel in the winter darkness. Something tells me we are going to need it.
If you’ve gotten this far and are still reading, wow, I love you and thank you. I seriously am so grateful to everyone who supports my work, like, I fully have put all of you on multiple gratitude lists! And for those of you able to support my work with a paid subscription, well, you can imagine how much that means to me (hugely much).
just look at the research around therapies that focus on somatic work, or I’ll just tell you about it next time. I want to tell you guys about acting training through connecting to sense memory/pathways in the body, EMDR, Feldenkrais vibes, shaking your body to get feelings out, and the wild ride of learning the high art of red nosed clown.
What a cavalcade of commotion and communication! I feel like getting up and dancing my inner ballerina all over the living room! Very inspiring stuff. Obv wish I could be there in person to share the moves on April 10 and 11…hoping for some videotic traces. And hurray for the regular return of Bufana - that Philly show was a magical enchantment of combined forces - never thought Christmas could be so funny, or so sexy! I’d love for that show to become a Christmas tradition…with stockings!