26 Aug Guest Blog | Aeriosa
KSF Artists of Choice is open to artists across the disciplines of dance, theatre, musical theatre and film. Over the next few weeks, we will post guest blogs from some of our 2016 grant winners about how the grant has impacted their work. Applications will be open in early 2017.
Name | Aeriosa - Julia Taffe
Project | Pseudotsuga and Trees are Portals
Year Awarded KSF Grant | 2016
What does the KSF grant mean to you and your project?
As the company’s artistic director I am deeply aware of the need to balance the scope of my new creation with my responsibility to maintain a balanced budget for the company. Knowing that there is adequate funding in place to hire all the performers I want to work with is such a lovely thing!
What inspired your project?
Pseudotsuga is the first part of a larger site work performance called Trees Are Portals, which acknowledges the park as traditional Coast Salish territory and calls attention to the oldest trees in the park as living witnesses connecting dancers of the past, present and future. In Pseudotsuga, Aeriosa dancers inhabit the trees, gathering positive energy to prepare for the arrival of Spawkus Slulem Dance Group, a Squamish Sea-Going Canoe Family that sings drums and dances in the traditional way of their ancestors. As we’ve gotten to know each other through dancing together we’ve rediscovered the importance of making dances for a specific time and place as a way of being connected, of influencing the present and the future. What inspires Pseudotsuga and Trees Are Portals is the desire to raise awareness that Coast Salish cultural practices are thriving and adapting.
Talk about your journey prior to the receiving the award. What kind of difficulties or roadblocks did you encounter along the way? How did you overcome them?
I feel like I fought hard for everything I was given - physically, mentally, financially. I fought my own lack of self-confidence. I fought others preconceived notions of what I was and wasn’t capable of. I was poor and jaded at 24. I drifted away from dance. A few years later had an unfathomably lucky near-death experience, and days later dance came back into my life in a transformative way that wove all the threads together. I felt like I had something more to do in dance, and though I wasn’t certain what it was exactly, since then, pretty much all of my decisions, conscious and unconscious, have kept me in the work of dance. And now, despite my early doubts, here I am, an instigator and enabler of crazy dance dreams!
What would you say have been the most defining moments of your career thus far?
I had to choose between a coveted invitation to spend my summer working in New York with a cast of famous contemporary dancers, or having a non-dance “Call of the Wild” adventure in the Yukon. I chose the latter, to the shock of the choreographer and my dance community. I have never regretted it. I went prospecting for gold with a malamute, a mule and a French-Canadian hermit. We basically walked off the edge of a map, got chased by a grizzly and managed to survive near the arctic circle for 3 weeks without any high-tech lightweight camping equipment. I returned to from the trip as a person who needs to listen deeply to the land to feel centered - and my dance career has never been the same.
Do you have any advice for emerging artists?
It’s always nerve-wracking to ask people to support your burning desires. I’ve been told many different versions of “we regret to inform you” “you’re making a mistake” and just plain “no”. Sometimes it will be devastating, but it can also make you fiercer and more independent. Play the long game. Surround yourself with positive influences and make a habit of nurturing others. Respect your teachers and your audiences but don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo. Be fair, be honest, share the wealth.
Read more about Julia’s project here.
Julia discusses the project here.