Six Women One Sky, an experimental film, reunites the women performers who trusted each other with their lives in the aerial show "De La Guarda". This project delves into the lives of six women, myself included, to trace our intersections and transformations in the twenty years since we performed together in "De La Guarda"; a Off-Broadway harness-based, aerial theater show that was the first of its kind.
Each woman reflects on the experience of performing dare-devil feats, relying on each other, thriving, enduring, and recovering. We consider the impacts physically, interpersonally and creatively. This community of women continues to have a profound influence on my life and is the inspiration driving me to make this film. Through the lens of embodiment and community I look at themes of platonic love, the aging female body, and resilience.
Questions are posed from the perspective of the body and queries into the bonding we experienced as performers during the show, the changes of our bodies over time, and our new movement practices of empowerment, healing, and joy. This project, simultaneously a dance film and documentary, merges the past, present, and future by combining archival footage, in-depth interviews, and “moving portrait” works for each individual as well as the ensemble of six. The dance films will be created in collaboration with my subjects using aerial drone cinematography to capture dance and creative movement in site-specific performance works. I will weave these cinematic and conceptual elements into a single, filmic work.
Approaching the camera as an extension of my body, my senses and capabilities are at the ready. I will fly, dance, and talk in conversation with my subjects while using both traditional and drone cameras. I invite the viewer to a place of trust, risk, and empathy experienced from inside our group of six. The flying camera’s unique relationship to moving bodies within shifting skyscapes and landscapes offers an intimate duet between the dancer and the camera, and by extension, my own body and spirit. By situating myself as both filmmaker and subject, I integrate multiple points of view.
The final work will be structured like systems of the body that work together to generate and support movement; the skeletal, muscular, cardiovascular, nervous, and respiratory systems. This interconnectedness is a metaphor for the bonds among these women who performed in “De La Guarda”; the enduring depth of mutual support.