Vectors
This is a gathering of artists, all of whom were working as these somatic practices were developing. Some of the relationships between images and practices are literal, others are less tangent. All of them reference the body, or the architecture of the space through which the body moves. Movement is key.
We were friends, colleagues, and in a less literal way, collaborators. Intimacies evolved and dissolved, reshaped themselves and set over decades. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s work gave us a language to address how the body works; Janet Adler’s work gave us a means to a creative lexicon; Nancy Stark Smith’s leadership at CQ furthered the conversation beyond our individual spaces. Sometimes, not often, we converged, as on the 3rd floor of Thornes, or in the pages of Andrea Olsen’s books.
Those of us whose work is gathered in this corner have been privileged to move in and out of each other’s lives in ways that the images manifest. Our work, our concerns, our lives overlapped, and without force or intent, or even consent, we colored each other. This is but a glimpse of the vectors which trace what we have learned, what we continue to explore, what we have come to understand.
— Harriet Brickman, Curator
The Somatics Festival is presented by A.P.E. @ Hawley and the School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, in collaboration with the Smith College Dance Department, Historic Northampton and Northampton Open Media.
A.P.E. creates programming at 33 Hawley Street, a project of the Northampton Community Arts Trust.
Many thanks to Philip Buller, Stephen Keith and Thomas Raredon who helped install this exhibit.
VECTORS Artists: Bill Arnold, Harriet Brickman, Philip Buller, Rosalyn Driscoll, Herb Ferris, Kristina Madsen, Stephen Petegorsky, Katherine Sanderson, and Gordon Thorne
Vectors Image Credits
Looking Back/Moving Forward: Historic Images of Somatic Practices
STEPHEN PETEGORSKY
Contact Improvisation and Improvisation (1970’s-80’s)
Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith : Performing in an art gallery, Provincetown, MA. Photograph by Stephen Petegorsky. 1977 (print 2019). Pigment inkjet print 17 x 22”
Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson : Performing “Solo and Duet Dancing”, Smith College Crew House, Northampton, MA. Photograph by Stephen Petegorsky. 1977 (print 2019). Pigment inkjet print 17 x 22”
Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith Lisa Nelson, Daniel Lepkoff, and Christina Svane in background (L-R) Performing contact improvisation with Freelance Dance at A.P.E. Thornes Marketplace, Northampton, MA, l980. Photograph by Stephen Petegorsky 1980 (print 2019). Pigment inkjet print 17 x 22”
Steve Paxton Photograph by Stephen Petegorsky 1978 (print 2019). Pigment inkjet print 17 x 22”
ROSALYN DRISCOLL
Janet Adler and the Discipline of Authentic Movement (1979-1980)
Janet Adler, Photographs of drawings in a sketchbook by Rosalyn Driscoll. 1979-80. Inkjet print 8 ½ x 11”
Rosalyn drew Janet moving in a private carriage house studio and then at the Smith College Crew House in Northampton, MA, meeting weekly l979-80.
Robert Tobey
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and the School for Body-Mind Centering®
School for Body-Mind Centering Summer Intensive, l987. Northampton, MA. Pigment Inkjet Print 17X22"
Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson / Contact Quarterly, l980. Northampton, MA. Pigment Inkjet Print 17X22"