contemplative Y.

Toranzo and Brown

Smalley and Jordan

Steinorth and Brown

Kraimer in mirror.

The above images represent some of the many moments felt, seen and heard in the latest theatrical dance production created and directed by Gretchen Eichberger.

Eichberger began work on this project in 2011 after an encounter with author and bioregionalist Stephanie Mills.  Mills, a resident of Leelanau County, gained nation-wide attention with her 1969 Commencement Address vowing never to have children.  Her declaration was made in response to the lack of ‘a rosy future’ for generations to come and the fact that humans were breeding ourselves out of existence. Since then Mills has been speaking, editing, writing, and organizing for ecology and social change. Shortly before encountering Mills’ work, Eichberger became aware of the poetry of Jennifer Sperry Steinorth whose poignant observations of toil, love, childbirth, and the black dress, set her hair on fire.  With these texts, Eichberger envisioned a body of work expressing personal stories with recollections and ideas on the status of women.

Special Thank you to…

Stephanie Mills for permission to use her writings.

Mike  and Kim Curths of the Inside Out Gallery.

Amanda Acker and Elara Coleman for managing the house and the occasional consultation.

Holly Wren Spaulding, Melonie Steffes, Kristine Harvey, Susan Barnard, andAndrea Maio for their wisdom and support.

Melanie Parke for the use of her image, Striding Feminist.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Cindy Toranzo for her styling talents.                                                                                                             

The late Mary Chipman White for use of her library.

Our mothers, grandmothers, families, and friends.

Dress Preview – Photography by Robert Bruce Bushway

An original theatrical dance production created and directed by Gretchen Eichberger will premiere on April 20 at Traverse City’s Inside Out Gallery.  The work, entitled “Dress,” is about the woman’s experience of rebellion, sensuality, ecology, and piety. Eichberger promises this work will push your comfort zone and seduce your senses. The cast is comprised of prominent and emerging artists and activists currently residing in Michigan, and centers around the prose and poetry of Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Stephanie Mills, and Simone de Beauvoir. Though the idea for this work was conceived almost 2 years ago, recent world and national events posing threat to women while simultaneously ushering an uplift in their status could not make this project more timely.

Eichberger began work on this project in 2011 after an encounter with author and bioregionalist Stephanie Mills.  Mills, a resident of Leelanau County, gained nation-wide attention with her 1969 Commencement Address vowing never to have children.  Her declaration was made in response to the lack of ‘a rosy future’ for generations to come and the fact that humans were breeding ourselves out of existence. Since then Mills has been speaking, editing, writing, and organizing for ecology and social change.

Shortly before encountering Mills’ work, Eichberger became aware of the poetry of Jennifer Sperry Steinorth whose poignant observations of toil, love, childbirth, and the black dress, set her hair on fire.  Steinorth will likewise be a central figure in the production.

Along with the written texts, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Arvo Part will be performed by the Grand Rapids area mezzo soprano Melinda Smalley, Traverse City pianist Laurence C. Smith, and internationally acclaimed violinist, Yuri Namkung.

The dancers are an intergenerational ensemble with varied experiences and backgrounds. Ensemble members include Sally Neal, Denise Sica, Laura Cavender, Lena M. Wilson, Cindy Toranzo, Amy Jo Jordan, Kris Brown, Kima Kraimer, and Yarrow Wolfe.   The choreography portrays gestures and movements distinctive of women.

The interweaving of text, music and dance as envisioned and crafted by Eichberger, promises an engaging performance not to be missed. Inside Out Gallery is located in the Warehouse District of Downtown Traverse City. Tickets for Dress are $12.00 and are available at Inside Out and Oryana.  Doors open at 7:00 pm  with the performance beginning at 8:00 pm.

Striding Feminist by American painter, Melanie Parke

Striding Feminist by Melanie Parke, American Painter

Welcome and Intro from Dress Preview

Oliver Art Center

Frankfort, MI

March 15, 2013

Tonight you will see two excerpts from DRESS, a dance cycle portraying the woman’s experience.

First, some acknowledgements.

Steven Brown and Eliza Forest of the Oliver Center for the Arts.

Melanie Parke for providing the official image for this project, Striding Feminist

Sharron May of Beyond Salon Holistic Lifestyles for the

hair and makeup artistry.

Robert Bruce Bushway for photography

The Artist House for use of technical equipment.

The whole work will debut on Saturday, April 20 at the Inside Out Gallery located in the Warehouse District of Downtown Traverse City.  The cast is comprised of prominent and emerging artists and activists all of whom are currently residing in Michigan.

Eichberger began work on this project in 2011 by a chance encounter with the renowned author and bioregionalist Stephanie Mills.  Mills, a resident of Leelanau County, gained nation-wide attention when during her 1969 Commencement Address , vowed never to have children.  Her declaration was made largely in part to the fact that the world did not hold ‘a rosy future’, and that we humans were breeding ourselves out of existence.   Eichberger  presented the idea of using her texts in a piece of performance art about women,  and Mills intrigued, granted her permission to use her texts.

Following their meeting, Eichberger spent the last year immersing herself in the world of feminist and environmental literature.  Works by Carolyn Heilburn, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Virginia Woolf, Adreinne Rich, Germaine Greere, as well as various historical documents,  were some of the many that inspired this work.  Much of the literature was found in the home library of the late Mary C. White, a pioneering Michigan feminist and activist.

Eichberger’s recent projects brought her to know poet and writer, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, whose poignant observations of toil, love, childbirth, and the black dress, set her hair on fire.  Steinorth will be a central figure in the full cast performing in April.

For the April performance, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Arvo Part will be performed live.  Performers include Eichberger’s college roommate and fellow vocal major, Melinda Smalley, her revered former piano teacher, Laurence Smith, and her new friend, internationally acclaimed violinist, Yuri Namkung.

For the dance ensemble, Eichberger called upon friends, former collaborators, and acquaintances.  Embodying this work was immediate, for the dancers grounded one another  through dialogue and chocolate consumption at the first rehearsal.  Eichberger likened it to a women’s circle, with the major difference that they had a goal of creating something from their stories, instead of just talking about them.  What she is most enthralled with is natural movement and the nuances and subtlety in everyday gestures thus most of the choreography is based on the natural gestures distinctive of women.  Eichberger is especially satisfied with the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the dance ensemble.

Even though the idea for this work was conceived almost 2 years ago,  recent world national events posing threat and at the same time garnering upward momentum to women’s status could not make this project more timely.

Excerpts from Dress

I.  Unfurl 

performed by Gretchen Eichberger

accompanied by  an excerpt of Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex

II. Their Common Universe 

performed by Lena Maude Wilson and Amy Jo Jordan

accompanied by a recording of Arvo Part’s Speigel Im Spiegel  

About tonight’s performers.

Lena Maude Wilson is a Michigan native artist and performing

singer-songwriter concerned with preservation of purity, quality and adventure into the unknown. She has performed in the Vagina Monologues atthe Finnish Community Center in Hancock, Michigan.

Amy Jo Jordan is a trained raw food chef living in Arcadia. She is passionate about our local food system, and is developing a business plan to market and sell her raw food creations.

Gretchen Eichberger creates performance art bridging our bioregion and the world.  She invites you to learn more about her work and interests by visiting www.michiganfolklife.org and www.thelistoccasions.com

photography by Robert Bruce Bushway
hair by Sharron May of Beyond Salon Holistic Lifestyles

Photography by Robert Bruce Bushway

Three young women on Crystal Lake early 1920′s

I use this image again for to guide my instincts in editing this dance theater original script containing the poetry of Jennifer Sperry Steinorth and the prose and of Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Rachel Carson, and Stephanie Mills.  Live performances by mezzo-soprano Melinda Pierce and internationally acclaimed violinist Yuri Namkung, along with pianist Laurence Smith will accompany the dances which will depict essences of piety, ecology, sexuality, and rebellion.

The cottages and resorts that surround Crystal Lake tell a distinctive American story that is steeped in a rich tradition and folklore.  The families that settled for the summer season valued Crystal Lake for its healthful recreation and pristine beauty, and then set out to pass down a legacy  to their future generations. You are invited to be part of a project by sharing  your family’s legacy on Crystal Lake. The Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area will document and archive the stories of these families and organizations which in turn will honor the past and express appreciation for the culture.

The goals of this project will include:

1. Identify early families who spent their summers  on Crystal Lake.

2. An exhibit of  the early families and cottage photography juxtaposed with family folklore at the Oliver Art Center

3.  A book containing family photographs, cottage interiors and exteriors juxtaposed with family folklore depicting their legacy on Crystal Lake.

If you wish to offer your stories, please reference the questionnaire.   Specific information requested is the cottage’s origin, its owners, and family experiences as they summered on Crystal Lake.  Models for this project include an article written by Kathryn Bishop Eckert on the Earl H. Meade’s resort architecture in Harbor Springs, and  Barbara Siepker’s Historic Cottages of Glen Lake.

Gretchen Eichberger,  Folklorist

Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area Project

1151 Dune Forest Trail PO Box 127

Frankfort MI 49635

www.michiganfolklife.org

Gretchen@michiganfolklife.org

231-871-0215

The Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area

Project Mission

MISSION

The Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area will document and archive family folklore, photographs, and visual references that tell and preserve distinctive American legacy.

Timeline

Summer 2012 – Initial Interviews of legacy families

Summer 2013 – Interviews of families and organization leaders (CDCC, CSA, CLYC), compilation of family photos, architectural plans, oral histories,

Summer 2014 – Interviews of families and organization leaders

2014 and Summer 2015 – Compilation and structuring of stories, photography, maps, architectural plans, etc..

2015/2016 – Organization of material for book format

Summer 2016 – Exhibit of photography and folklore excerpts at Oliver Art Center, Presentations to organizations

2016/2017 – Drafting, proofing and editing, submission to publishers.

Summer 2017 –  Book is published.

The Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area

References and Eichberger’s Biography

Midwest Resort Architecture  Earle Mead in Harbor Springs , Kathryn Bishop Eckert , Michigan History Magazine, Jan/Feb, 1979

Historic Cottages of Glen Lake, Barbara Siepker and Dietrich Floeter, Leelanau Press(2008)

About Gretchen Eichberger

Born in Traverse City and raised in Benzie County, Gretchen Eichberger spent her summers in a family cottage on the Old Mission Peninsula which was settled by ancestors in 1857.   Following the completion of undergraduate studies in music and education, she worked and lived in Washington, D.C.  Her love of the northern Michigan community, lured her back to Benzie County, where she teaches at a nearby school district in addition to  creating, directing, and performing original dance theater.

The Resort History of the Crystal Lake Area

Questionnaire #1

Date:

Family Name:

Cottage Location:

Current Owners and Contact Information: (phone, mailing address, and email)

Please indicate your preference of how and when to be contacted.

The following questions may be answered through personal interview. If permission is granted, an audio recording of the interview will be made for documentation purposes.  The interviewee may also opt to submit a narrative in response to these questions. Content of the narrative and interview will be at the discretion of the family.

1. How and when was your family introduced to the Crystal Lake Area?

2. Did you stay at any of the area resorts prior to purchasing your cottage?  Describe your time there.

3. Are there intergenerational traditions that have continued while at your family cottage?

4. Describe your most fond memories of your time on/around Crystal Lake?

5. What changes have you noticed in the area since your first summer on Crystal Lake?

6. Are there any pertinent stories related to world and national events or trends?

7. Do you have stories on the early origins of the CDCC, CLYC, CSA, Crystalia, and Pilgrim?

Specific Information on the family cottage.

Do you possess the original plans to your cottage?

Year(s) of cottage construction:

Builder/Architect:

Other owners and dates of ownership:

Significant information on prior owners and interesting family stories:

It was entirely appropriate that this unusual presentation of the new Graham initiative, a ‘political dance project’ should be performed on a simple wooden stage in a building built 100 years ago by a group of early Michigan pioneers who wanted to “build a college first” along with their homesteads.

And it was entirely appropriate that the creators and performers of this important work should come from all walks of life in small northern Michigan communities.  The instigator of the project, director and dancer, Gretchen Eichberger a public school teacher, choreographer and seasoned performer, Hughthir White, a finish carpenter who teaches contact improvisation, Rick Jones, member of the Song of the Lakes quartet, a lovely trained ballet dancer, Brooke Beuby moved gracefully, along a woman, Jamaica Weston who was part of a husband-wife team that was dazzling.  Along with Tim Joseph, a stone mason, carpenter, and political activist, and Holly Wren Spaulding a poet/writer and activist delivered the text of our stirring American documents. Dan Kelly created a simple, but appropriate lighting, along with a whole alphabet of private individuals who enthusiastically contributed time, money, and services.

The community audience for two nights performances, gave the entire production a well-deserved standing ovation.  These northern Michigan artists made this 1930’s Martha Graham work their very own, putting their individual stamp of athleticism and heightened natural movement into the ebb and flow of this documentary poetry that is our country’s inspiration.

It was truly a dance

Of the people

By the people

and for the people

Long may it last.

For over forty years, Harriet Berg has been a choreographer, teacher, performer, and arts advocate. Part I of her papers reflect her interest in all aspects of dance and other performing and fine arts, as well as her personal family life. Part II includes Berg’s work as Director of Renaissance Dance Company and Madame Cadillac Dance Theater as well as her work with the Jewish Community Center and Camp Maas. Also included are materials relating to Isadora Duncan, local, state and national dance schools, dance programs, as well as artwork and publications relating to dance.

our potential material could inspire me to completely change this list.

> I know I want do movement inspired by:

> planetary shift,

> the power of the woman’s body

> the woods in autumn,

> a slowing deteriorating relationship

> a child’s drawings,

people who give up

CROWS..i am thinking of making a flock(technically murder, but yikes!)

One more day in LA then back to normal. You go!!! Its all sounding awesome. Nice to digitally meet you.

LORE is something I'm thinking about--among other possible words and

themes--and since I really like the word itself will  be thinking about

mates and matches.

Sketches sounds great.  Do it.

I'm inspired by the garlands.  I like to recycle, so will probably

start with things I have. Fabrics, trims, threads, etc.

I like LORE.

While skiing today I thought a lot about LORE. It could also be part of what

we call ourselves (our little ad hoc group), as in: A Lore Collaborative

presents . . .

This little video makes me want to run, dance, roll, jump, wear lace and be

more French!

I made my first garland last night.  It is black & white with a splash

of orange w/ turquoise thread.  A mix of scraps.  I took it to a

dinner party and  everyone seemed to like it. It definitely added to

the festivities.

I'm trying to imagine June . . . it's nice.

back walls, and up to where chairs begin will be "the gallery" this will be where

art hangs(paintings, crows, and whatever else of the visual art will spring about)

I want to dance on a piano.

It's like dark chocolate and the flaring nostrils of a brood-mare and velvet

ball-gowns and pomegranates!

everything...i want to throw myself down a dune like that...and stomp my feet and

run around in tattered lace.

unbridled..wild..vulnerable..yes!

Lore Lines        (like laundry lines or laugh lines or family lines)

or

Lines of Lore

lines are something we can all relate to, the line of a pencil, the lines

that make little bird tracks by our eyes, the line of a seam, the line of a hip, the

line of a poem, a song, the line of a outstretched arm, the lines that connect us.

I love the photo.

The Fabulous garlands are beautiful.  I am so intrigued not only with

the various garlands, but the shadows they create as well.  Could be

very beautiful against the crazy ceiling in Mills.

I also like the clothespins.  At Art Snake I have displayed my quilts

on a laundry line.

Thanks for this love note.

I feel very happy for you with this project. You seem fully filled.

The dance, the Mills, the photo, the ladylove connection.

And you are certainly challenging me, but giving me oodles of support

all at the same time.

I've always liked the ex-voto paintings of Mexico (although I haven't

studied them too much and know not very much about them.) I believe

they are paintings created almost as a thank offering for miraculous

events in a person's life. They might even be left at little shrines.

dancing in your wedding dress, makes perfect sense..

I was wondering how you feel about masks?

I don't yet know where my poems will go; I feel it coming to me and

> looking

> at images and thinking about a name is a nice way to get some orientation

> for this project.

>

> I have yet to get a clear picture of how I will fit into all of this but

> I'm attracted to figuring that out. I guess what is on my mind right now is

> the deep urge to make this a really polished art event.

The deep urge to make this a really polished art event is resonating in me

as well.  The power of a name.

I think we're all going to changed after this event.

my chicken scratch notes are a little too difficult for me to decode at

this hour, and my head is still swirling with the potential of this great

project.. here goes my follow-up.

Getting

people in that theater to see productions, such as ours, is the key to

bringing in more donations to the Renovation Project, thus getting the

ball rolling... the cultural renaissance, the new economy.... we're at the

forefront.

Chaotic Harmony

The Heron

Chaotic Harmony

A choreopoem celebrating Gwen Frostic

Co-Artistic Directors and Creators  – Gretchen Eichberger and Anne-Marie Oomen

Composers – Breathe Owl Breathe

She was legendary for her prose and prints.  Gwen Frostic, of Benzonia, Michigan inspired me to create movement.  The ironic part was that she was physically impaired, but her mind soared above  the immobility.

What do we experience when we enter the unconventional world of Gwen Frostic?  That we are all connected?  That the greatest wonders are found in teh inconspicuous and overlooked details?  To that end, the choreography of Chaotic Harmony is not about the spins, leaps,a dn lifts that one would expect from traditional dance, but about the minor and hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things of nature so  subtle and evanescent we must pay attention to see them.  in creating Chaotic Harmony (named after one of her books), we honor Gwen Frostic, a woman of cultural and regional significance, but we also create new art by exploring her work with deep concentration.  With permission from Gwen Frostic prints, we selected art and words as springboard for theatrical dance.  We wanted the choreopoem to define the gestures of her imagination.

As to the script, we found her homily-like meditations remarkable: she saw the coming environmental crisis clearly and addressed it, proselytizing for the natural world.  As we gleaned passages and developed the script for multiple voices, we hoped to draw attention to that focus – her call in each of her 18 books that we pay attention to the natural world.  Her quiditty- the essence of a thing and a word she used often – lives in words that require us to truly attend to nature.  Here, we hope to extend her quiditty by giving voice to her role as environmental artist and writer, by making three-dimensional her message.

Traverse City, MI (and region).  August 4, 2011—“Chaotic Harmony,” an original theatrical dance production,  celebrates the legacy of Gwen Frostic, regional artist and cultural icon.  “Chaotic Harmony,” titled after one of her eighteen books, renders a fresh dance-based interpretation of Frostic’s work by choreographer and director, Gretchen Eichberger and writer Anne-Marie Oomen.  The production will premier as a gift to the community, August 27, 7:30, and August 28, 3:00 at the Meeting House of the Congregational Summer Assembly in Frankfort.

“We decided to use her words and her art as springboard for new thinking and moving,  for something entirely different, for something that would free her message from the shadows—which would let her fly,” says Eichberger, who directed Martha Graham’s “American Document” last year.

In creating Chaotic Harmony, Eichberger and Oomen  hope to draw attention to Frostic’s essential work and to build consciousness about her book-length meditations on nature—the last one published when she was 91. The collaborators will extend Frostic’s concepts through dance and spoken word, making three dimensional her role as an environmental artist who crossed the borders between the romantic and the rational.

“In this age of environmental threat, her words take on new resonance.  In this age of simplified vocabulary, her diction holds a unique literary value.  In this age when we could so easily forget the women who have made a difference aesthetically and culturally in our own region, Gwen is a model we need to rediscover,”  Oomen says of Frostic.

To that end,  Eichberger’s choreography will reflect the great gestures of Frostic’s images  through movement influenced by wabi-sabi and butoh dance traditions.  Dancing with her are well-known regional dancers Hughthir White, Jamaica Weston, Denise Sica, and Cornelia Dhasaleer.  Original music by the nationally recognized trio, “Breathe, Owl, Breathe” will echo the ecosystems that fed Frostic’s writing and philosophy, and include field recordings from her home and studio in Benzonia (where she lived and wrote and made her art). Bill Allen,  collaborative artist and sculptor, developed the art piece for the set.  The multi-voiced spoken text, adapted by Oomen and read by Holly Wren Spaulding, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Bill Smith and Tim Joseph, highlights key excerpts from Frostic’s books.  Oomen said of the choral text,  “Frostic’s meditations are challenging.  We combed her books carefully to lift passages not only relevant to her themes but to today’s audience.”

This year is the tenth anniversary of Gwen Frostic’s death.  On Gwen Frostic Day this spring, former Governor Milliken, an advocate of arts and environment, stated about the project,   “What a wonderful tribute to Gwen and her artistic legacy. Nothing could be more appropriate than Chaotic Harmony, a heartfelt act of innovation inspired by her words and art.”  The project has also garnered support from Gwen Frostic Prints, where Greg and Kim Forshee, proprietors, operate the Benzonia-based Frostic studio, and from the nonprofit sponsor, ISLAND, (Institute of Sustainable Living, Art and Design).  A preview of the dances at EMU’s Jean Parson’s Art Center in Lake Ann, gathered generous donations in support the project.

Eichberger gratefully noted: “We need community support for this kind of artistic development, and to help place Gwen on the continuum of artists and environmental writers who evolved around the time of Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold and others.  Chaotic Harmony will reflect both the arc of her artistic development and her ecological philosophy in an artistic, interdisciplinary, multi-faceted performance.  Though we can never know, we hope this innovation would please her, and bring her back to the community in an exciting new way.”

Chaotic Harmony will be performed on  August 27, 7:30, and August 28, 3:00 at the Meeting ousel of the Congregational Summer Assembly two miles north of Frankfort on M-22.  The performances are a free to the public and donations will be encouraged.  For information contact, check website www.ARTmeetsEARTH or contact Gretchen Eichberger at 231-399-0099.

Chaotic Harmony Preview - June 12, 2011 at Parsons Center

Preview for Chaotic Harmony – Jamaica Lynn Weston

Chaotic Harmony

A theatrical dance work

about the philosophy and legacy of Gwen Frostic

Choreography by Gretchen Eichberger and Company

Script Adaptation by Anne-Marie Oomen

Music by Andrea Moreno Beals, Micah Middaugh and Trevor Hobbs of Breathe Owl Breathe

As background, here is the story of how this project came to be.  Anne-Marie  saw American Document, Gretchen’s civic premier of Martha Graham’s seminal work.  She knew then that she wanted to write something for Gretchen and approached her about the possibility of creating  text which would act as “music” for her to dance to.  Gretchen, being the person she is, came back with the idea of creating a dance that would honor a woman who was a cultural icon, and though there were many we considered, the one she was most interested in was Gwen Frostic.   Anne-Marie was cautious at first, not having read Frostic’s work for many years—though like most people, I had an immense respect for the art.   Once she began rereading Gwen’s meditations, she knew this was what they should do.  In this age of environmental threat, her words take on new resonance.  In this age of simplified vocabulary, the sophistication of her diction holds a unique literary value.  In this age when we could so easily forget the women who have made a difference aesthetically and culturally in our own region, Gwen is a model we need to reclaim and celebrate.  In this age of global awareness, we here at home could forget one of our most influential, artistic, and innovative  icons.  They decided to use her words and her art as inspiration, as springboard for new thinking and moving,  for something entirely different, for something that would free her in essence from obscurity and from the chains of her own frailty—which would let her fly . 

Gwen Frostic  once said, “ I don’t need any more degrees.”  At the end of her life, she disliked the attention.  But would she have appreciated the work of other artists doing what artists have always done, building something essential and instrumental from what she had done?  Anne-Marie and Gretchen  like to think so.    In so doing, they hope to draw attention again to the essential work, to build consciousness of her attitude toward nature, of her skills as a woman, of her repeated effort, in  each essay-esque book—the last one published when she was 91—to pay attention to the natural world.  Her quiditty—the essence of a thing—and a word she used often—would be in giving words to nature.  Here, we extend the work, giving motion and rhythm to the words and art, making three dimensional her role as an environmental writer who crossed the borders between the romantic and the rational.  It feels important.

In planning the basic framework for the script, Anne-Marie and Gretchen met with Trevor, Andrea, and Micah of Breathe Owl Breathe, whom were named “one of the top ten artists you should know” by National Public Radio for 2010.  This past winter, they met in Frostic’s studio/ shop and provided them with moods and timing for each section of the script.  The Forshee’s gave them with a sampler of Frostic’s books and they explored her text in an environment appropriate for Gwen Frostic’s meditations, a remote cabin in the Michigan’s northern woods.  These components inspired their musical compositions.

Meanwhile  Anne-Marie was exploring text, looking rhythmic patterns, identifying thematic images, and imagining these meditations redesigned for choral text for four voices.  It seemed to her that  Frostic’s meditations already nodded toward a formality found in the great choral readings of the nineteenth century.  I blended  that tradition with methods influenced by William Burroughs “cut-up” techniques.  As rehearsals progressed they discovered new ways to extend meaning through vocal emphasis and its connection to movement.

To prepare for this project, Gretchen  requested that the dancers  familiarize themselves with Frostic’s writings and if they had not already,  experience her studio on River Rd. She asked them to revisit works of the environmental writing genre.  She asked them to meditate, to bird watch, to be part of our subtly dramatic landscape, and observe natures gifts.

The choreography was developed by the dancers.  Some of movements by text alone, to emphasize rhythms that exist in Frostic’s  writing, but are not always evident on the page.   These associative movements may stray from the content of the actual text.  Since the text and dance don’t diretly reinforce each other, our aim is for the audience to experience a wholeness that is beyond the sum of its parts. While we composed our dances we used basic dance vocabulary and at the same time created our own vocabulary and techniques specific to this work.    

Although Gwen Frostic was a woman who was not given her full capacity to move, she believed  she could never be held back, and perceived it as something that set her apart.  Here in THIS place, she created her own world and thus she eventually did in fact, set herself apart through her art making.  Ironically, it is our movement, gestures, and vocalization of her work that reflect the freedom of her mind.

Governor William Milliken who proclaimed May 23 Gwen Frostic Day, and has endorsed this project.  All the artists involved in this project are working as a labor of love. Along with Anne-Marie and Gretchen , the dancers include Cornelia Dhasaleer, Jamaica Weston, Denise Sica, and Hughthir White.   The orators include Holly Wren Spaulding, Jen Sperry Stienorth, Tom Czarny, and Tim Joseph. For the next three months they will be committed to this project, which will involved intensive collaborative focus and effort.

The program as a whole is slated for performance on August 27-28 at the Meeting Hall of the Congregational Summer Assembly  in Frankfort, a stone’s throw from Frostic’s cottage, Melody in F.    The premier will be free and open to the public as a gift to the community.  Your donation will support the development of this project and help assure the future of Gwen Frostic’s legacy and philosophy through art making.  ISLAND, (Institute for Sustainable Living, Art, and Natural Design) our fiduciary partner will accept tax-deductible contributions to help assist with production costs.  Donations may be sent to ISLAND  at 5870 Cottage Drive, Bellaire, MI 49615.  Inquires may be directed to their offices at 231-480-4515.