Brittany Delany, Dancer and Choreographer: Free the Body: Exploring Personal, Cultural, Social, and Political Liberation Through Interactive Art and Movement

Today, I’m joined by Brittany Delany, a dancer, choreographer, and co-director of the dance and social justice collective GROUND SERIES. We discuss the latest project from GROUND SERIES called “Free the Body,” an interactive art installation at The Coachella Valley Art Center that explores what it means to free the body within personal, cultural, social, and political settings. In our conversation, Brittany describes the inception of this project and how different elements of writing, sound, movement, and visual art were introduced. She shares what people can expect from the installation, including the various workshops the collective is hosting with local nonprofit organizations.  When Brittany found herself in a cycle of rage and frustration brought on by the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the overturn of Roe v. Wade, she joined with collaborators to channel that energy into “Free the Body,” using the text Abolition. Feminism. Now as inspiration. Brittany unpacks the refuge that this project offers her and what she hopes people will take away from the experience. She also highlights ways that the collective is working to engage with local community organizations and foster restorative justice services within the Coachella Valley community.

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Topics Covered:

●      Dance through the lens of politics, spirituality, and research 

●      Brittany’s perspective on what it means to free the body 

●      Rage as a powerful motivator for artists 

●      The fortification of community through in-person events 

●      The core curriculum and methodology of “Free the Body” workshops 

Resources Mentioned: 

●      Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, Beth Richie

Guest Info:

●      GROUND SERIES Website 

●      GROUND SERIES Instagram 

●      Free the Body Website  

●      Coachella Valley Art Center Website 

●      Brittany's Website 

●      Brittany's Instagram  
 
 Follow Me:

●      My LinkedIn

●      Art Heals All Wounds Website

●      Art Heals All Wounds Instagram

●      Art Heals All Wounds Newsletter

Transcript

00;00;00;05 - 00;00;52;17

Pam Uzzell

Thank you so much for listening to Art Heals All Wounds today. Before we get to today's show, I'd like to recommend a podcast I've been enjoying. It's called Discover More, hosted by Benoit Kim. Benoit is a policymaker turned psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist who aims to highlight the magical relationship between healing and the best possible human experience. Some of his recent episodes feature topics such as why spirituality is a marketplace, the psychedelic renaissance in sexual trauma healing, and how art is the master class of life. Tune in to discover more on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and all your favorite listening apps.

00;00;54;14 - 00;00;56;24

(Opening Music)

00;00;57;12 - 00;01;27;02

Pam Uzzell

Do you want to change the world? So do I! On this show we meet artists whose work is doing just that. Welcome to Art Heals All Wounds. I'm your host, Pam Uzzell.

00;01;27;02 - 00;02;03;03

(Free the Body Workshop Participants Audio Compilation)

…Well for 40 years or a little more. I've been swimming laps...

...I am now 86 years old, and so when I feel free is, number one is meditation...

...For me, it would be sitting idly on a beach by the ocean and just listening to the waves...

...For me, I feel most free in my body when I'm alone in a quiet space...

...I feel most free when I'm out in nature...

...Free in my body when I am goofing with friends...

00;02;05;00 - 00;02;19;16

Pam Uzzell

I have a question. Where does your body feel free? It could be being in a particular place. It could be doing a certain type of movement. Maybe it's as simple as connecting with your breath.

00;02;22;02 - 00;03;14;22

Pam Uzzell

This is the question being explored by my guest on today's episode. And as I ask it, I recognize that there are many people in situations where they either can't or don't feel free in their bodies. My guest today, the third artist in the Agents of Belonging mini series of Art Heals All Wounds is Brittany Delany, a dancer, choreographer, event producer, and writer. For Brittany, this question about feeling free in your body arose as a response to rage. Her own rage over the loss of reproductive rights and in response to our collective witnessing of George Floyd's murder. How can you and how do you find release from the rage cycle many of us fall into as a response to the many ways in which freedom of the body is assaulted?

00;03;15;28 - 00;04;15;00

Pam Uzzell

As a dancer, choreographer and activist, Brittany is used to working with and through the body. Her exploration of what it means to be free began with dialog and writing and has now grown to become an interactive and collaborative art installation and performance. So how do you feel free in your body? Whatever your circumstances, whatever your ability? What makes you feel free? What are the greater implications for society in which people can feel free in their bodies? This layered question is what Brittany Delany is inviting us to explore through the interactive art experience called Free The Body.

00;04;18;11 - 00;04;49;18

Pam Uzzell

I'm so glad you're listening to this mini series, Agents of Belonging. If you're enjoying what you're hearing, please follow us on your favorite listening app and share us with a friend. Brittany Delany is a dancer, choreographer, and writer. She and dancer and choreographer Sarah Ashkin formed a dance and social justice collective called Ground Series, where they use performance to practice place-based justice by cultivating accountability to land, body, and history.

00;04;50;12 - 00;05;52;16

Pam Uzzell

In her new work, Free The Body, Brittany and fellow collaborators such as fellow dancer Lauren Bright, sound designer Peter DiGennaro, and visual artist Brittany North, explore questions, relations, and sensations of what it means to Free the Body within personal, cultural, social, and political settings. Dance, sound art, and visual art will create an interactive installation to explore these questions. Some workshops have been held for this project already. The sound you heard at the beginning was an audio montage of some of the responses from one of them. Created for and with the Coachella Valley Art Center in Indio, California, the Free the Body installation and performances will also provide resources for abolition, bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, health care, and human rights, and will engage extended members of the community as part of Ground Series commitment to place-based accountability.

00;05;53;22 - 00;06;02;26

Pam Uzzell

Hi Brittany, Thank you so much for being on Art Heals All Wounds. Can you start by introducing yourself by telling us who you are and what you do?

00;06;03;11 - 00;06;29;07

Brittany Delany

Hi, my name is Brittany Pettit Delany and I am an artist and a dancer and choreographer and a writer. I'm the co-director of a dance and social justice collective called Ground Series, and I am also a sister and a daughter and a very excited aunt.

00;06;30;00 - 00;06;54;09

Pam Uzzell

Oh, okay. Well, you know, that's a very long list of very great qualities. I like that you're an excited aunt. I think every child needs that. So I wanted to talk to you about an upcoming project that you're working on called Free The Body. Can you tell me just a little bit about it?

00;06;54;15 - 00;08;23;29

Brittany Delany

Yes, Free the Body is the latest project from Ground Series Dance and Social Justice Collective. Free the Body is an interactive project. It grew out of a research question I was playing around with a few years ago, and it's emerged to be pretty interdisciplinary. So there's a visual art component. There is a dance and lots of lots of different music and sound, but there's also quite a bit of storytelling and the project so far has been in existence in a creative process between myself and a musician, a composer as well as some fellow dancers and as a few different community engagements that I've had that take the form of webinars and in-person movement workshops and even emails. So sometimes I have a tough time making this project feel small because it continues to grow and I'm always excited to make something bigger and dream wilder. But I would say the concise description is it's an interactive art installation, and the art installation will take place in the Coachella Valley in California at this wonderful space called the Coachella Valley Art Center.

00;08;25;05 - 00;08;54;12

Pam Uzzell

Well, it's interesting that you're talking about it feeling small because it doesn't sound like it could possibly ever be small. It sounds really incredible. I want to back up a little bit and find out about you and your journey to dance. Can you talk a little bit about yourself, like how you got started? Like how far back do you think you would need to go to really talk about your steps to becoming a dancer  and a choreographer?

00;08;55;02 - 00;10;19;29

Brittany Delany

Music was how I started to love dance. My parents were encouraging of creativity in childhood, and I deeply remember listening to cassette tapes and then CDs and then streaming mp3’s and making up dances in my living room or in my bedroom. So honestly, it was pretty playful and it continues to be so. I grew up and learned how to take dance classes and how to weave in and out of dance communities that taught me so much about how to move through the world, not just how to catch the step. But I give a lot of gratitude and grounding to hip hop dance and to improvisational dance communities like jazz and contact improvisation. Those dance forms are not just dance forms, they are huge cultures that are global, and I feel so lucky I've been able to meet people from all around the world who practice those techniques. And I've always loved music and dancing. And then as I grew up and continued to study dance more formally, I realized it could become not just something I did at home with friends and family, but it could also be a career. It could be something I could always come home to, if that makes sense, as a framework.

00;10;20;15 - 00;11;20;19

Brittany Delany

So when I was able to go to college and study at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, I dove so deeply into dance as a research, dance as politics, dance as life. You know, not to be dramatic, but that program at Wesleyan really informed my relationship to dance in such a bigger way. So they don't have a studio or conservatory kind of model at Wesleyan. They really have that liberal arts sensibility of critical thinking and rigor, and each course that you're taking should inform the other. And because it was a small school, I was able to really have so many opportunities to test things out and gain access to resources like dance studio space and theater space. And I had a great cohort of fellow dance majors and theater friends and music friends and all kinds of weirdos.

00;11;20;19 - 00;12;07;14

Brittany Delany

So I'm really grateful for that experience because it continues to inform how I think I make art great. And one of my dearest friends from Wesleyan is Sarah Ashkin, and she is the one who co-directs Ground Series with me. So we share a lot of that, that background together. We also studied with the same professor throughout our college experience and afterwards, and his name is Pedro Alejandro, and I want to name him and thank him for his mentorship and generosity. I conducted some research with him that also helped me consider dance as architecture as well as a practice of spirit like sacred dance. So you've really hit my funny bone. I love to talk about dance.

00;12;08;03 - 00;13;23;12

Pam Uzzell

Well, I'm just thinking about that. You're really talking about dance in so many ways I've never considered it before. I mean, I dance, but not like a, I'm not a professional dancer, choreographer. And the first phrase you said, which really caught my attention, was you learned how to dance, how to move through the world, rather than just catching the steps, which I thought was so interesting. But then just talking about, you know, a way to express politics or the political aspects of dance, and as architecture, you're just bringing up so many different ways of looking at dance, which I would never have even considered or known about, which is fascinating to me. And okay, so let's now go back to Free The Body with all the amazing information you just gave about what dance means to you. What of that are you taking to Free The Body? Like, besides being this multidisciplinary art installation, which sounds like an incredible experience, what is Free The Body.

00;13;24;17 - 00;14;31;06

Brittany Delany

Free The Body lives inside of the Ground Series world-making, so a deep value of Ground Series Dance and Social Justice Collective is being in right relation or practicing accountability to people and to a place and of course to our bodies. So, Free the Body is being accountable to abolition feminism. That's the big framework for this project. I read a book, actually I didn't read it. I listened to, just so perfect because we're on a podcast. I listened to this book called Abolition. Feminism. Now, and it was written by Angela Davis, the famous Angela Davis, as well as Gina Dent, Erica R Meiners, and Beth Ritchie. And I shared that book with my collaborator Pete DiGennaro, who created so many different soundscapes and music for this project.

00;14;31;06 - 00;15;28;08

Brittany Delany

And so as I mentioned, this project grew out of a research question, and he and I honestly started by talking about this book and talking about human rights. If we can remember in November, December 2021, January, February 2022, there were some headlines in the news and some political happenings that felt destabilizing in ways that March 2020 felt destabilizing and June 2020. So obviously, I'm referring to the COVID 19 global pandemic and the murder of George Floyd and some of the political, you know, big changes with the capitol siege that are happening in the United States of America, because I'm based here in the US. So anyhow, we started talking about a lot of strife, honestly. And rage is such a powerful motivator for artists, I think.

00;15;28;08 - 00;16;29;19

Brittany Delany

Right. They look at something and say, this is wrong. Let me do better. Let me imagine a world where maybe this isn't going to be. So, while rage isn't usually where I source my creative inspiration, it's a huge ingredient in this project because I really believe in artists to heal, and that's how the project started. It started from a place of deep care and rage about so many things that we can't control that  really can be oppressive and can be harmful. Certain moments that I remember deep in my body, I find that this project was so helpful for me to go to when I was tempted to feel a bit hopeless or a bit frustrated like frustrated inside the rage cycle, and then seeing another bad headline and seeing another bad Supreme Court decision or seeing another big corporation harm people.

00;16;29;25 - 00;17;24;23

Brittany Delany

So often art can be a place of refuge, but it also can be a place to stay motivated and a practice to just let you keep showing up. Because I'm a dancer and choreographer, I make art with people, so it allows me to practice how to be a better person and it allows me to create relationships with other people. So we started talking, we started imagining and we started writing ideas down. Then we started, like any creative process, coming up with drafts and then making new drafts and then coming with maybe a small idea, then making the idea, okay, 10 minutes long. Okay, What happens if we discuss the constitutional right of this? And then, you know, so it turned into, okay, let's use writing as a part of our process, because we started with this book, we started with dialog.

00;17;25;00 - 00;18;33;07

Brittany Delany

And so one part of Free the Body has become a blog series that Pete DiGennaro created on our website. And what's kind of beautiful about our choice to make it a writing project through and through is that he documented some really intense political moments and used the lens of Free The Body to wrestle with them. So he wrote, starting in June 2022, which is when the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v Wade and all the way through November of 2022. It took about four blog posts to talk about reproductive justice. And God bless him. That was not easy. I did not help him. I sent him a few, you know, news articles and a few feminist websites to help frame it out. But he also spoke so diligently and articulately about his creative process and how he would reflect on his own body or his own kind of limits or cultural frameworks as he was trying to create sound to speak to the type of dancing and visions I had for this project.

00;18;33;07 - 00;19;23;00

Brittany Delany

And so I can jump to the visual section, which is that there will be several rooms in this gallery space to experience different levels of freedom. So there's going to be spaces that are small and where you have to snuggle in, or lose a certain sense, we might like make some music quite loud, some music quite soft. We're going to have lots of different textures and lights and materials and we'll have some space that's open for everybody to play. And then we'll have some spaces where only one person can go in at a time. So as he was designing music for about five different spaces, he really dove into those thematics. So there, of course, is going to be a lot of different kinds of flavors, I guess, of this project.

00;19;23;08 - 00;20;27;04

Brittany Delany

And how the dancing has emerged is following similar themes around containment, around quality. Another way that I like to generate choreography is certainly with music, but also I like to think about just the natural world and the natural elements. So water and earth and air and fire and wood. But I like to practice dancing outside as well, to kind of add a little bit more of the real world into how I might respond physically. So far, we've been able to generate about 2 hours of music and about maybe 45 minutes to an hour of movement. The visual art installation is not complete because we will build it in the gallery, so we will build it when it's ready to be shared. But I've got an amazing visual artist who's going to make it come true. Her name is Brittany North, and she's a talented sculptor and installation artist.

00;20;27;04 - 00;21;09;25

Brittany Delany

And so the project is still in development, which feels really vital. We've also captured some stories and recordings of folks sharing their answers to the research question about what it means to Free the Body. And so we've interviewed people from where Pete is based in Connecticut. We've interviewed people from where I am based, which is in California. And then we've also interviewed a few family members that are around the United States. And I think that storytelling and community history archive will continue probably beyond the installation component because I am very interested in this, this question around liberation and community 

00;21;09;25 - 00;21;19;02

Pam Uzzell

 So, I have a question, if you wouldn't mind answering it. What does Free the Body mean to you?

00;21;20;18 - 00;22;43;25

Brittany Delany

To me, Free the Body means so many things and it's why I'm making an art project all about it. Sometimes I think Free the Body means get free now. Like no justice, no peace. Like it feels like a call to action that you might see on the side of the road or in a little note that you write to yourself like a mantra and other times Free the Body means to me like a softening. And I say softening because I recognize that there are certain forces that trigger a bit of, what are those called, fight, flight, or freeze response. That that can be the daily stressors or the systemic oppressors of the world capitalism, white supremacy, discrimination, all of the big ones. And when I think of the idea of freedom or I think of honestly just remembering that I have a body, I suddenly remember to soften in to the present moment. And that allows me to be at least more responsive. I might not be better, I might not be wiser, but, free the body also, to me, just reminds me to be alive right now.

00;22;43;25 - 00;22;52;05

Pam Uzzell

Well, I don't know, if I were going to say, too… Do you mind if I give some thoughts I have about if I'm thinking about it in my own life?

00;22;52;26 - 00;22;57;09

Brittany Delany

Of course, that's the whole dream, is to open up dialog. Yeah.

00;22;58;11 - 00;23;29;09

Pam Uzzell

Well, a couple of years ago, someone who was very athletic was encouraging me to do different things, like some light weight lifting or things like that. And he said, And then you'll find that you're back in your body. And I was like, That is interesting. I have to think about what does it mean? Like, and I really it wasn't that I took offense or that I felt like, what do you mean I'm in my body? But I thought, I bet that's true. Let me think about that.

00;23;29;09 - 00;24;06;24

Pam Uzzell

And I think about all the ways that I'm kind of inside so frequently because of the work that I do, inside of a screen as opposed to being in my body and just when you said, you know, the fight or freeze instinct, I think about all the social situations and especially coming out of COVID, you know, that the body became such a scary and uncomfortable place to really be in, especially if you were out in public or something like that. It's so interesting to think about that, really.

00;24;07;10 - 00;25;53;07

Brittany Delany

That fear and all the terror of not knowing what the heck is going on with a global pandemic that is airborne, like really airborne, that's so hard and universal. And so, too. I'm glad you brought that up because it also just calls into my brain and heart all the compassion and learning that has taken place from folks who have dealt with disabling diseases and complicated, misunderstood diseases for centuries. And there was so much good, powerful resource sharing around disability rights and access. Suddenly digital divide was the way that we were all trying to stay connected and suddenly community care and mutual aid. These philosophies of taking care of each other came to the fore because it wasn't just folks who don't have the ability to move through the world and go down the street and do these kinds of ablest things. But it was so many people around the world were told to just sit down, lock yourself in at home, get food delivered, or whatever, and maybe go on the Internet. But I think we're still reeling from it all. Holy cow, Holy cow. And I feel so much love and care for the people who have contracted COVID and are struggling still to this moment right now and are unable to go outside and not think about it.

00;25;53;19 - 00;26;55;26

Brittany Delany

So that's something that's a really big question about this project itself, Free the Body is. I thought about wanting to bring it to the fore, like have a big premiere in 2023. And then I just got really, really sad thinking that if I did it, I might unintentionally make it a superspreader event and like, create more harm. So I just thought that would be the worst thing ever because that's the last thing I want this project to do. But I'm curious for you, did you start your podcast thinking that you would want to eventually shift the model of your interview series into an in-person relationship, or was it always in the dream of having kind of audio centered and, you know, mitigated by a screen? Because that is also a really beautiful practice. There is a lot of power in not having to get on a plane and sit with you, but I can be in my room and you can be in your room and we can still have quite a powerful connection. Yeah. What about your big project? I'm curious.

00;26;56;28 - 00;28;41;04

Pam Uzzell

Well, that is such a great question. I find it really magical that two people can get on this very cold medium of a computer screen and actually have a connection through their voices and through listening. And I find listening is such an active activity. And I leave these interviews feeling kind of high for a while, quite honestly, And before COVID and with my film work, I have gone and done presentations or discussions after a film, and those were magical to having a group of people all together. And again, a lot of that is, it's conversation. It's not just me talking and presenting. It's really hearing what audience members had to say as well. So that is a great question. I do know some podcasters who have live events, which is really interesting to me and I feel like I'm not quite ready to do that because of the other things I have going on in my life at the moment. But they're both magical and they're both just so, so different. This is very, very intimate in a way, even though I know that people are going to listen to it. But the conversation feels so intimate while it's happening. And then the in-person discussions and things feel like there is such a strong fortification of a community. And both of those are so important.

00;28;42;07 - 00;28;50;22

Brittany Delany

I love that term fortification of the community. I would go to anything where that was the tagline. Yes Pam, please invite me.

00;28;51;06 - 00;29;03;20

Pam Uzzell

When we talk about fortification of community, one thing that caught my eye in reading about Free the Body is that it looks like there are going to be workshops planned.

00;29;03;21 - 00;30;09;08

Brittany Delany

Yes, I'm a big fan of getting folks to shake out the day and play in a workshop setting. And I'm not a full time educator. I'm not a dance teacher, quote unquote. You know, that's not how I make my dollars to pay my rent and things like that. But I do love teaching when I get the chance. And so I definitely wanted to share some of the ways that I've learned from my teachers about schematics, about choreography, about responding to people in a room that are asking a funny question about freedom. So, so far I've been able to conduct a workshop at the gallery where we're going to have the project, the Coachella Valley Arts Center, and I decided to co-produce this workshop with two local nonprofit organizations based in the desert, because I just think that's the right thing to do when you're, when you're a visiting artist.

00;30;09;13 - 00;30;35;18

Brittany Delany

It's a really important thing that Ground Series always practices when we develop a project, we create relationships with that local place, and we also move money, we move resources to those people that are doing the work. And I'm really deeply informed by Sarah Ashkin’s consistent practice of reparations and reparations models. And so I thank her for teaching me that way of doing business, honestly.

00;30;35;29 - 00;31;11;01

Brittany Delany

So I worked with Wild Womyn, which is the feminist collective in the desert of which I was one of the founding members. And one of the leaders of that group was the co-lead on the workshop. So she kind of introduced the space, kind of set some guiding principles. And then another nonprofit that I worked with is a local dance group called Danza Azteca, and they are an Indigenous dance organization, and Claudia and Gabriela were my co-presenters for the workshop.

00;31;11;01 - 00;32;50;01

Brittany Delany

And so the way we structured it was, Wild Womyn introduced the space, then I introduced Free the Body, shared some choreography and some kind of like games like you might think of, like when you're in a theater class and the theater teacher makes you do a funny game and they, you know, like, oh, you know, anyway, so we did some games, but it was, you know, the pedagogy there was let's make sure people feel comfortable and silly so that then they can take risks and smile at each other, not take it so seriously. Because when you hear the term abolition feminism, you think, Oh, this is serious. But then when you get people up around doing jumping jacks, it's not so serious. So we did some games, we did some research, we did some moving around the space, taking turns trading partners, and then we took a little break and then I passed it to Danza Azteca. And they did such a marvelous presentation of one of the sacred dances that they practice. And they drew one of the themes of Free the Body into one of the themes of their sacred dances. So they talked a lot about healing and kind of this binary of life and death and freedom and restriction. And I can't explain it. They can explain it much better. But I was so grateful for their generosity. And what was extra special about it is that Gabby played the drum while Claudia was teaching. And there's just something about live music and live dance that just lights up a room. So that was exquisite. While I was teaching, Pete, the musician that I've been working with, also was playing some music live, so that was extra special.

00;32;50;01 - 00;34;21;10

Brittany Delany

And I hope that we can do another series of workshops like that in the future because the folks that came really enjoyed themselves. And another workshop that we facilitated through the Free the Body project was by Pet DiGennaro. He's a sophisticated educator of music, of dance, of human rights work. So he offered some workshops for youth and he also offered some games, which is no surprise for kids. But the games had this really beautiful curriculum around human rights and the rights for children around the world to have certain freedoms. So I learned a lot about that from him. And I'm so grateful he offered that to some of our young friends in the Coachella Valley. That was very sweet and actually another local nonprofit joined us in that workshop, Scrap Gallery. They are a great nonprofit that focuses on environmental arts, education, and teaching kids to recycle and just do a lot of fun kinds of craft projects. And Karen Riley is the executive director there. So that was a really fun collaborative workshop as well. And so you'll notice these workshops are really about community connections, not just about, okay, at this workshop you'll take away a skill set, but a lot of it is just about building trust and asking the research question. So for sure, at the end of each workshop, if people wanted to, they could respond to the question and we would record their little story of what it means to Free the Body.

00;34;22;11 - 00;34;31;22

Pam Uzzell

Well, that takes me back to what you said earlier about that when you were younger, learned how to, what did you say, to move through the world as opposed to just catching the steps?

00;34;32;12 - 00;35;00;16

Brittany Delany

That's right. Yes. I did say that. It was a vital opportunity to open the creative process to people that had not read the book, that had not done the weird back and forth creative process that Pete and I did, But I felt like I could share it at that point because I had generated enough content to share. And, you know, as a dancer and choreographer, I love to see other people's work.

00;35;00;16 - 00;35;43;21

Brittany Delany

I love to go to work-in-progress showings and get feedback or share feedback. So this year I also was so grateful when Deborah Brockus, who runs Brockus Project Studios in Los Angeles, invited me to do a work-in-progress showing of Free the Body. So in February 2023, Lauren Bright, who is a dance collaborator in the project, she and I shared a few excerpts of a duet that we're developing for the project, and then we also, instead of sharing audio recordings of people responding to the question, we spoke into the microphone live the question and shared a few examples just to kind of keep it raw, you know what I mean?

00;35;44;02 - 00;36;14;11

Brittany Delany

And it was so valuable to put lights, to put costumes, to put a time frame. And I came away very confident knowing that I don't want that to be the project. The project doesn't to me have much value as people sitting in seats with the lights down and then the lights come up and then the show starts, to… Free the Body, as the way I see it, needs to be in a gallery, needs to be in relationship to people interacting with it.

00;36;14;11 - 00;36;35;20

Brittany Delany

And that's where yeah, it certainly kind of becomes more like social practice art than it is dance performance. But because I'm such a dance lover and because I don't know, it's my idea, I said, Well, what, can we just put dance performances on the weekends? So the plan is the art installation will be as many art installations are.

00;36;35;20 - 00;36;58;03

Brittany Delany

They will be up for about a month or maybe five weeks. But then on the weekends we'll have live performances. And that way my colleagues and I can kind of activate the installation a few times and then we'll also activate the space with some workshops. And then my favorite idea that I've come up with so far for this project is to actually turn it into a bit of a resource fair.

00;36;58;26 - 00;37;34;26

Brittany Delany

So because the project addresses so many big questions around freedom and resources to help folks navigate reproductive justice or abolition, I think it's important and this is something that Ground Series practices, to give folks resources after the show. So sometimes Sarah and I will create in our program, like a playbill, will have a little bibliography of sorts that, say, if this is what the project is about, here are some local resources where you can learn more or here are some local resources that you can access to help yourself.

00;37;35;09 - 00;38;05;08

Brittany Delany

So in this case, we're working with some local hospitals and clinics so people can find accessible health care that helps them heal and take care of their bodies. And then we're also working with some folks that have done a little bit of work with restorative justice. So for folks that have been impacted by the justice system or prisons, how can we educate folks on how to get that type of support?

00;38;05;18 - 00;38;34;01

Brittany Delany

And then also just resources to make art? So the Coachella Valley Arts Center is such a great hub for that. Bill Schinsky, who's the executive director and just one of the most generous people I've worked with, he is so welcoming to all the artists that want to come visit the center. He's so generous. And so, you know, the art center has art studios where artists can make work.

00;38;34;11 - 00;39;02;03

Brittany Delany

But he also uses that gallery space for people to present edgy work that, the type of thought-provoking work that Ground Series really advocates for. But sometimes they'll also just let people use that space to be a community space. If someone is looking for affordable space to rent to host a workshop, he's so open. And that was important to me when I was thinking about where I wanted to house Free the Body.

00;39;02;03 - 00;39;19;06

Brittany Delany

I wanted it to be in a place that feels as welcoming as the one that he makes it feel. And one thing I'll share about Bill, too, is when I asked him, Hey Bill, what does it mean to you to free the body? And he was so sweet. He took a breath and he said, Well, I feel free when I'm jogging.

00;39;19;21 - 00;39;27;04

Brittany Delany

I feel free when I do Tai Chi in the morning. And I feel free when I'm in the studio making art.

00;39;28;01 - 00;40;00;03

Pam Uzzell

Oh, wow. So when you think about who maybe should consider coming to this and participating, do you have a particular idea in mind or what do you feel? Because it sounds a little bit like someone could receive a really amazing perspective adjustment. So I'm wondering, you know, you talked earlier about this feeling of being caught in a rage cycle, kind of that situation where

00;40;00;03 - 00;40;08;24

Pam Uzzell

you're frozen. So who, maybe, would this project kind of call out to? That it might be really beneficial to them?

00;40;09;14 - 00;40;20;18

Brittany Delany

That's a beautiful question, because what I I just want to compliment you one more time because sometimes people say, well, who's your audience? And it kind of throws it,

00;40;21;19 - 00;40;46;21

Brittany Delany

kind of throws the heart out of the why and I'm not dumb. I know how to write a good press release and I know how to create a marketing plan. And that's important because if nobody comes to see the thing that you do, then you're actually not doing the thing that you want to do. Your question goes closer to the heart, which is about benefit and which is about support.

00;40;47;00 - 00;41;16;06

Brittany Delany

And to me, I really want art that I make to invite someone in. When I wrote down in my notebook seven, eight months ago with my friend Lauren, we were brainstorming who we wanted to invite into this project as collaborators and beneficiaries of the money that we raised. We both wrote down elders, we both wrote down youth, and we both wrote down people that are impacted by the justice system.

00;41;16;23 - 00;41;39;12

Brittany Delany

So those three groups of people feel really important to make sure they're invited. And if they can't come because the ticket price is wrong or there's another barrier that we forgot to remove, for instance, time of day, we were really careful to think about time of day because sometimes our seniors want to go to bed early, so we don't want to throw a dance event

00;41;39;12 - 00;42;05;15

Brittany Delany

if it starts at 9:30, that's not respectful. So we're thinking of having a lot of matinee time events and events where if parents want to bring their kids, we can figure out some type of healthy after school hour or weekend time. But also we've been working with Bill, who has a really great relationship with the veterans community in the Coachella Valley.

00;42;05;15 - 00;42;31;19

Brittany Delany

He's a veteran and he has done some amazing art projects which specifically responds to issues that veterans face. So I'm grateful that he feels really excited to welcome veterans into the project. Benefit wise, I'd love to see folks who want to feel good, who need a little break, who need a little extra love and attention. I want them to show up and feel like they can hang out.

00;42;32;01 - 00;42;47;25

Brittany Delany

That's the benefit of putting on a show that isn't 8 to 10 on a Friday night, which is what I'm used to doing. So it's like, Oh wow, I can have four weeks. This is amazing. And I hope that I get to do something like this again, to work in a visual art framework because it just feels so spacious.

00;42;47;25 - 00;42;48;13

Brittany Delany

My goodness.

00;42;49;10 - 00;43;10;10

Pam Uzzell

I think that's a beautiful idea and I love how you've incorporated all those thoughts into how you're planning it. I'm wondering if you could tell us where we can find out more. I mean, I am dying to come. I'm not sure about the timing of it, but do you have an idea in mind of when the installation is going to be up and running and the performances?

00;43;10;21 - 00;43;29;10

Brittany Delany

Thank you for asking. So anybody who wants to learn more about the project can visit our website. It's the name of the collective groundseries.org. And then there's a link to the project right from that home page Free the Body. If you want to go right to the project page it's groundseries.org/freethebody.

00;43;29;21 - 00;44;01;18

Brittany Delany

We haven't signed on the dotted line what exact date we're going to launch the project, so I can't give you a save the date yet, but if you're curious to be kind of a nerd and learn more about the ideas and mathematics and the research, we've got some beautiful blog writing from Pete. We also have some sound samples that are linked in there, and we have a few videos I think that we might be developing as kind of teasers for the ultimate show itself.

00;44;01;20 - 00;44;22;05

Brittany Delany

But the location is set. The location will be at the Coachella Valley Art Center in Indio, California. So I encourage you to follow them and learn about what they're doing as well. They can be found at the coachellavalleyartscenter.org and you can also visit my website. I might be posting some interesting musings about my art practice.

00;44;22;17 - 00;44;40;10

Brittany Delany

I have a website, brittanydelany.weebly.com and good old Instagram keeps you up to date with social posts. So Ground Series has an Instagram. It's @groundseries and then yours truly also has an Instagram @brittanydelany.

00;44;41;18 - 00;44;55;28

Pam Uzzell

That's wonderful. Well, Brittany, thank you so much for sharing this. I'm going to be thinking about these different ideas around dance in a way that I haven't before. So I'm so happy to have talked to you.

00;44;56;06 - 00;45;02;24

Brittany Delany

So grateful. Thank you for all of your good work.

00;45;02;24 - 00;45;57;06

Pam Uzzell

You're listening to Art Heals All Wounds. 

My mind is full of new ways of thinking about freedom and the body and how engagement with art can help me to explore these questions. Thank you to Brittany Delany for inspiring me with her story of her ongoing questions around this as she continues working through and with the interactive art project Free the Body. I’ll include all of her info in the show notes so that you can find out more about this project and about Brittany's work.

00;45;58;03 - 00;46;26;15

Pam Uzzell

Thank you so much for listening today. I'm so curious to know if any ideas about where and how you feel free in your body occurred to you after listening. Let me know. You can always reach me through my website arthealsallwoundspodcast.com. 

The music you've heard in this podcast is by Ketsa and Lobo Loco.  

You also heard an excerpt from a video based on a Free the Body workshop.

00;46;27;14 - 00;47;00;05

Pam Uzzell

This podcast was edited by Iva Hristova.  

As always, this show was recorded using Squadcast.fm. 

Art Heals All Wounds comes to you from Oakland, California on unceded territory of the Chochenyo Ohlone people.