Dear Earthdancers, Last week I was made aware that traditionally the Executive Director would write a few words for our monthly Score. It feels edgy to share a bit of my work and myself by speaking into this, hopefully, receptive void. I’ve heard that for some people it’s these words from the Directors’ Loft that they appreciate most about our newsletter, so my sense of duty and wanting to honor what I can see is a sweet tradition have gotten the better of me. With this blank screen staring at me, all of the things I could share with you flutter through my mind; From my tumultuous arrival to the crisp snow filled winter days that helped me ground. The deep cleaning of Earthdance’s entrails and the shedding of decades worth of old and long forgotten documents and things. We literally needed three bonfires, on different days, with multiple people feeding her paper to be able to start seeing the forest for the trees again. In this deep purging and pruning, one of the more pleasant things that emerged for me personally, is that we now actually have a real Director’s Loft, right above our main office. This has become my new office and from where I am writing to you now. I’m quite proud of my little hide-out and more than happy to give you a tour of this previously hidden part of our beautiful Farmhouse. While reminiscing is great, I can feel that summer is upon us and believe it's time to start looking forward and trying to set out a path for us to walk and dance down. While COVID is still a concern, at least for now we have been able to find a way to move forward that allows us to gather, explore, share and dance again. That means that this summer we hope to see all of you at least at one, if not all three, of our community event offerings. Our traditional family oriented Summer Jam is filling-up fast so if you know you wanna be there don’t wait to sign up! While some of us might be going to Oberlin College to celebrate Contact Improv’s 50th birthday we decided we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to also create a smaller homegrown space to pay homage to a form that has been so central to Earthdance from it’s conception and that has touched many of us to our core. So we’re very happy that we have a sweet group of longtime community members that will be hosting this gathering focusing both on reflection and celebration of the form. Then, to round-off the activities we hope to bring back a bunch of people from the Oberlin event for some days of more experimental labbing and research. For this we've invited an eclectic crew from Mexico and the West Coast to host our CI Global village. Here we hope to embody and explore the ideas around how CI engages with local culture and how cultural differences in return influence our CI praxis. Next Month I will share a bit about what is going on behind the scenes at Earthdance and how we are slowly moving to incorporate more sociocratic governance elements into our organization. So stay tuned! With sun filled greetings from the new Director’s Loft, Daniel J. Hayes |