In honor of the season, as well as local choreographer Molly Heller’s recent interest in the heart, I asked Diana Crum to share with us a “heart score” she’s been developing through the last few years. She’s used versions of it in classes and a performance process surrounding the organ and it’s cultural significance. I’ve performed and practiced it myself several times and I wanted to return to the simple power that it points to.
I also wanted all you out there on the internet to see that I’m serious when I say we’re looking for all kinds of writing and media related to dance. Don’t be daunted by submitting something to this publication, we want don’t just want long interviews (like I tend to write) and essays, we want thoughts and ephemera about dance in any state or of any size in which they might come. Email me at sam@lovedancemore.org
-Samuel Hanson, editor
Heart Score One, written November 28, 2016, revised 2017
Pay attention you heart.
Really, I mean it. Send your attention to that muscle.
See if you can notice the heart beating. You may have to relax a little. Loosen up. Calm your breath. Chill out.
Now notice your heart.
Picture where it is inside your body.
Sense or if you can’t sense, don’t worry, It’s still beating.
You can just imagine it's pulsing
simply the blood throughout your body.
Picture the heart's size. It's shape
Imagine It's weight. It's volume
And the texture of its walls.
The feeling of it's surfaces
Is it smooth? Striated?
Slimy? Wet.
Bouncy?
Warm.
Comforting?
Consider it. Consider the heart.
I’ve heard it's a muscle.
I've also heard it's an organ.
Some say it is a door to the spirits.
I like to imagine that if I relax,
if I let my heart fall into it's resting place,
If I release the tissues around it
it will also fall into its role as a door
(Lights raise)
I imagine that it's boundaries will become more porous
That it will settle into a translucence
Like ghosts in movies
I imagine it having fluid boundaries
And then I imagine the walls inside my body softening
Each boundary becoming more porous
I image my body itself becoming more porous
The boundary of my skin
Expanding and dissipating
My cells blending with the air around me
Diana Crum is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, dancer, teacher, administrator and advocate. The roles overlap and inform one another. Her choreography has been presented in New York, Atlanta, France, Austria, Germany, and Mexico, among other places. In New York, presenters include Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dixon Place, CPR-Center for Performance Research, Roulette, and 92nd Street Y, among others. Her work considers both context and community. She has made site-specific work, commissioned by loveDANCEmore and chashama. She received her MFA in Dance from Hollins University and BA in Dance from Columbia University.