Dear friends and supporters,

We begin with a concept that moves us.
We practice without knowing, with dim understanding.
We continue like our silhouettes in the early hours on the move.
We move together in a shape of movement, when movement is
a form of stillness.
We could call the journey a quest for dignity.

In radial light our ancestors surround us.
Floating, they are not shells but one imagines them that way.
We know their faces in a catastrophe of storm clouds.
They find images, like most of our concerns, amusing.
Even when the water is troubled, they remain still.
Many have grown still this way, and we are never far from them.
One day we will know what they know.
For now when we rehearse they draw closer.

In this and other ways in a time of ridiculous war we imagine the elephant.
In days of idiotic tyranny we rehearse imagining the elephant.
In the hour of our collapse I turn away from other humans.
I press my head against a banyan tree.
I hear a ghost trumpet.
I don’t know how to act, but for a moment I feel free.
In the moment I discover a way of being myself.
I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs.

Let me explain.
It’s another act in the minor carnival of resistance.
Thank you to the Chicago Dancemakers Forum.
Thank you for encouraging us in this dance of difference.
We plan to share it in the fall.
This moment requires a newsletter of a different sort.
These days demand that we keep channels open.
Keep connections live.
Toss out a line.
Hold on to a concept that moves us and keeps us moving.
And keep moving.

When we arrive we will know more.
When you arrive we will know everything.

Matthew Goulish, dramaturg