Landscapes of Improvisation
~ Interconnected ~
Created: December 2021 - January 2022
Location Filmed: Northern California
Performance & Production: Sophie Spiral
This next episode of Landscapes of Improvisation follows me to different locations around the SF Bay Area, as I come back to visit the lands of the Ohlone and Coast Miwok peoples where I grew up. I spent December 2021 and January 2022 reconnecting with these landscapes that are very close to my heart. When I saw Maya Elise and The Good Dream perform their song 'Mycelium' live, I felt it would be the perfect song for this footage. The title is an homage to Thich Nhat Hanh who died while I was editing the video and who's message that our lives (human and more-than-human) are deeply interconnected has forever changed me!
~ Pandemic is Portal ~
Created: June 21, 2021
Location Filmed: Viktoria Park, Berlin, Germany
Choreography & Concept: Sophie Spiral
Camera: Cris Amate @crimaramat
Sound: Reinartz
This short film is a reflection on this year of pandemic - inspired by Arundhati Roy - the dance envisions the possibility that the pandemic could indeed be a Portal to another world. This piece was filmed at sunrise on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The beginning represents the darkness of these times, like Valarie Kaur suggests, these dark times are a womb fertile to birth the new world we are longing for.
Group Choreography
~ Ancestor Tree II ~
Performed: September 2022
Location Filmed: ZK/U, Berlin, Germany
Choreography & Concept: Sophie Spiral
Camera: Cris Amate @crimaramat
Dancers: Samira Amani, Huachau Chen, Elisabeth Lehmann, Michelle Jimenez Lora, Leyla Milan, and Louis Volkmann.
Original Sound: Huachao Chen, Anka Campos Vizconde
This is a ritual to honor trees as part of our family. Ancestor Tree is our grandmother, father, auntie, daughter, cousin - they are our inner child and our higher self. A gender queer being encompassing all the care, protection, and wisdom we need to reimagine the world we live in today. How can we be aware of this support that’s always been there? We honor them, our tree ancestors - we dance, we sing, we breathe as ways of being in reciprocity.
~ Ancestor Tree I ~
Created: November 2021
Location Filmed: ZK/U, Berlin, Germany
Choreography & Concept: Sophie Spiral
Camera: Cris Amate @crimaramat
Costumes: Rebecca Hiles @kkim_rosario
Dancers: Miriam Beike, Aymara von Borries Bisbicus, Elisabeth Lehmann, Sophie Spiral
Sound: Benedikt Wieferig
This is a ritual to honor trees as part of our family. Ancestor Tree is our grandmother, father, auntie, daughter, cousin - they are our inner child and our higher self. A gender queer being encompassing all the care, protection, and wisdom we need to reimagine the world we live in today. How can we be aware of this support that’s always been there? We honor them, our tree ancestors - we dance, we sing, we breathe as ways of being in reciprocity.
Landscapes of Improvisation
~ Dance through the year of pandemic ~
This ongoing project began in 2014, and has become my embodied research practice - dance as a pathway towards connecting with land as decolonial, ecological practice. Through improvised movement in outdoor spaces, I am learning to listen more deeply to my body and Earth.
The one thing that didn't change for me during Covid-19 is this ourdoor dance practice! It stabilized me when everything else felt uncertain. The following videos document my dance practice during the year of the Covid-19 pandemic - beginning in Spring 2020, continuing with Summer, Fall, and Winter 2020-2021. Enjoy watching in the following order, as you reflect on the year for you.
Spring 2020
Photo credit: Carmen Gondard
Landscapes of Improvisation: Ode to Corona
Created: March - May 2020
Location Filmed: Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
Music by: Laura Gris
The Covid-19 pandemic supported me to explore the land in my neighborhood. I went on walks every day, finding places to connect with different outdoor spaces through dance. Thus, my embodied research practice supported me listen to what was closeby. This is my Covid Diary, documenting this phase of transition and transformation globally - on a small scale.
Summer 2020
Landscapes of Improvisation: Ode to Sea
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Created: September, 2020
Location Filmed: Istria, Croatia
Music by: Soyinka Rahim (@BiboLoveUs)
Improvised movement performed and edited by Sophie Spiral.
Autumn 2020
Landscapes of Improvisation: Ode to Letting Go
Created: November, 2020
Location Filmed: Viktoria Park, Berlin
Music by: Reinartz
Improvised movement performed and edited by Sophie Spiral.
Winter 2021
Landscapes of Improvisation: Ode to Snow
Created: March 2021
Location Filmed: Switzerland
Music by: Kilian Ludwig
In honor of winter and the glory of snow!