21 August 2006

home and Goat Island workshop

A steady build up of writing again before my return to the residency in September.

I have just returned from a 6 day workshop at Lancaster University with the Chicago based collaborative performance group, Goat Island. I won't talk about the workshop directly although there is a lot to say about it, but will just mention some experiences regarding being away from home.

Being away from home – home from home

The journey to Lancaster is a straight run up the M26, I take my time arriving after 5hrs. I am staying in a house in Lancaster with a local woman - strange really - not like staying in an anonymous hotel - lieing in her bath, her bed, eating from her table. She said make yourself at home and I did - she said she was grateful I didn’t treat her home like a hotel.

A little bit of my life happened somewhere else for a week, I translocated myself through county boundaries from north to south and ended up with a group of strangers who became a community of shared interest for 6 days. Moments can be profound with people that might not be seen again, its not only history that matters, its about being part of a shared experience, no matter how different, having a witness to your process and vulnerable stumbling, about meaning in those moments that change things just enough to stay with you.....

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