Winter and 2025 bring the chance to start again, believe anew and let go of the traumas the whole world has been holding with wars and disasters. Such a profound time on our dear Mother Earth, in our communities, in our hearts.
I will make 80 in March and that decade turning has me feeling compelled to imagine the next steps of letting go, changing course, selling the farm, creating a dynamic legacy of this Vocal River improvisation work and enjoying this time of life in the midst of global chaos and personal health challenges. Whew!Wow that is making me exhausted just to lay it out like that.But these days, it seems that we all need to be as flexible as possible.Aha, it is a time made for improvisation! Finally this profound work is being recognized as the force for change and community building in the arts that it has always been. We get to take these skills of listening, blending, collaborating off the matt and into every day life.Not so easy, very humbling I would say, but critical.By the way, please get or stay connected to The Well which is our Global Vocal Improvisation Network spearheading the growth of all these forms of improvisation so we stay in contact and support one another everywhere.In that regard I decided to do a 3 camera shoot with 9 singers on the farm in December and document all the Vocal River forms. It began a bit smaller, ok a lot smaller, but we realized we needed enough singers to do an Orchestra which has 7 singers at least. So the project grew as they do. Soraya Perry organized the filming and gear with Roselio Hernandez and was a major force in getting this to happen. Mahalo nui forever.Margie Gillis was on the farm having a personal visit with me and Janne so she agreed to do 2 days of filming the process of voice/body integration and Murmuration. So extraordinary to have her here with her shining dancing light and magic stream of consciousness brilliance. We added Jascha Hoffman, Cara Tresize, Zahara, Charles Haines, Matt Goldstein, Laurel Murphy plus Jenn and Colee from the island. We were visited one day by Shizuno Nasu from Volcano and Japan so the movement segments of the filming were full of surprise and collaboration. Margie and Shizuno had never met. I want to take a moment in gratitude for Jascha Hoffman whose loving support made this project possible.I love that about this process. If you learn the work deeply, you can practice with anyone else who knows the work even though you might never have met before. Something magic about that connective tissue of information and sensibility. Watching it in action is a revelation.And we got everything done in about 8 days of sessions with some time off in between to rest.We got everything done. That is thrilling. Hardly ever happens in real life.Now the editing is in process and in a few months, we will have lessons to offer for anyone around the world.And the legacy of this Vocal River work is solid and secure so that it can transform and mutate and here is the proof of the original concepts.Like all that we do in improvisation, there is strength in the form and brilliance in the transformations of that form.This allows the work to stay vibrant and alive.As for me, coming to 80 years is knocking me down and lifting me up at the same time. I want to be alone and I want to be with everyone I love. I want silence and I want massive amounts of music and collaboration. So how is that all going to work out?Stay tuned dear friends and family.I am raising funds for this 80th year so I can offer scholarships, plenty of them. We want this work to spread wide and be available which is not so easy in these times.As I begin to transition into caregiver for my dear beloved Janne and find ways to continue singing work, I ask for your care and forgiveness for any late response. I have never done this before. Don’t you feel that about a lot of things?Never experienced war, fire, flood and violence on this level.We must hold one another up with courage and sooooooo much love.Be kind, keep singing and stay in touch.I love you all.
