editorial

Hellene Gronda

You know, Contact is seriously on the fringe. I tend to forget how strange it is that I regularly roll round on the floor with other members of this marginal public.

Dance for most people is drunken jigglings or balletic virtuosity or music video synchronisation. I guess.
What connection can a dance artist and a social dancer have?Proximity is about the possibility and interest of this conversation …

My grandmother, a migrant from the Greek island of Samos can’t believe I pay money to go dance around.
So why do I bother to get sensitive to movement, to notice my body in a process that can range from ecstatic to painfully fraught?
Why do you bother?

In this edition Douglas Ray explores body awareness as a practice of life brave enough to embrace dying. Contact Improvisation and Alexander Technique give him a way to connect with the sublime terror of aging.
Katie Duck asks the question of choreography demanding that an artist lead us into the unknown, which might mean losing the hierarchy of leader and follower.
Anne O'Keeffe chronicles a search for creativity, Neil Thomas offers advice for the street and Kimberly McIntyre invites us all to go barefoot.
These reflections are as much about life as dance and all circle around opening to the future.
What is Proximity’s future?
It’s in your hands. Tell us what you’re doing, why you’re dancing, why you’re reading…

P.S. We’re looking forward to Nancy Stark Smith’s visit – don’t miss out on her performances in Melbourne and Sydney.