Laressa Dickey in conversation with Michaela Gerussi

How might attention be considered as a connecting point between contemporary dance practice and Craniosacral Biodynamics? With this question in mind, Michaela invites guest Laressa Dickey to speak about the points of overlap she has found between working with language, movement and in therapeutic settings. Together they discuss some of the basic and more complex principles fundamental to Craniosacral Biodynamics, beginning to explore more broadly the ways that this work can inform our sense of ourselves both in life and as applied to movement-based artistic practice.

They discuss:

- interdisciplinary artistic practice: tensions/mysteries between forms as generative gaps
- compositional resonance between dance and creative writing
- rethinking the traditional client-practitioner relationship
- improvisation

Bios:
Laressa Dickey's artistic work lands in the fields of writing, movement/performance, and bodywork. She has published four books of poems as well as several chapbooks. Together with sound artist Andrea Steves, Dickey published RADIO GRAVEYARD ORBIT (Sming Sming), a speculative artist's book about space junk. Her collaborative installation with Ali Gharavi, How to Pass Time with No Reference, was included in the Bergen Assembly 2019. Along with Magdalena Freudenschuss, she was commissioned by Bergen Assembly to create a series of feminist essays on the politics of care, entitled: Re:assembling Emotional Labor: On the Politics of Care. Since 2005, she’s been using movement improvisation and performance to inform her writing practice, and vice versa. Her bodywork is influenced by Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Body Mind Centering studies, Amerta Movement and an attuned, empathetic imagination.

Michaela Gerussi is a Canadian dance artist based between Tkaronto (Toronto, Canada) and London, UK. Michaela’s dance practice is nourished by her inquiry into the nervous system, interoception and attunement, in relation to her studies in Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy. Her work considers shifting relationships between people, places and materials, layering subtle perceptual detail with a functional, dynamic approach to movement. Her collaborative performances, intermedia and site-specific works have been presented in Montreal (QC), Toronto (ON), Sherbrooke (QC), Buffalo (NY) and Berlin (DE). She is currently completing an MFA in Creative Practice, based in London at Trinity Laban and Independent dance.

Read more:
- Suprapto Suryodarmo and Amerta Movement (https://www.amertamovement.co.uk/)
- Bettina Mainz (http://www.bettinamainz.de/)
- Body Mind Centering (https://www.bodymindcentering.com/)
- Deep Listening, founded by composer Pauline Oliveros (https://deeplistening.org/)
- Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in the UK http://www.cranio.co.uk/

Keywords:
Paula Mann, Bebe Miller, Joe Goode, Patricia Brown, Myung-Mi Kim, Fanny Howe, Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy, contemporary dance practice, somatic practice, Body Mind Centering, Laressa Dickey, writing