In my spiritual path, this is a time of closing the door on the previous year and preparing the way for the new year – a balance of endings and beginnings. I am very excited for the new year, with many new developments and creative opportunities on the horizon to focus my attention on. My artwork is becoming very popular and greatly appreciated. I've written one book for a major publishing company and I just contracted for a second one. My ideas about witchcraft and spirituality have been receiving such fantastic feedback. I have an incredible creative life in music and dance with a real partner whom I love more than anything in the world. We've started new collaborations and ideas with other creative folk. There's big travel/touring plans on the agenda. We've even considered expanding our family beyond cats. I am so blessed beyond words and a bit breathless over it.
In order to have the time and energy to devote to these new projects (while also maintaining sanity), I need to make some changes in my workload and the various hats I wear. The biggest one of those changes concerns Waking Persephone. Producing such a festival is a year-long task that requires an enormous investment of my time and energy, even with the help of a fantastic staff. I know the following news is going to be very difficult news for many of you, but I need to listen to my gut. I am taking a hiatus from producing a major event for at least a year, possibly longer.
I have been creating and producing dance events for nearly as long as I've been a dancer, with my first BD events starting in 2001. (The timeline goes back a bit farther if you start with Art or Pagan events.) Despite being an introvert, I come from a long line of doers, so when I see and feel a need, I manifest the thing.
I have been extremely successful at it, and despite the repeated results (the proof in the pudding), I'm always a bit awed and amazed – yet I always stress about it all coming together, how will people feel/react/what will be their experience. I've also stepped up to help a lot of other folks make their events happen. I've done every aspect of what makes an event happen – from headliner to vendor, student to web designer, and everything in between.
I co-produced Gothla US from 2008-2010, and stepped away from it, handing over the reins, because I didn't feel the amount of work I was investing in it directly benefited my own students, as I was living on the east coast and it happened on the west coast.
After that, I thought that I was done doing big events for a while, but then the universe hit me with the idea for Tapestry Dance Retreat, followed by the idea of Waking Persephone. I'm a weird mix of gut-feeling, instinct, business sense, and organization. If I feel a thing strongly in my gut and heart and I sense a path in my brain, I make it happen.
Different from a festival, Tapestry called to my sacred and folkloric roots, and focused on a much more intimate atmosphere. WP allowed me to take the parts of Gothla I found the most useful, and forge them into a safe and creative space for the dance - in my own backyard, steeped in my own values and visions. I saw it as a way to build fusion dance to be stronger, to expose it to its own roots, craft its artistry, while bringing to light new teachers and performers among the established ones. To step away from cliques, cults of personality, and cloning copycats. The focus would be more on learning and building, rather than performing.
Tapestry took place in September 2011 in Providence, RI, a week after I came to the decision that I wanted a divorce from my marriage of 15 years. It felt like literally walking directly into a hurricane on so many levels, yet I came out of it renewed and reborn on the other side. Waking Persephone took place in April of 2012 (also in Providence) – with divorce proceedings happening the week before the event (and my ex not relocating out of the house until the end of May). Despite the turbulent undercurrents of my life, both events were successful and meaningful for so many people.
I decided Tapestry would return when “the stars aligned again”, and we're still waiting for that to happen. But WP got scheduled to happen again in Providence in 2013, with my local students and other community folks stepping up to help since I had relocated to Seattle. The event grew, but I was reminded how difficult it was producing an event from 3000 miles away, no matter how enthusiastic my PVD students and friends were. As we contemplated the 2014 event, our venue got bought out by developers, and if you don't know, finding the right venue is the biggest factor in producing an event.
I had spent months trying to find the right venue the first time back in PVD, and there was slim chance I'd be able to do it again from across the country. So that meant considering moving it to Seattle – but the West Coast had multiple events happening very close to the same time-frame. Being aconscientious producer, I chose not to dump my event on top of those. I found a venue that would work with our design and budget, and then worked with other local producers to select a weekend that didn't directly compete with existing events, even though our format and scope was completely different than anything else out here.
So if you're keeping track, I not only moved my event across the country, away from the community that helped build it, and changed it to a completely different time of year, but I was also presenting this weird model to a new community that didn't fully understand what I was presenting. Year 3 ended up being like Year 1 in size and reception, which was very hard. But to my surprise, for many of the people who did come, they loved it. Not only that, but they seriously stepped up to help build it when I wondered if I should keep it going or not.
Year 4 was off the hook. We had the venue figured out, we had a team in place, and word about the event was spreading far and wide. The event more than doubled in size in terms of registration from the previous year, putting it back on track despite the year 3 upheaval/setback, Gala shows were back to selling out like in the first years, and the Underworld Ball was huge. For the first time, as we first approached and then wrapped up the event, I wasn't asking myself if we should go another year or not. It had been a running joke since the first year that I would be all “hey guys, I'm not so sure about doing this next year” and by the end of the event, they had me convinced we'd do it again. This time around, I was already booking the venues before we were done.
Coming off of Year 4, word was spreading like wildfire for Year 5. We had over 100 teaching applications, and had to turn down many performers as well for the shows. Registration was steady and consistent all the way throughout the year. Vending was sold out in a hot minute. We could have made it bigger, offered more classes and space, but I decided we still had room to grow in other ways, and it was important to keep everything to scale. I'd rather have an overflowing PB&J sandwich of goodness than too much bread and not enough filling. Year 5 was a huge success. I couldn't have asked for better.
But personally, as I moved from 2015 into 2016, I sensed something different in my gut, and I hunkered down to analyze it.
I knew the event would be successful, both in concept and financial success. Truth be told, Waking Persephone has been an event that has been designed to and has paid for itself since Year One. I don't create events with the specific goal of making money on them, but I do build them in such a way to pay for themselves. The feedback/response from participants also proved that it was on track and appreciated.
The gut-feeling was from a different source. I had managed to produce events while my life was falling apart and rebuilding itself. But in the past couple of years, my artistic, spiritual, and personal life has been expanding in new and amazing ways. Coming into this year's event, I've spent a lot of time thinking, talking with my partner, my mentors, and the coordinating staff of WP. So yes, I had reached this decision before this year's event came to be. But I refused to change the feel of the event by announcing the hiatus for 2017. I had friends recommend that I announce it to “fill the classes more” because other events that had announced it was the last year saw a boost in attendance. WP doesn't work that way. You come because you feel the need to come regardless. You came because you were called to come, by your own guts and spirits. We also unanimously agreed that it wouldn't be the same for anyone else to take the helm. I've been told again and again that WP is the event it is because of me. I believe it's because of you as well.
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