The tenuous life of an artist

This weekend was weird and wild and I loved it. I got to immerse myself in the world of dance. Got to watch it and speak about it and investigate it and breathe it all in. During one discussion someone asked, "But what are they [the artists] thinking?" and the response was "I don't think even they always know that. All we know is that it is very different from what everyone else is thinking. That, I think is the purpose of artists. They think differently from the rest of us."

I like that description.

I'm not sure what to make of the two pieces I saw this past weekend. Both were mesmerizing in there own way yet profoundly sad and rather dark.

I then came across this article about Sarah Michelson this morning. It's sad to think that such a well established artist can barely scrape by. What sort of commentary is that on our societies value system?

FYI: for those who might live in NYC. Sarah Michelson is teaching a couple of classes at the yoga studio The Shala this week and over the 4th of July weekend. I highly recommend you check them out. I know I'll be there. She rarely teaches yoga anymore so this is a great treat. She's the teacher that taught me to "place your hand on your cheek and caress your face as though you were caressing the face of your beloved...then realize that you are."

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Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

June 14, 2005 Tuesday

HEADLINE: Back on the Boards, but Haunted by an Injury and the Rent

BYLINE: By CHRISTOPHER REARDON

BODY:

Sarah Michelson prides herself on being a survivor, a latchkey kid who crossed an ocean, beat the odds and made a name in New York. As a choreographer, she commands an avid downtown following, wins plum commissions and basks in critical acclaim.

But last winter Ms. Michelson (pronounced MITCH-el-son) suffered a wrenching blow. While rehearsing on Jan. 2, four days before the scheduled opening of her new show, she cracked a bone in her right foot. The injury, she said, was cataclysmic. It forced the cancellation of a three-week run at P.S. 122 in the East Village, costing her troupe an estimated $43,550 in production expenses, theater fees and lost ticket sales.

Now back on her feet, Ms. Michelson plans to return to the stage tomorrow through June 26 for the belated premiere of ''Daylight,'' an abstract work initially conceived as a meditation on urban geography and displacement.

Yet the injury haunts her. It has intensified her already acute sense of stage fright, she said, driven her deeper into debt and weakened her devotion to the art form. ''I really cannot go on this way,'' said Ms. Michelson, 40, who has no health insurance and consequently ran up a $12,000 medical bill. ''I have no money to live on.''