Dancers in Massachusetts experienced an unexpected snowstorm during dance anywhere 2013 in March. Inclement weather didn’t stop these two participants who share their experience of dancing in the cold.

Caroline Parks of Cape Cod, Massachusetts is an artist who works with multimedia performance, sculpture/ installation, video and photo. Dance is a regular part of Caroline’s artistic practice and she routinely warms-up by brainstorming dance pieces which she says “often take months or years to germinate”.

Dance Anywhere sparked Caroline’s interest as she says, “the event is a lot of fun. I never know where I’ll be, or what the weather will be like. Last year it was cold and extremely windy. This year it snowed! It’s very spontaneous which is refreshing”.

Dance Anywhere 2013 from Caroline Parks. For more information about Caroline visit carolineparks.com.
Caroline performed a solo in the snow in Cape Cod. Because of her physical environment and the harsh weather, she says, “my piece this year resembled meditative exercises”. This experience of dancing in the snow fostered inspiration for her future work.

View her dance anywhere event page here

To Jessica, of Waltham Massachusetts, Dance Anywhere challenges her to step outside of her comfort zone and dance in unconventional spaces and times.

For the past three years Jessica has participated in Dance Anywhere, improvising movement while wrestling with her fear, nervousness and anxiety of others judging her, as her dance occurs outside of sanctioned dance spaces and times.

This year Jessica danced through the snow in the front yard of her childhood home.  She says, “I explored the feeling of cold… in the air and frozen water on the ground as I shared the space with the birch tree”.

Her audience was composed of passersby- cars driving down the street and people walking- who would turn their heads or stop and view her work. In 2011 and 2012, Jessica danced in a conference room at the office building where she worked in downtown Boston.

Jessica continues to participate in dance anywhere because it inspires her to stage dance at uncommon locations; “churches, gyms, art galleries, etc.” She says, “Thank you [Dance Anywhere] for all of the support, communication, sharing of experiences and ideas, and for offering the platform for us all to celebrate dance in our every day lives”.

Jessica Muise is a dancer/choreographer with a full time office job. She is passionate about dancing, creating dance and dance organizations. For more information about Jessica’s work visit intimationsdance.com. View her danceanywhere page at:
danceanywhere.org/participant/JessicaMuise