To Steven Holloway dance anywhere® is a yearly event that allows him to experience joy in his moving body. “To dance is to be alive in your body, to breathe, to sweat, to feel. What more can we ask than to be so alive?” A participant since the early days of dance anywhere®, Steven continues to dance each year because the celebration helps to ground his artistic practice. “As a visual artist, my art begins to atrophy when I get too far from feeling my feet on the soft damp earth. All things, all art is woven together, and dance anywhere® reminds me of this, reminds me to live, to breathe, to feel joy and share”.

Steven first learned of dance anywhere® when Artistic Director, Beth Fein asked if he would photograph her dance in Oakland. “I took some pinhole photographs and I also made a stop action video of the dance and noticed that there were a lot of different dances/movements that were going on. Not just her dance but so many. It was really beautiful. People walking, trees in the wind, people watching, cars… This was so beautiful”. The image of the dancers in a moving and constantly changing environment inspired Steven. ” I think that initially seeing how the community that was in motion was so much greater than what I assumed. I started to see dance as something new and exciting.” From this moment on Steven has been a dedicated dance anywhere® participant.

Steven Holloway / Pinhole Photo for dance anywhere® 2008

Two years later Steven was teaching in the Kala Institute Art-in-the-Schools program with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at Thornhill Elementary in Oakland. “I got the idea to incorporate a student dance performance along with my teaching of the complex and interwoven movements of the sun-moon-planets”. Steven choreographed Dance of the Planets and Beth Fein provided T-shirts that highlighted which students were dancing the different roles of the sun, the moon, the earth and even sun spots (twins) and rogue planets. Steven again documented the performance with lensless images and a stop action video. “The performance took place outside and was just wonderful”.

“Dance of the Planets” / dance anywhere® from Dance Anywhere on Vimeo.

While Steven’s interest in dance anywhere® began as documenting performance his interest evolved to be an interest in dancing. “dance anywhere® became an opportunity to encompass my own dancing and involve the dancing of others. It remains that I document using stop action and lensless images..But I started dancing!”

For the last four years Steven’s dances have, like his music and other art, started with a mapped out idea that is then improvised. His pieces, Accidental Furrows and the Smokey the Bear Sutra dances were choreographed and planned but performed under difficult or interesting weather conditions. Steven says “This year a cloud of depression, sadness and grief dominated my winter-spring and I could not summon the resources to perform my original intent but that did not stop me from dancing”.

Steven R Holloway / dance anywhere® – 2011 pinhole photo taken at Open Glaciated Colville River Valley

Each year Steven’s creativity is sparked by dance anywhere®. “You give yourself these commitments in life, these dates, these events and people to which you say ‘YES!, I am going to do this’…You keep and build on the important ones and these, while not defining you, add meaning to your life. They bring in joy and delight and love and kindness. All the beauty becomes revealed in doing these things however private and small or large and difficult. You do them, you do not argue with yourself. You get up, you go out, you say yes, and even if you are depressed and sad and sick you just find a way to make these commitments..dance anywhere® is one of these events that came alive and to which I just say YES!”. Steven continues to be inspired by the moving and ever changing nature of the world around. “My creativity is sparked – of course- In movement all things are alive and interwoven and changing and everything is sparked”.

Steven Holloway / 2013

Steven is also interested in the many ways that the community has engaged with his dance anywhere® projects over the years. “Though the Smokey the Bear performance was done in wind cold snow, alone on a mountain, I know that people watch and talk and engage in this performance through the video.” He is especially interested in the ways that people engage with communities virtually, physically and spiritually. “We really do not know the full extent of our art, our aliveness, our engagement. We have this idea that x number of people were there and x number of people went to the YouTube and it sold for x amount and this is the indication of success. How small and ignorant this is… I think the community of grasses and winds and sounds and light was engaged in the Smokey the Bear dance. Who is to say that this is not more or less important than my YouTube post? I dance because it is to be alive in community.”

Steven Holloway/ dance anywhere® 2013

Steven concludes with a final thought about his dance anywhere® experiences- “What I wonder is why everybody does not dance at noon on the last Friday of March? I mean really, put your body in motion and sing, compose, breathe, sweat, move your feet and engage in this great community event”.

For more information on Steven Holloway visit his website and dance anywhere page