Philmont, New York. Ceramist and dancer Miranda Busansky is trying out the new residency program of the anthroposophical education initiative Free Columbia before it officially begins. In this interview, she talks about her intentions and experience.
What themes would you like to explore during the residency?
The seed of this residency is sewn in the fertile relationship between dance and ceramics while observing the experience of our bodies as conduits. I am interested in dance as an opportunity to move with the pleasure and grief of the social-political-emotional ecosystems that constantly make us as we make them. What does it mean to hold? Clay, a body, space, a word, an idea that becomes a system. I am curious about the reciprocal relationship between what holds and what is held. Also, I am exploring ways of sharing attention. How can we move with our attention? What is the organic rhythm of time? How can we be with our body’s attention instead of our mind’s timing?
What overlap do you see between dance and ceramics as art forms?
Through reciprocity and letting go of control my body was taught to find center by the wheel, yielding to the spiral of momentum to raise a cup or round a bowl. Contact improvisation is a dance form that deconstructs leader/follower dynamics and relies on mutual listening and tuning to the bodies and gravities around you. Both dance and ceramics invite intuition and centering, asking me how to be with my own stillness and pressure to attune to the micro-movements of my body. Clay and dance have existed since the evolution of our two-footed flesh bodies on Earth, continuing to record and transmit culture. They ask: how am I sculpting and being sculpted by my environment?
Which influences are shaping your artistic expression?
One of my most significant influences is a dance form called Butoh that originates in Japan. It has taught me how to be with my monsters and how to transform them. I am influenced by my contact improvisation teachers and by somatic research. I am influenced by the elements that compose my everyday life. This includes the support and kindness I have received while being a resident at Free Columbia and the inspiration I feel from their mission to create community-engaged and cost-effective spaces to share art and gather around art. Lastly, I am influenced by clay and the wood-fired kiln.
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Image Miranda Busansky
