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Next Steps.

9/23/2020

I'm fiscally sponsored! Well, I'm not. But "Embodying Emily" is! That means all donations will be tax deductible and I'm now eligible to apply for artists grants. That's huge! I am full of happiness and glee. Thank you, Fractured Atlas, for your support and sponsorship.

So. Now what? The choreography is complete, the rehearsals have ceased, the recording of music commenced, the filming has occurred, the costume has been cleaned. Now what?

Now the post-production work happens. First up, fundraising. We need $4,175 to finish paying the artists for their many hours of work (we are $675 short of our first round and 2.5 artists have been paid). You can donate by clicking the donate link about. My part II fundraising campaign will launch as soon as it's approved.

And while that fundraising is happening? What then? We edit. We splice, color correct, line up the music, weed out the dead cuts. We add in the audio and sound effects, we triple check the piano track alignment, we add in shots of text. Then? We create a trailer and take stills for promotion materials and we advertise the film release. We find our audience members in the midst of a Pandemic. And then? We premiere! We invite our donors, contributors, and collaborators. We celebrate the hard work. And we open it to the public.

And then? Then we enter it into film festivals, fringe festivals, dance festivals, poetry festivals. We develop an educational workshop on dance and mixed media. We ask museums and art galleries for a spot to show our work. And then?

And then. Then we start the next project...

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$2,000 Raised, $4,500 To Go

9/3/2020

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My first round of fundraising completed yesterday with a total of $2,000 raised. I am amazed and humbled by the many contributors and audience members who have expressed interest in this project and who have invested in the work with their time and their funds. Fundraising is never an easy task for me, especially when the entire world is in a period of crisis. But I believe that the arts are important, that they elevate us humans, and that they must continue, especially now. And clearly I am not the only one who feels that way.

I am continuing to raise funds as my budget for the film has not shifted. We have enough to start the filming but we still have some artists to pay and much work to be done in post-production that includes hours of editing and film festival submissions. $2,000 raised, $4,500 to go. Keeping dance alive is and will be hard work. But it always pays off.

The costumes have all arrived, the piano is being mended, the choreography is complete (well...there will always be edits until the filming has completed), the structured feedback has occurred, the artists have met one last time at the gathering table, figuratively speaking because #Pandemic--we are ready to rumble. Let's create a dance film!

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What is "Embodying Emily?"

“Embodying Emily” is a dance film inspired by the poems and letters written by Emily Dickinson, particularly during the period of 1858-1865. This work is a creative imagining of a moment of self-reflection and illumination by Dickinson. The choreography in particular seeks to examine and to embody the intersection of several of Emily's extraordinary life experiences, including her dynamic emotional states, her heightened intellect, her creative productivity, and her purported mental illness.

Dickinson encapsulated into poems a period of immense personal suffering - a time she referred to in her letters to few as “the terror” - that carried her into a life of near-total isolation. Although she was incredibly productive as a writer during this eight-year period, her sister-in-law Susan H. G. Dickinson concluded that Emily "was never willing to face the world" through the publication of her poems because of the vulnerability and exposure such a publication would require. Perhaps this vulnerability is best described in Emily's own words, 'This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me.... sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!"

Ellie de Waal

Ellie de Waal is a dancer and chroeographer primarily based in Virginia and NYC. Her works have been adjudicated and selected for several festivals including the Richmond Dance Festival in 2016. Her skill set as a choreographer has been sought out by universities, studios, and companies for both concert dance and musical productions, including "Beauty and the Beast" and "Shrek the Musical". She also choreographed an opera “Still More/More Still” in collaboration with composer Anna Heflin and coloratura soprano Melissa McCann as part of a song cycle reawakening. She was a primary choreographer in concorDance Contemporary for two major projects and has presented choreography in 12 shows put on by the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative, where she continues to present work.

Embodying Emily

Want to view embodying emily? Reach out!

Next Steps.

$2,000 Raised, $4,500 To Go

Ellie de Waal

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EdW and Dancers is proudly sponsored by Fractured Atlas