sylvan is a dance solo performed with the musical interventions of dear friend and talented musician, Eric Bribosia with whom I've started colloborating with starting from back in 2021. Performing this piece together last weekend at the music venue, or as it's so endearly called, Centre de Beaute Culturelle – Un Peu, run by Mathieu Ha along with his partner Cayo Scheyvan, was really like a kind of homecoming, or the circle closing itself and rounding things off nicely. Eric and I had met back about 12 years ago thanks, in fact, to Mathieu. Coming to his home cum artistic project to perform and inaugurate the space as a space where dance can also be performed, was deeply moving and poetic, might I even say beautiful.
As I continue to open myself up to making my own work, in the gentlest sense of the phrase, since at this moment, my making of solos is mostly like a kind of diary-writing, a way of checking in with myself on what's going on within me that I may and most oftentimes, may not even be wary of. I give myself the time and space to allow inner Sara express herself through the language she knows best – movement. And to have a friend like Eric, gentle, patient, intuitive and present, to come alongside me and be willing to accompany me on my solo journey within, I feel nothing bnut safe and taken care of thanks to his lilting tunes and instinctive punctuations of his piano.
A day of rehearsing in the morning, overcoming several technical hiccups and scares along the way, then lunching together and sitting on the pavement, chatting as we people-watched, all culminated then with this performance of our little show, shared with a lovely and generous little audience group. Rare are the times when I feel my social environment hugging me, embracing me; this past Saturday was one of those special occasions where I had a small band of my favourite people by my side, simply spending time together, being.
This is my small shout out to Eric, Aliocha, Mathieu, Cayo, Ravi, Thomas, Kim, Roz, James (and the other beautiful new people I'd met). May I never forget little gestures of support and kindness and to never ever take the small moments in life for granted. And like the wind that moves Matthieu's ever-present flag of gold, may we all be the wind to each other's lives, moving and engendering beauty in one another.
Photos by me and Cayo Scheyvan
