Writings between movements
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Grand Isle
It was the middle of July and we were taking a trip to Grand Isle, Louisiana. My husband Tom and I live in Minnesota, but Louisiana is where I am from. While I didn’t grow up on the island, it might have shaped me more than anyplace else. My Uncle Henry said it before I…
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Mu’uMu’u’s traveling from China
My coach tells me I am in a slump. For one thing, it is an athletic slump—that is, I’m running less and I’m suddenly a magnet for injuries. The left side of my body is deciding to fall apart. Hip, hamstring, and groin. I visited the physical therapist recently only to find out my pelvis…
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Re-entry Program
I have recently ordered three, what I’m calling “modern-day Muumuu’s”—you know the casual, long flowing house dresses that your mom wore around pregnancy. No I’m not pregnant. Besides, if I were, I should be sporting the tight-fitting, baby-bump-revealing style of clothes that’s so in fashion… Did I mention that I accidentally ordered one of those…
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The winter Monster is upon me
I should know by now that everything is going to change. When the sun starts staying under longer in the mornings and dropping low earlier in the evenings, when the skies cloud over and fogs roll in, when the air feels frigid and my fingers become numb, when I feel as if a lead weight…
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A van by the river
Living out of a van for four months. Not your idea of a dream vacation? It’s actually all that and more. The van is our mobile studio as we move down the river, researching Life on the Mississippi in 2019. Victoria taped out dimensions of the cargo space in our 2018 Dodge Caravan and she’s…
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21 Days
When #relayofvoices started, there were two projects, or two ideas. One, to run home down the Mississippi River, and two, to work on getting outside of my own story, developing a dance with a group of women. For a time, the two projects became one project, and Relay of Voices was a huge endeavor with so many…
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What is this all about?
Answer No. 1 Barak Obama’s outgoing call to our nation was to throw ourselves into citizenship. That is what I plan to do, and I plan to do it using my tool-kit as artist and athlete, while running and biking to 104 towns and cities along the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River Trail runs through…
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Seasonal EFFECTIVE Disorder
I believe winter has truly come. Temperatures have dipped well below zero in Chicago and the Twin Cities, and even my parents are burning logs in the fire place down in Louisiana. However, that hasn’t kept me from training up and getting ready for the long slow distance I will face this summer and fall…
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Rehearsing Relay
Over the past six months, I’ve traveled down the river and met not only hundreds of amazing river people, but perhaps most importantly, I met the one man who I believe I’ll spend the rest of my life with. Right on the river in Minneapolis! This river, and this project, are already—and swiftly—changing and uprooting…
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We are moving. We are dancing.
Today’s performance at #TEDxQuincy was awesome! So many thanks to A House Unbuilt company members for making this come together so seamlessly and my support system at home in LA and MN. Love to you all at both ends of our Great #mississippiriver #relayofvoices #thegreatriverrun #ahouseunbuilt #tedx #tedxtalks THE TALK: I am a social choreographer and this is my team of…
