THE SYMPHONIC BODY/FOOD
Ann Carlson is affable. Sitting with the choreographer, stories spin out onto the table like rain and we both come to a common ground of understanding about food, culture and difference. Columbus has been graced with her presence as an artist-in-residence at The Wexner Center for the Arts as she has developed “The Symphonic Body/Food,” premiering in April.
Ann is alive with a desire to understand the local food system in Central Ohio when we meet to talk about the work, and it’s this curiosity and outside perspective from Los Angeles (where Ann lives) that offers new meaning in our local food community to emerge from the proposition of a dance. And new meaning is what the local food system in Central Ohio needs for a future of growth and change.
“The Symphonic Body/Food” brings together artisans, growers, chefs, distributors, cheesemakers, leaders, administrators, artists, immigrants and more from the local food chain in Columbus. Together, they’ve developed a “symphonic” score with Ann as conductor based on the gestures they commit to and express every day in their workaday lives in the food system. The cheesemaker softly shapes a circle in midair, evoking the cheese round he tends to. The grower mimics lifting and looking for tools, sorting through plant material and gently patting down the earth with two hands. The grant writer announces a win that they “got the grant” with arms stretched wide into the air. And a local hunter nestles into the side of her chair with arms outstretched as she would if she were up against a tree hunting for a wild turkey.
The proposition of dance paired with the local food system seems a stretch, abstract to be sure, yet why not? In the chaos comes opportunity. Food is a relational system. We all need to eat. And we all need to move. What Ann and her symphonic body—our local food community heroes— have created is a cloud of movement and language that reimagines food, sharing, being human—a moving portrait of the beauty buried deep within those relationships between radish and grower, food enthusiast and vegan, hunter and hunted.
In her own words...
“I was most surprised to learn of the large network of people working in Columbus towards issues of food equity. The Symphonic Body/Food is put together through the lens of inspiration. I ask one participant who inspires them in this food system realm and then I reach out to those people and so on. So, in effect, participants perform within and literally make up a living web of inspiration. The gathering of individuals for this work reflects the passion of the community for this issue. The whole experience has been so inspiring to me. I’ve learned so much as I’ve witnessed people’s thinking and teaching, planting and policy-making. I’ve seen the minute and grand gestures (literally) that make up this devoted network. I love learning about people’s lives. Gathering around a topic so central to being alive (food/nourishment) has made this experience straightforwardly rich as well as,at times, heartbreakingly complex.”—Ann Carlson
Sit down to be an audience member and you’ll become a part of the community, too. You may find yourself scrambled for a bit in the waves of movement and sound but eventually your awareness will land on new ground and your heart might just resonate with the tenderness of a gesture, the sincerity of a look from one performer to another. Your ideas about food, culture and difference will start to shift and contribute to the symphonic cloud, too.
Why do we need new meaning in this moment of the local food movement? As cultural critic David Brooks wrote in a recent essay in The New York Times, “We are born into relationships, and the measure of our life is in the quality of our relationships. We precedes me.”
It’s time for the “We” of the local food movement in Columbus to precede the “Me.” It’s time for the harmony a symphony can provide, making Ann—along with all those involved in this performance and all those who support those involved in this project—our heroes this spring.
Learn more about “The Symphonic Body/Food” premiering at the Mershon Auditorium April 12–14 at wexarts.org.
