Cassie Meador in conversation with Artists and Climate Change
Dancers carrying the fascines in Remembering Water’s Way. Photo by Liz Jelsomine
Earlier this year, Dance Exchange Executive Artistic Director Cassie Meador was interviewed by Artists and Climate Change, a blog dedicated to tracking artistic work about climate change that’s “popping up all over the world, in all kinds of venues…opera houses and hip hop poetry slams, in established galleries and on-the-fly exhibitions, in off-Broadway houses and regional theatres.” The team behind the blog believes that “what artists have to say about climate change will shape our values and behavior for years to come. For that reason alone, we should pay attention.”
Read on for a two part conversation between Cassie and Artists and Climate Change blog contributor Biborka Beres.
Part one: Value in questioning
“I also think that dance-making offers a way to experience and hold contrasting emotions and ideas at the same time, to be more honest about what we’re facing. We need this range of emotions to process the trauma inflicted by the climate crisis. If it were just about a rational response to scientific facts, we’d be much further along than we are – but it’s also about power. Facts alone don’t shift power. They have to work in relationship with the emotions that live in our bodies and with what moves us to change. I don’t think science has in any way failed us. We need the facts and the science, but we need them to be in relationship to opportunities that give us space to process those emotions, to be vulnerable. “
Part two: The sacredness of what we share
“We’re growing our capacities to approach movements and actions about our climate holistically and systemically. I see us deepening the connections and reciprocity of care needed, while recognizing the sacredness of what we share on our planet.”