Marti Head: Inaugural Dance Exchange CATALYST Awardee
On February 22 at our first annual SPARK event, Dance Exchange will honor a woman whose contributions to Dance Exchange have been immense: Marti Head has been a provocateur, a role model, a connector, and an unwavering believer in our creative process for more than a decade. She served as the Board Chair of Dance Exchange from 2011-2019, helping to navigate through change and celebrate new chapters for Dance Exchange.
Marti is the Director of the Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, a collaborative research effort between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee focused on new approaches to biomedical research and health outcomes in Tennessee and the Appalachian region. Prior to this role, she was with GlaxoSmithKline for nearly two decades as a computational chemist and a senior leader in the Platform Technology and Sciences (PTS) department.
Thanks to her background in science, Marti has helped Dance Exchange develop several major performance projects at the intersection of art and science including Liz Lerman’s Ferocious Beauty: Genome and The Matter of Origins, as well as Cassie Meador’s How To Lose a Mountain and Offsite/Insight: Stories from the Great Smoky Mountains. Her support has been steadfast and her insights into what makes Dance Exchange impact significant have helped to guide us into a future growing from our legacy.
The CATALYST Award honors someone who has sparked meaningful dialogue, research, collaboration, stability, and risk-taking in partnership with Dance Exchange. It is certainly fitting that Marti Head is our inaugural awardee. Below is a conversation between Executive Artistic Director Cassie Meador and CATALYST Awardee Marti Head.
Cassie: I wanted to start by asking you about your first memory of being drawn to science?
Marti: I remember it so clearly—it was when I was in high school and taking my first year of chemistry. The teacher was talking about how atoms are not solid objects, but instead they’re mostly vacuum and they’re always moving around. I remember it blowing my mind because I looked at my desk and was just blown away that this object—that you can’t push your hand through and is solid as solid can be—is actually mostly vacuum and moving around constantly. From that minute on I was a chemist.
Cassie: I’m curious then what led to your particular career path in science?
Marti: Well, it’s a longer path. That first awareness of “wow, that’s cool!” could’ve led to physics too. So I took a second year of chemistry in high school and learned some of the higher order things—s orbitals and p orbitals and the theory of atomic structure and making molecules. I went to college my first year planning to be a chemistry or chemical engineer major. Then, I took 10 years off. I raised a family, worked in a fabric store, and worked with a youth group. Which are all things that are as far afield from science as possible.
But, at a certain point I participated in a leadership program, where we studied “What does it mean to be a leader?” and “How do you lead with where you are right now in your community?” We looked at communal leadership models and discussed how to incorporate the voices of lots of people in the leadership together. So you can see, even long ago, I was setting myself up to be enamored with Dance Exchange and some of its ways of life!
At the end of the whole program, the folks running the program encouraged me to go back to school and so I returned focus to my career. I went back to school knowing I was still at heart a scientist/chemist.
To answer the specific question—chemistry sits in the middle of so much. Physics goes to fundamental forces, but those come together to express themselves through chemistry. The process of bodies working works because of these chemical reactions and interactions of these parts. Out of all that chemistry arise the bodies and the minds of the people that we are—I was drawn to chemistry because it’s fascinating, but also because of its central role in the sciences.
Cassie: It seems too like your interest and ability to work across a range of disciplines and your desire to work with a range of people and backgrounds—chemistry was something that offered that in your world.
Marti: I would agree with that statement!
Cassie: Tell me the story of how you first found Dance Exchange.
Marti: It was when Liz was working on Ferocious Beauty: Genome, and she had connected with a bunch of organizations in the Philadelphia area, sprinkled through with scientists. The whole process was fascinating. Dance Exchange used its tools and creative processes—like Walk and Talk where we made movement phrases about mutation and transposition and genetic phases to show work to each other. These tools have become familiar to me now, but at the time were just revelatory!
Cassie: From that moment to thinking through the arc of your time with Dance Exchange, you’ve continued to cultivate ways for groups that might not otherwise come together to gather. I’m curious, what has been one of the most memorable moments for you during your time with us?
Marti: Oh, there are lots of moments that have been meaningful with my time with Dance Exchange! But I think something that I call on often is the retreat back in 2009 as part of the Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts, at the time of the leadership transition. There was a lot of emotion around Liz’s departure and the transition and uncertainty in the future. Yet there was will and dedication to take this organization into that future. During that time, it became so apparent to me that there are multiple ways of knowing things. Dance Exchange was working through this difficult transition—it was in your body and in movement and in physical connection with others in the room. There are a lot of things I carry away from that weekend. It is one of the touchtone moments that kept me connected to the organization. I watched how eager you all were to commit fully to the organization and the principles underneath it.
Cassie: Marti, I’m so grateful you were there for that time of the transition and for our more recent strategic planning process. Because you’ve had the experience of Dance Exchange beyond a board meeting, you saw the value of bringing moving bodies to the experience. This recent strategic planning process was a chance to further the ways that Dance Exchange tools can help in a planning process with a group!
You served as Board Chair from 2011-2019, and have navigated Dance Exchange through both exciting and challenging transitions—what skills and practices from your life as a scientist have you brought to your role on the board? What have you learned here that you’ve taken back into your own life?
Marti: There are three places where I think I’ve brought my history into my role with Dance Exchange.
First, from the time I worked with a youth group. Years ago, the youth group was on the way back from Montana, driving somewhat fast in vans. One of the kids decided he needed to get out of a van because of a fight he was having with his brother. Thank goodness the driver was able to pull off to the side, the kid didn’t really want to get out of the van, and we were able to hang onto him. A thing I’ve always used at work and with Dance Exchange: As long as we’re all in the van together, we’re all doing ok. No matter what else is going on around us.
Second, from science, I’ve brought this mindset of stepping back, looking at the data, stepping away from the emotion of what’s going on, and saying Show me the data. Let’s talk it through and how can we take a measured approach moving forward?”
Third, from leading teams and people, I bring the question of How can we identify that core idea that holds us together? How can we let that be the propulsive force that drives us forward to where we’re aiming? In my career as a leader, I’ve learned a lot about the importance of listening actively. And finally, I learned how to run a crisp, organized meeting that runs on time!
What I’ve learned from Dance Exchange is the importance of movement in our physical bodies as a way of knowing things. Also, Critical Response Process—I use variations on that in many circumstances where we need to dig to the truth of something or give someone feedback that might be hard to hear. Lastly, you have solidified my commitment to the idea that when you want to understand something, you need to build work about it, you need to do something about it.
Cassie: Your partnership over the years for me has been invaluable as we both took on leadership positions with the organization at the same time. I’ve learned from you how to enhance people’s understanding and engagement through visual modeling, which was essential during the strategic planning process we led together for the organization, and that carries through in the studio and creative residencies. And I use all the time “what does the information or data we’ve gathered tell us?” That is a gift you’ve given and it has entered into my work with educators in classrooms, in the planning process with the staff, and looking at the stories we’ve gathered in creative processes. Oh, and of course how to run a meeting that ends on time! What do you think the last decade of transition and change for Dance Exchange has meant for the organization’s legacy and future?
Marti: One thing I’ll say is I really have enjoyed watching you grow and blossom and achieve more and more of the promise and potential that you carry with you. It was a big step when you walked into those leadership roles when Liz was leaving. I’m sure there were times when you felt overwhelmed by those responsibilities, but you are amazing. You haven’t been defeated by those times. You’ve learned from those times. I have great confidence in Dance Exchange moving forward into the future with the team that you’ve been building and the skills you’ve been building in yourselves. You continue to care about work that matters and you continue to build practices that can live on in the world both for dancemaking but also in meaning-making.
Cassie: Thank you Marti. What is the spark that keeps you wanting to stay connected to Dance Exchange?
Marti: You know I always say once you’ve danced with Dance Exchange you’re hooked and you can’t ever escape! But it is that spark of connecting to something that matters in the world, connecting to something that lets my physical body express itself; it’s connecting my body to my mind and my work and my aspirations in the future.
Cassie: Lastly, what does getting the inaugural CATALYST award mean to you?
Marti: This word “catalyst” is such a geeky word for me. A catalyst is something that speeds up the rate of a reaction without being consumed in the process. So, to me, getting this award has me thinking: How can we at Dance Exchange be a catalyst for positive change and positive growth in the world while still being restored and renewed again and again?
JOIN US at SPARK on February 22, 2020 at 5pm for a celebration of Marti and if you cannot be there in person please consider donating from afar. In honor of Marti’s contributions at the intersections of science and dance, Dance Exchange will perform a preview of Of Equal Place: Isotopes in Motion, a collaboration with Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. Get your tickets today!