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[Music/Singing]
"Places. Almost time for Places. Thank you, 5!"
[Stage Manager]: Five minutes to places!
[Taylor/Anna/Tami]: Thank you, 5!
[Tami]: So Anna.. Taylor.. Do you remember your first um,
artistic experience and the one that like,
sealed the deal for you. Like this is it.
This is what I want to do forever.
[Anna]: Oh yeah.    [Taylor]: Oh totally.
[Anna]: Um, so I come from a family of artists
so creative and artistic time was also like playtime.
Um and I... with my cousins every summer
we build these site-specific...
what I now know is site-specific, immersive like
performances that were both like
scripted plays and dances with music
that we would kind of situate in the, um...
the summer house that our family shared.
Um, I actually have a sign from one of them,
it was like "Joe's Bar", with all these, like beer cans
from like our great uncles, like alcoholism actually but.     [Tami]: Ohh.. yeah.    [Taylor]: Yeah. I think for me
you know my father was a craftsman.
He still is. He was a very...
he's a very talented woodworker
and I think kind of watching him
like make custom cabinets and woods...
wood goods for people kind of made
me... I think that was maybe my first exposure
to like making something artistic was him making
my first bed or making like a
special wooden sculpture that I asked about, um...
and then I got into dance when I was
five-and-a-half/six years old and I think
you know, I had a lot of trouble in
school with communicating and dealing
with bullies and things like that and I think dance...
I think when I got like to the age of ten
I really put together that idea of like
putting your feelings into what you're doing.
Um, dance became an outlet where I really started to feel that. Where to process my emotions and my
feelings and things that I couldn't put words to
at a young age into movement and expression.
[Tami]: Well how did dance enter your life?
I mean, you.. all kids like move...
most kids move around and dance but in a
formal way that you knew that there were
classes or that this was something you
could do to express yourself, who...
who introduced that to you in your life?     [Taylor]: Yeah.
I think for me like I have a younger sister, um...
she started taking like creative movement
classes when she was like 18 months old.
Um, and since we're only about four years apart
I was always with my mom when we had
to take my sister to the studio and we'd hang out
in the lobby and visit. And my mother says the story is
that I just became really curious about what
was going on and kept watching through the windows.
Um, and I saw a dance class happening, uh a tap class actually, um and it just looked like a lot of fun.
So my mother was actually the one who urged me to sign up and she's like "you're really into this,
you're staring through the window a lot..."
um "you have a lot of energy... you dance
around the house all the time...  why don't you take a class?" And of course the studio was really
excited about that because there wasn't many um, male bodies enrolled in dance that young.       [Tami]: Yeah.
So my mother was definitely the one who got me interested in music and dancing
and she really pushed me to try it out.
[Anna]: I mean my mom was a dancer so it was
pretty much like situated again like in my familial dynamics. She had a dance and aerobics studio actually
on Nantucket Island when I was still really little.
[Tami]: Wow.     [Anna]: You know guy dance classes and
aerobics classes with amazing 90s-like dance mixes. (Laughter) And I was put into dance when I was about
three but before then like my other aunt did a lot of contact improv so she said that I would just dance with
her when I was really little. We would just do like really simple like contact and she would turn on music and
I remember the first time I ever improvised I closed
my eyes and I had this whole like imagery-based
experience of like, uh.. just like what
I was moving through texturally in my body.
Um and I also was brought up with a lot
of like, early like MGM movie musicals like Gene Kelly...
like Bob Fosse too.     [Taylor]: Yes!     [Anna]: Like I was too young to watch a lot of this stuff but I watched it
Uh, yeah.. so I didn't realize that wasn't normal for people, you know, until I got older and I was like oh
I appreciate the history lesson that was like integrated into like the childhood movies or shows that I would see.
[Tami]: So like a lot of people, um you know might be enrolled in dance classes, their parents want them to
have extracurricular activities and... So you stayed. You know some people, you know may do it in high school
but then they... they may grow out of it...
or they may not see it as a career.
So there's something that has kept you here. You know, that's kept you wanting to continue working.
So what is it that.. what is it that inspires you?
What is it that that makes you stay?
[Anna]: I think for me the real turning point in my like
"this is my calling" was actually when my mom
died of cancer. She was sick for like six years
but when I was 12...13 she passed away.
And I was... I didn't realize it at the time but dance became the space that I could process it
without speaking. It was my non-verbal
therapeutic face... I often called it my religion.
And it was the only way I knew how to cope
with that moment in my life.     [Tami]: Mhmm.
[Anna]: And I think that it has the power
to do that for so many people
and that's what keeps me going. It really
does feel like the space where I can process those
things and also the space where I communicate with her even though she has passed on. I feel her presence
in my body as I dance.     [Tami]: Wow. 
[Anna]: And I also feel like it's almost something that I
ch... that I didn't choose it... "it chose me". Yeah.
[Tami]: Mhmm. Yeah, um my dad died when I was 12
too and I was in a play at the time. I was in um...
Peter Pan. And I was a Lost Boy. And I was at rehearsal
on the night he passed and, I just remember, you know, just the only place I wanted to be was at rehearsal.
[Anna]: Exactly.     [Tami]: Only place I felt and ever since then it's really the only place I wanted to be. At rehearsal.
[Anna]: Really and people were so surprised they were like your mom died today and I was like I have to go
to class. like I would be derailed you know.    
[Tami]: Yeah.    [Anna]: The community too that is built in
those spaces has really sustained my whole life.
[Taylor]: Definitely, yeah I think for me it definitely
became like the chosen family and that as you said that desire to always be at rehearsal up in... in Texas um...
where the idea of what it meant to be a
male body and gender was very specific
if you don't play football or sports or you're not into various things, um people kind of had an issue with that
and I never really understood myself
and I always had a lot of questions about
how I expressed and how I identified...
and eventually got more language to that
as I got older but I think dance... you know I was bullied a lot in school. It got really bad.
I went to three different high schools and moved counties and had a lot of issues with that.
And then it became the place... as you were
saying.. I just always wanted to be at class.
You know, I would sign up for more
classes and more classes and it just
felt like a place that I felt important and that I felt unique in that there wasn't judgment right away.
Um, people saw me as Taylor, their friend at dance
who cracks jokes... who has a crazy loud mother,
you know and it just felt a lot more fun. It felt more like home than home or school did um and I just
got addicted to that.     [Tami]: Yeah. 
   [Taylor]: That I loved being on stage. 
I loved wearing costumes.
My dad even started making my own costumes      [Tami]: Wow.     [Taylor]: and stuff and it just became a
safe haven.     [Tami]: Wow. I love... I love this. I just love the connectivity of... of the... the idea that art
saves lives. You know because it saved my life and it feels like what I hear from you it saved yours too.
So if there's like um a project that you
could work on, like a dream...
I know you all have worked together for
many many years. Is there a dream project?
Something that you are so longing to create
either together or, or separately?
[Anna]: Yeah, I mean, I think what's exciting is and
what was also really sad about Covid is like
I really did feel like we were stepping into this place where like we could work. We were getting to the point
where we could ask for funding to fulfill these dream projects that we had to create these dream teams.
Um I'm really excited about a particular project that is supposed to premiere next year called Weighted Sky
that is like a collaboratively directed work between ourselves and another duo — Michiyaya Dance.
um that has Anya Clarke and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery and our friend Abdu Ali doing
sound and I, I'm really excited about this group
and the content that we're exploring
which is essentially what is happening now.
Like witnessing um these white supremacists and
capitalist structures like collapsing on top of us.
And also hustle culture as something to really degrade
like artists and I was feeling it. I was feeling major burnout before.     [Tami]: Oh my god.
I love that hustle culture right?     [Anna]: Yeah! You know your taught to never stop but in that never stopping
you're, you know, burning the candle at both ends.     [Tami]: Yeah!     [Anna]: A project in our field that's
supposed to premiere at the Kennedy Center too, which has kind of been a dream.     [Tami]: Oh wow.. wow.
[Anna]: Dream space since I was a kid.
It was like where I first saw like major dance
I had always dreamed about.      [Taylor]: Totally. I mean the Kennedy Center as young dancer is like
you know you just have so many fantasies
of dancing on those stages and
I think and you know we've, last year we
were also working on a project called
Resonant Body that um we were able to wear these sensors that measured our biometric data,
the velocity of our movement, the pressure that we were um creating through pressing our hands
together and that was able to send like vibration signals into an object that someone could hold onto
and feel the different nuanced vibrations. And I think Anna and I always had a dream of making dance beyond
the ocular centric. How can we make
a dance that's felt through technology?
I worked at the Western Pennsylvania
School for Blind Children for about a
year when I was in college and I realized there the power again of how dance can heal even beyond
just viewing it with your eyes.
We have such intelligent bodies as humans with
kinesthetic awareness and proprioception and all these beautiful entry points of senses. And I think I continue
to have this dream on building
um dances that can be accessible on a
larger spectrum, not just viewed through
the eyes and ocular centricism but
give people more entry points to connect to it
and further connect to their own
embodiment in space. Because I feel like all these systems that Anna mentioned in the state that we're in
embodiment gets lost a lot and I don't
think our culture in the U.S. prioritizes embodiment
knowledge and intelligence embodied intelligence and
I think that's something that I have a dream of
continuing to promote and create experiences that people can connect to their own bodies and question
their, their body and space and their body
within these worlds that we're building on stage.
[Tami]: Yeah. I think right now we're all being asked to you know rethink our methodology around
communication. And I, I've been saying like
you know the person who comes up with
um you know what a Covid-era hug is...     [Taylor]: Yes!
[Tami]: is gonna be a hero because we, we miss
that comm... that kind of communication. It's not just, you know, um our... the way we verbally connect with
each other but it's physical as well.     [Anna]: And it's energetic too. you know, it's like it's that energetic
exchange that I desire in performance. 
    [Taylor]: That viscerality.
[Tami]: Well that's the like live... the live stuff. Like why
you know for me I didn't go... you know I didn't
gravitate towards film and television you know
I.. I need that I.. I need that energy from
the audience. I need to feel you. I need to be
with you. I need to connect with you. I love to look at you... and I'd love to touch you if you'll let me.
you know I think that I mean. And so you know here we are being asked to question that right now and how are
we going to respond? And uh.. you know it's.. it's it's not easy to to to be a a proximity-based artist in this time
right now. And so I think about barriers you know. All of these barriers. And you just articulated a lot of the
barriers that you're facing with um you know the work that you're trying to do. I really hope that, that you're still
that you're still able to, you know...
to pull all that stuff off.
[Anna]: Yeah.     [Tami]: We can't be connected to each
other. And it sounds like you know just
your.. your resilience and the resilience of artists in general, you know to... to keep going outside of
that idea of the of the hustle, you know, we are, you know..we don't..I think about like um you know American
artists, especially American actors really being from the neck up, you know... and I remember going over to
Germany and seeing some of their performers and they're inside their entire body. They're performing with
their fingertips, you know. They're performing with their toes. Didn't speak good — don't speak a word of German,
Saw a five-hour German play and understood enough to be incredibly moved because of um how
embodied those artists are, you know?     [Taylor]: Yes.
[Tami]: And we're... we're you know.. we're like
work work work. And, you know.. like we're not essential.
[Anna]: Right.      [Taylor]: Yes.
Uh it's it's it's I don't know. It's a sad time right now.
But you know I do think the art form has been around
since human beings have looked at
another human being in the face and tried to
make a connection... try to tell a story.
So it's not going away. We're not going away.
So in in that light like who are you...
who are you excited about? Who's doing work
that you love? That you want to support
and you want to see more of?
[Anna]: Yeah. I've been, I mean I think this time...
has really like... we toured so much
before Covid... like pretty continuously and this time has really drawn us back into the local community again
um which we're always connected to but
has just given us more emotional space
to continue connecting.     [Taylor]: Definitely and just seeing, you know there's a lot of new um ideas...and new
initiatives and things coming up through this Covid
and digital era and something I've been really excited
about witnessing and being a part of is um how Joseph Hall, um the executive director of Kelly Strayhorn
Theater is kind of using this time to innovate and localize um funds for the community and initiatives
and I've just been really inspired by that and how intriguing and personal that their
digital programming has felt because
like we were saying that this
surrounding that connection is hard
online sometimes at least for me.
Um so I've been really inspired by Joseph and the staff at Kelly Strayhorn and how they've been working.
Um, additionally I've always just felt really um moved and inspired by the work of Vanessa German.
She continues to bring so much to... her work is so... 
when I hear her and watch her perform my...
it's so visual and I feel like I'm...
there's a world that's built that you step into
um, so I I try to keep up with their work
as much as possible.    [Tami]: Mhmm, yeah.
Hotline Bling was pretty revelatory in terms of
the connectivity and bringing so many people
together and a response, you know a very uh quick response to and thoughtful though
response to how to do a fundraiser for
multiple organizations...      [Taylor]: Yes.
[Tami]: at this time when we can't be together.
And, you know I don't think there's been
there's been an artist that I've talked to
that has not mentioned Vanessa as
somebody who is incredibly inspiring.
[Taylor/Anna]: Absolutely. Totally.
[Anna]: Um yeah and I think like just having
talked to Joseph for so many years like about what he
would do if he got that position — I'm just so excited to see it happening you know... see their brilliance
like being rewarded as well. I also... we deeply love
Pearl Arts — Staycee Pearl and Herman, they've given us
so many opportunities and the way that
they both contribute to their own work and to the
work of the community is super inspiring, um.. because there is often a fear I think of like scarcity within the
dance world. And I think that we have to actively fight against that fear to build community, like authentically.
And I really feel that through the, you know the way that they create space for people. And also through that I'm
deeply inspired by a young artist, Joy-Marie Thompson, who danced for them and also makes her own work and
she's incredibly vocal in the liberation for
black folx and providing resources for the dance
industry and for young dancers to ask for more accountability in the field, yeah.
[Tami]: We have an amazing community.   [Anna]: Yeah!
[Taylor]: We really do. And it's something that's just
kept me in Pittsburgh and kept me wanting to
continue to build my work and my life here.
It's just such a... It is a big little city as they say and
it it is a tight-knit community but you can
really see the ripple of what people do
in this city, um and the ripple of one's
own work and that's just always been really inspiring to me and that generosity of that community.
[Tami]: Yeah I've always said when I first moved here
I said "Pittsburgh is possible."  It's possible to
to have a dream here and to realize it. You know, I'm so thankful for you guys telling me about these artists
that you love. I love um Staycee and Herman.
Um... I had a really beautiful experience
with Herman a decade ago with Guillermo Gómez-Peña. It was so beautiful and I just I just love them
both and what a blessing they are in our community.
But you know I really want people outside of
Pittsburgh, um first Pittsburgh to embrace the incredible artists that live here, you know in a real way.
In a real way that that people can make a living and then that uh you know the news of the good news
of the amazing amount of art and
creativity going on in Pittsburgh gets
you know blown up and we get to, you know
go other places and and show other people what
Pittsburgh is doing, you know.
[Anna]: Yeah. I think that's been really...
[State Manager]: Places!
[Tami]: It's show time! Well I think I'm ready. I'm in the first scene, so uh... I'll see you guys out on the boards?
[Taylor/Anna]: Yaaas! Good Luck!
[Tami]: Break a leg... have a great show!    
[Taylor]: Bye, you too!
