#movedbyyou, Maree ReMalia and Jil Stifel

#movedbyyou is an Instagram mini project between Maree ReMalia and Jil Stifel. Having worked together over the past eight years, this video exchange originated as a way to continue engaging in vital embodied practices that support bodies being moved by other bodies, while living with physical distance imposed by geographic location (FL and PA) and the Covid pandemic. Their weekly posts act as dialogue and performance meant to activate skills of sensing, initiating, witnessing, listening, and responding and inviting their multifaceted selves to emerge through movement; skills essential for navigating a world in crisis in which humans repeatedly face social and political injustices. For this program they will share the process that unfolded during their first month of making.

During this process the role and importance of Instagram changed. In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, protestors, activists and all of those seeking justice, the artists took a pause from creating and then moved their exchange temporarily offline. This decision was made to help create space for this immediate and essential work in the general feed, while also honoring their own need for time and space to engage in the movement.

“An adoptee born in South Korea and raised in Ohio, dance has been a way for me to connect with people and places that are both kindred and very different than me. In select dance spaces, I have experienced movement as a means of expression, communication, and healing, which has impacted my desire to create and facilitate in ways that cultivate a sense of care for ourselves, each other, and the world of which we are part. With my collaborators and students, I aim to facilitate practices that invite us to experience a greater sense of aliveness and engagement and to discover one another beyond our carefully curated selves. We are not only training our bodies for performance, but investing in practices that open possibilities for how we can be together. As we make and move together, we can root for each other and question each other, while holding space to take risks and feel empowered; we can laugh and cry and rage and rejoice.” – Maree ReMalia  www.mareeremalia.com

Jil Stifel is a performer, choreographer and interdisciplinary collaborator. She is a mother and a gardener, a cancer survivor and an activist, an artist and a scientist. She believes in the power of the earth, rocks, plants, air and water. She is here because of love, the power of thoughts and meditation. You can find her, in real life, teaching dance at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as performing and rehearsing with Maree. Her multimedia projects have been shown at various venues most recently in Pittsburgh as part of KST’s New Moves and PearlPresents dance festival. www.jilstifel.com