Performing BranchSara Zalek (they/them)
saratonin01@gmail.com
503-317-4501
www.saratonin.comEarth TomesEarth Tomes was born in 1993 in the middle of the night in an outhouse at a backcountry camp on snowy Mt. Rainier, Washington, while Joan sat listening to the sounds of nature and watching the shadows cast by her flashlight. She created the first solo for the Festival of One in Seattle and, also performed it at the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival. In 2015, Laage created a new version as part of a symposium in Sweden organized by Susan Kozel, a Canadian/British dance artist. Performed in a greenhouse in Sweden’s frigid winter, the audience sat on both sides, facing one another, in what she staged as an intentional yet subtle confrontation of one another. She describes the work as a birth, in which she enters as a tree and emerges as a body turned to earth. The piece for her is political, to remind us to remain connected to the earth.

Earth Tomes related back to Laage’s roots in rural Wisconsin. She swam in
the creeks in the summer, made igloos in the winter, traipsed through fields of
cow patties, and tended a garden with her family.

She says that when she began exploring butoh, it reconnected her with her upbringing: "I felt like I was recovering my childhood, that body that was really my body . . . When I heard Goda Nario talk about Hijikata’s one tatami mat dance and the children kept in a basket, whether or not it’s true, it says something about the importance of one’s childhood experience of space."
( Joan Laage, pers. comm., January 6, 2020)

She likens her early experiences in life to her current gardening practice (and profession), and planting seeds that sprout later in life. Initially a solo work, Earth Tomes became a project as Laage began inviting other dancers to join her. Since 2016, the project has been presented with local dancers in Seattle, Upstate New York, and several European cities. In many ways, it has become a community-based creative process and continues to evolve as it travels.Earth Tomes was born in 1993 in the middle of the night in an outhouse at a backcountry camp on snowy Mt. Rainier, Washington, while Joan sat listening to the sounds of nature and watching the shadows cast by her flashlight. She created the first solo for the Festival of One in Seattle and, also performed it at the Seattle Fringe Theater Festival. In 2015, Laage created a new version as part of a symposium in Sweden organized by Susan Kozel, a Canadian/British dance artist. Performed in a greenhouse in Sweden’s frigid winter, the audience sat on both sides, facing one another, in what she staged as an intentional yet subtle confrontation of one another. She describes the work as a birth, in which she enters as a tree and emerges as a body turned to earth. The piece for her is political, to remind us to remain connected to the earth. Earth Tomes related back to Laage’s roots in rural Wisconsin. She swam in the creeks in the summer, made igloos in the winter, traipsed through fields of cow patties, and tended a garden with her family. She says that when she began exploring butoh, it reconnected her with her upbringing: "I felt like I was recovering my childhood, that body that was really my body . . . When I heard Goda Nario talk about Hijikata’s one tatami mat dance and the children kept in a basket, whether or not it’s true, it says something about the importance of one’s childhood experience of space." ( Joan Laage, pers. comm., January 6, 2020) She likens her early experiences in life to her current gardening practice (and profession), and planting seeds that sprout later in life. Initially a solo work, Earth Tomes became a project as Laage began inviting other dancers to join her. Since 2016, the project has been presented with local dancers in Seattle, Upstate New York, and several European cities. In many ways, it has become a community-based creative process and continues to evolve as it travels.