FAITH IN ARTS: breath

breath: Creative Process, Artistic Research & Practice
A filmic journey presented by Sue Schroeder
with collaborators Adam Larsen, Amador Artiga, Maya Ciarrocchi, Molly Davies, Christian Meyer, Nuno Veiga, and Kate Smith
Streaming November 6, 2024 on Vimeo + YouTube
Presented as part of Faith in Arts
Free and Open to All

Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.

— Galway Kinnell

breath, a filmic journey for a new performance work, explores variations in the “breath” of the earth in diverse locations, both in nature and with an eye to the contrasting embodied breath realized in our modern world.

Breathe-Breathtaking/Taking Breath-Breathless/Less Breath

Through breath, I seek an understanding and alignment with the rhythm, individually and collectively, of nature/the earth. As a maker of Art through the body, movement, and dance, I employ deep experiential listening – a form of listening with and through the body. Through site-specific activation, I chose to access and explore breath in geographies from lush to arid, forests & mountains, open and dense landscapes, in the light of dawn, brightness of day, the subtle light of dusk and the dark of night.

During the research/creation period, I recorded images and made field recordings (sound) to serve as memory of experiences and locations. Additionally, I invited 3 composers and 4 filmmakers to collaborate with me by creating responses as well. The editing process for the film utilizes“chance procedures”, a method often used by John Cage and Merce Cunningham to devise their creative work, integrating the contributions of the collaborators alongside my own.

On 11.11.11, I was involved in a near fatal car accident – a rough tumbling and flipping of my vehicle after being struck by a driver under the influence. Following this incident, my autonomic nervous system suffered from the brutal and sudden interruption. I lost the ability to breathe “automatically”. My research into breath and breathing began out of necessity and with intention in this moment.   

It may seem obvious to point out that humans breathe and yet the Covid years have thrown our universal right to breathe into question. The Covid-19 crisis, pollution, the climate emergency, and Black Lives Matter have all forced us to think about breathing – and to notice the times when breathing can be difficult or even dangerous. Not all threats to breathing come in the form of toxins and viruses – there are times when humans threaten each other’s breathing through violence, or through the simple fact of forgetting how to breathe together. 

From nature as source, I begin in earnest.

Sue Schroeder is an Artist, Dance Maker, Arts Activist, Mentor and Facilitator with over 40 years of work in the arts. She has created more than 110 original dance works for theaters, museums, green spaces, architectural structures and in nature. Schroeder’s work has appeared across the United States and internationally, and her multidisciplinary vision has led to collaborations with major voices in dance, music, spoken word, visual arts and design. Additionally, Schroeder is recognized as a leading Arts Activist and Mentor and the Founding Artistic Director of Core Dance. As a contemporary artist and Dance Maker, Schroeder focuses on the creative process, movement research, exploration, and dance-making as a catalyst for social change. Under the umbrella of Core Dance, Schroeder facilitated the creation of DanceATL, a dance service organization that nurtures and promotes dance as a vibrant part of Atlanta’s arts ecosystem. DanceATL connects artists to resources, grows and engages audiences in the city, and supports the full range of the industry by cultivating an awareness and appreciation of dance that is sustainable and expansive.

Schroeder holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Houston and earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts with a dance and anthropology concentration from the University of Arizona at Tucson. Educated under dance greats Bill Evans, Hanya Holm, Oliver Kostock, Anna Halprin, Isa Bergsohn and John M. Wilson, she holds certifications throughout the U.S. as a Teaching Artist and is a founding member of the Teacher Training Institute (TTI), a training program established to develop best practices to teach dance and kinetic learning in community-based settings.

Photo by Jerry Siegel

Amador Artiga, born in Valencia, Spain, in 1977, didn’t stumble into filmmaking and visual design—it was a natural evolution from his early days exploring graphic design and theater. His curiosity led him to the Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre, a transformative experience that profoundly shaped his artistic journey. His decade-long tenure with the Philippe Genty company in France served as a crash course in visual storytelling and live performance, enriching his skills and insights from European adventures. Since then, Amador has delighted in infusing his creative touch into collaborations spanning Spain, France, the Czech Republic, and the United States. He thrives on partnering with choreographers and directors to craft mesmerizing visual spectacles. When not behind the camera, Amador dedicates his time to judging talent at prestigious events such as EnCore Dance on Film Fest in Atlanta and Choreoscope in Barcelona. His profound passion for the arts and his innate storytelling prowess shine through in every endeavor. He’s not merely crafting visual projects; he’s seeking stories that deeply resonate with audiences.

Maya Ciarrocchi is a Canadian American artist whose work excavates vanished and inaccessible histories, themes embedded in her Ashkenazi ancestry and Queer identity. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she has been awarded residencies from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, MacDowell, Millay Arts, and UCross. She has received grants and awards from the Bronx Council on the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Franklin Furnace Fund, Jerome Foundation, Map Fund, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Puffin Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. In addition to her studio practice, Ciarrocchi has created award-winning projection design for dance and theater. Ciarrocchi earned an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts, New York City, and a BFA in Dance from Purchase College, Purchase, NY.

Molly Davies is a film & video artist who first became well known in the 1970’s for her innovative work with film and performance. She has collaborated with musicians and artists including John Cage, David Tudor, Takehisa Kosugi, Lou Harrison, Michael Nyman, Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, Suzushi Hanayagi, Sage Cowles, Polly Motley, Jackie Matisse and Anne Carson. Her work in film, multimedia performance, and video installation has been presented at such sites as the Venice Film Festival, The Centre Pompidou, Musée de l’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, The Getty Research Institute, Theatre Am Turm, The Whitney Museum, The Walker Art Center, Asia Society, The Kitchen, La Mama Etc., Dance Theatre Workshop, The Indonesian Dance Festival, and Baryshnikov Art Center.

Adam Larsen is a documentary filmmaker and projection artist from Asheville, NC. His documentaries include Undersung, a film about caregivers of severely disabled family members and Neurotypical, which explores autism from the perspective of autistic people and debuted on the PBS series POV. Among Adam’s installations are Nebraska Flatwater, a meditation on the Nebraska landscape; The Dharma at Big Sur, set to John Adams’s iconic composition; and A Worm’s Eye View, which was created for autistic audiences and recently opened at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. As a designer for live performance, Adam has created imagery for over 200 productions in Theatre, Dance, Opera, and Symphony. Adam’s multifaceted work has led to collaborations with leading voices in Symphony and Opera including Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Esperanza Spalding, Missy Mazzoli, and Ellen Reid.

Christian Meyer is a composer of sounds, music, images, videos, installations, and writings. Born in Brussels, Belgium, Christian Meyer moved to Berlin in the late 80s where he became involved in the alternative art scene as a self-taught musician. For more than 25 years, his success as a musician and composer is recognized in the genres of film, advertising, and dance theatre. Starting as a guitarist, he evolved into a composer and live musician for dance theatre worldwide collaborating with among others Felix Ruckert, Arthur Kuggeleyn, Sue Schroder. His first film score for the movie “Alaska.de” earned him the award for Best Film Music from the Association of German Film Critics. In the years that followed, he received several awards for his music and sound work in advertising, including ADC, VDW, Die Klappe, New York Festival, Finalist Cannes Lion. His style is influenced by a melancholic and minimalist sound, characterized by an experimental, poetic, and avant-garde approach. His collaborations with musicians like Rudolf Moser (Einstürzende Neubauten), Roger Döring, Ulrike Haage (Rainbirds), Oliver Doerell (Dictaphone), and Stefan Wöhrmann (SWOD) led to worldwide concerts and performances, including playing for Chiharu Shiota’s large-scale installation at König Galerie (Berlin).

Kate Smith is a vocal artist, composer and workshop leader passionate about creating music and facilitating collective music-making for voices and bodies in motion. As a composer, Kate works at the intersection of voice, movement, and improvisation, existing in both realms of live theatre and recorded sound. She has been commissioned to write sound pieces for Whitechapel Gallery and Fundação Eugenio de Almeida, and her music can be found in the documentary The Hypocrite (2024). An accomplished improviser, she has released several albums of collaborative vocal improvisation including with Anthropos, Oöm, and Remembering. She performs regularly with her electro-acoustic improv trio a r | r a, and has also performed as the trio Bitchlovsky Storms the Castle. She directs THAT! Ensemble, and has created work Hundred Years Gallery, the Barbican, TATE Exchange, The London Charterhouse, and more. She has performed in projects including Verity Standen’s acclaimed Undersong (Bristol Old Vic), The Arch with Kaleider (National Theatre), and Thousand Furs by Re:Sound (Kings Place). Kate is the creator of The Embodied Voice, a research, performance, and teaching practice bringing together voice, movement, and improvisation. She is also a producer and facilitator on Other Lands Other Sounds, an intensive residential course on cross-arts practice in Portugal.

Nuno Veiga, born in Viseu, Portugal is a multidisciplinary artist and teacher whose practice includes sound art, acting, theater direction, video art, installations, teaching, and arts facilitation. Veiga has been working in professional arts contexts since 2001 and graduated in Theater Studies from the University of Évora in Portugal in 2006. Moving to London in 2011, Veiga continued to work as an actor, audiovisual designer, and arts facilitator, collaborating with various companies and institutions, including Rambert Dance Company’s The Playground, Soho Theater, Knot Theory, Hide Tide, Spare Tire, Battersea Arts Center, Rare Salt and Edinburgh International Festival. As an arts facilitator, Veiga worked with community groups including at-risk youth, the elderly, and people with learning difficulties. As an Associate Artist at Spare Tire, Veiga developed several projects with voiceless communities. In the last decade, Veiga has worked as a sound artist for dance, film, and installations with choreographers including Yola Pinto, Amélia Bentes, Silvia Pinto Ferreira, Romulus Neagu, Miguel Altunaga Verdecia, Jordan Bridge, Luca Bracia, Zjana Muraro, Darren Ellis, Susan Kempster, Anastasia Papaeleftheriadou, and Robert MacNeill.

Stills from breath courtesy of the artists:

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