Muffie Connelly

© Muffie Connolly, 'Induction Ceremony', 2013, DIEP

PERFORMING PARENTHOOD 2017 OFFICIAL SELECTION:

Muffie Connelly (USA, Oregon)
Induction Ceremony (2013)
Dance performance

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Induction Ceremony is a 53 minute dance performance film directly resulting from choreographer Muffie Connelly’s personal experience with isolation and postpartum depression. This work explores the physicality of the body in relation to the lines of intimacy and intimate relationships that blur during gestation, and continue postpartum. In this work, the obligations and necessary functions of the body and its parts, as a nurturing lifeline, are compared to the same bodily existence in a sexual context – the body as a means for pleasure.

Induction Ceremony marks the first performance in choreographer Muffie Connelly’s three-part series dubbed The Crowning Series. Though she traditionally creates hybrid dance performances based on field research of rituals and traditions of native and contemporary female cultures, Induction Ceremony is direct reflection of her experience as a mother. She uses movement of body and garment to dissect the space between inner and outer self. Wearing a range of repurposed pantyhose, six female performers expose flesh and femininity as they move in and out of the extremes of bodily domination. This confrontational and intimate display urges us to renegotiate contemporary social standards of mothers by exposing the unspeakable yet commonplace truths of child rearing. With a desire to validate and support those who are silenced within similar experience, she engages these issues within a larger community.


 
Muffie Connelly ‘s work is created with the support of the national network of artists known as Happydog. Happydog supports the ongoing artistic endeavors of its creative directors, Muffie Connelly, Leslie Cuyjet, and Annie Novotny and uses a collaborative workshopping model to create their original performance works.

www.wearehappydog.com