Mine

A dance film and song writing collaboration exploring coal mining in Crested Butte, CO. From my observations, mining history and resource extrapolation contributes to the modern day Colorado cultural paradigm and extends beyond. This energy and history of "taking" is fascinating to me. Personally and ecologically, I am exploring a site-specific dance film called MINE in Crested Butte- one of the "great coal towns of the West." This region holds a deep history of coal mining, threats of fracking in surrounding areas and now a new influence on how tourism has a new way of mining the town for its resources. MINE is a theme I’ve been exploring through my body and somatically at an old coal-mining structure called "The Gronk.” We dance with coal on the tailings, which is the waste from mining endeavors. This project includes continued historical research, gathering of stories and myth from elders in the valley and a continued exploration of mining in connection to our modern day bodies.

The thematic gestural movement was collected from stories I was told about this site Pershing and Peanut mine. Immigrant young boys with smaller bodies were used as workers because the coal mine was short and narrow. Lying on a piece of cloth, a line of boys with their tools would drag them selves, scrap coal with pickaxe from above, collect coal on the cloth and then repeat again and again- deeper and deeper into the earth body.