Matthew Williams

After a long hiatus I’m thrilled to announce my next project! Nov 15-16, 7pm @danceplacedc Next month I’ll be presenting “Warming up, I’m ready” @danceplacedc with @sheygod and @e.w.www We are deep in rehearsals and so excited to share it with you. Warming up, I’m ready asks, “What does it feel like in your body to be ready…to express yourself, to be present with others, to be in creative process?” Over the last year this inquiry has taken the form of solo performances and public workshop offerings. I’m it’s current iteration I’ll be sharing an evening-length dance-theatre performance with @e.w.www and @sheygod Image from @playasummerlake

Warming up, I’m ready opens tomorrow @danceplacedc ! Here I am taking a leap of faith during earlier days of developing the FUNCTION AND EXPRESSION of this work @ucrossfoundation Come see us tomorrow and Saturday ! @e.w.www @sheygod

WARMING UP, I'M READY (to post it, the post-it note heelz, feat. click clack sounds by me, singing by Shey, and videography by Matte) it's been beautiful, hilarious, and heartfelt to make this work with @matthewrwill and @sheygod - we're gonna share this dance @danceplacedc this Friday and Saturday at 7p. So grateful to all the Dance Placers hosting us. Come see and/or tell all your DC friends to check it out! Link in m'bio.

Warming up, I’m ready opens in a few short days Nov 15-16 @danceplacedc A show is nothing without its collaborating performers. Let me introduce you to @e.w.www Emmett Wilson (he/they) makes dance-theater-performance art to make mistakes, to harness the power of embarrassment with Others. He grew up in Houston, grew some more in Salt Lake City, and is now planted in Philadelphia as a resident at the Headlong Performance Institute and as a licensed massage therapist; his practice is called Dear Body Healing Arts. Emmett was selected for an audience choice award at the 2022 Philly FringeArts festival for their work, Afternoon of an Alter: a not so lonely solo. The following year he presented An Undertaking with Rose Luardo, Sonali Singh, and ‘The Gals’ - Emmett’s parents, Marcella and Ray Wilson- at the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Emmett has been commissioned to facilitate workshops to ‘find and physicalize alter-egos’ for queer youth across this so-called country. Emmett loves to get to know poetic personas and stories that bubble out in subtle and gross ways- all ways are helpful in expanding notions of a singular static self in the effort and play of collective self determination. Warming up, I’m ready has been a container for Emmett to reflect on the complexities of warm up routines he was taught in concert dance settings, usually to pop music as a soundtrack to his ever-changing queer-trans-body’s thoughts while circling the shoulders or walking around the dance studio developing kinesthetic awareness as well as narratives about the meaning of eye contact and our collective relationship to gravity. This collaboration with Matt and Shey is exciting for Emmett, toning their verbal as well as dance-based communication skills.

Warming up, I’m ready opens in a few short days Nov 15-16 @danceplacedc A show is nothing without its performers. Let me introduce you to @sheygod Ashley Shey (she/her) is an embodied movement artist working interdisciplinarily in contemporary and improvisational dance, performance art, installation, and craft. She is a first generation Cameroonian American interdisciplinary born in Washington, DC who carries on her cultural traditions of dance and storytelling as a means of remembrance and self-knowledge. Currently in her personal practice, she is exploring practices of assemblage, as well as the mobilized body as a site of archival memory and knowledge. At the moment Shey is completing her undergraduate studies as a non-traditional (older) student at Hampshire College in western Massachusetts. Since returning to college, she has been studying non-traditional archival practices, African diasporic art, installation art, social practice, black studies, survival living, performance art history and post-modern & contemporary dance. Shey has been invited into “Warming up, I’m Ready” by Matthew as a collaborator in the forms of research, devising, and performance. To the work, she brings her strong interest in exploring the mobilized body as a site of archival memory and knowledge. She is very curious about how we can learn to physically articulate deeply felt desires, impulses, and needs that emanate from the body. This process continues her practice of working collaboratively, in a way that acknowledges the choreographic contributions of the movers, the space, and time. She also brings an affinity for long form improvisational scores and movement languages that prioritize efficient use of the body’s biomechanics.

On October 27, @matthewrwill and I performed an improvisation at 2640 Space. It feels powerful every time we play together, and I can't wait to do it again! The words I'm saying are from the essay "Impossible Word: Toward a Poetics of Aphasia," by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes @vessels.we.are I'm controlling my eurorack synth wirelessly using these gloves I knitted and spiced up with arduinos and sensors. They are part of a larger project called "Patien(t/ce)," generously supported by a 2024 Rubys Artist Grant @rubysartistgrants #baltimoremusic #baltimoremusicscene #experimentalmusic #chronicillness #spoonie

Warming up, I’m ready Nov 15-16 @danceplacedc In February 2024 I was feeling lost in my practice. So I asked my friend @lesbian_but_humble @ucrossfoundation if she would be open to sharing a virtual studio practice for a few hours one morning. To my relief, she agreed and we picked a Thursday that worked for both of us. When we appeared on each other’s screens that Thursday, we had no plans in particular for our shared practice. I often use timers to structure myself in the studio, and suggested this tool–I often choose a particular practice, explore it until the timer goes off, and harvest my learnings. Londs liked the idea and further suggested we choose three durations structured by the following prompts: NOTHING: 10 minutes of nothing, as defined by the dancer SOMETHING: 10 minute of something, as defined by the dancer ANYTHING: 10 minutes of anything, as defined by the dancer I liked this idea and we went for it. The only score we predetermined beyond the original instructions was SOMETHING: we agreed that we would each speak and move nonstop and improvisationally, inspired by Jeanine Durning’s @jeanine.i.dream practice “inging”. Other than that, our first and third scores NOTHING and ANYTHING were fully emergent, not predetermined. What is NOTHING? What is SOMETHING? What is ANYTHING? My shared practice with Londs inspired these questions which have morphed, evolved, and ultimately been a great influence on my upcoming show Warming up, I’m ready–both in process and product. Is this NOTHING?! Is this SOMETHING?! Is this ANYTHING?! On bad days I am in a constant and frantic state of questioning whether this show is SOMETHING worth sharing. Or is it NOTHING? Is it even ANYTHING at all?! But on better days these questions are infused into the very fabric and inquiry of this show. I think many artists ask themselves these questions as they embark on the vulnerable process of shepherding creative work into the world. I hope you’ll join us on November 15 or 16 for Warming up, I’m ready, and ask these questions with us. Video of @e.w.www and @sheygod lecturing us on the particulars of Something, Nothing, Anything during our Philly rehearsal

Warming up, I’m ready Nov 15-16 @danceplacedc In February 2022, I found myself walking into the dance studio to make creative work. I would get to the end of my 2-hour rehearsal feeling anxious and frustrated, not having made anything. I had just spent the entire rehearsal warming up, preparing, readying myself to create. And then rehearsal was over. I had done my X-rolls, my yield and push into and out of the floor, my fascial shake. But I hadn’t done anything beyond readying myself. What do I need to prepare myself, to presence myself for creation? What does it feel like in my body to be ready…to express myself, to be with others, to enter into creative process? These are the questions my collaborators and I have been chewing on as we create this show centered around readiness. And the other side this question: How many times in your life have you not felt ready? To wake up in the morning. To walk out the front door. To say what you need to say. To do what is being asked of you. And yet, we must walk out the front door. We must speak if we can bring ourselves to speak. How do we reckon with this sense of urgency that things must happen? How am I reckoning with the fact that Warming up, I’m ready premiers on November 15 and there is so much that must happen before then? Am I ready? Will we be ready? Will the show be ready? Yes, it is true that time is of the essence as it condenses toward mid-November. Yes, I can easily let my heart beat out of my chest as tunnel vision sets in. But this is not what I want this week as we enter our final intensive rehearsal period. Time happens whether I like it or not. My body is held by time. My friend and collaborator, Emmett Wilson, once referred to time as “The River of Time”—a metaphor that I find comforting as I swim toward sharing this show with you.

This is what we talk about when we talk about making this dance Warming up, I’m ready Come see us dance! @danceplacedc @sheygod @e.w.www Nov 15-16, 7pm @danceplacedc Next month I’ll be presenting “Warming up, I’m ready” @danceplacedc with @sheygod and @e.w.www We are deep in rehearsals and so excited to share it with you. Warming up, I’m ready asks, “What does it feel like in your body to be ready…to express yourself, to be present with others, to be in creative process?” Over the last year this inquiry has taken the form of solo performances and public workshop offerings. I’m it’s current iteration I’ll be sharing an evening-length dance-theatre performance with @e.w.www and @sheygod

Always negotiating with the floor. I’ve got two classes this week: Movement Exploration: Wednesdays 6:30-8 St. Luke’s 800 W. 36th Street @motioncollectiveontheavenue Intro to Contact Improvisation Im collaboration with @isalealartist @gare_the_wing Fridays Jan 19, 26, Feb 2, 9 @creativealliancebaltimore

January Class series: Movement Exploration Wednesdays January 3-31 6:30-8 pm St Luke’s Church Hampden @motioncollectiveontheavenue 800 W 36th Street Baltimore, MD All levels of experience and curiosity welcome! Registration info link in bio! In this class series we will explore what choices and agency become possible in our bodies when we form connections between our anatomy (musculoskeletal and nervous system) and movement expression.

Class for the next 3 Wednesdays begins tonight! Playing around in the studio this morning. Feeling into pelvis and femur and floor. @motioncollectiveontheavenue Dec 6,13,20 6:30-8 At Luke’s Church 800 W. 36th St.