I’ve been acquainted with Elizabeth Reed for a few years, but the nature of our busy minds and lives has kept us from spending significant or sustained time together. After a few recent emails about a community project, she eventually sent me a link to her own catch-all online art portfolio. I had known her more as a social activist, writer, philosopher, counselor, and someone interested in spirituality; but when I clicked on her “Moving” project page, dedicated to what she calls “Public Dancing,” I knew that I had to hear more about this specific creative practice, (among her many other artistic pursuits that I was previously unaware of). We set the date to meet.
Says Reed of the practice, “Dance in public space is my rebellious affirmation of living. It is a physical socratic method asking: ‘How else, and how better, can we go about this living (together) bit?’ Could we pause to feel throughout our bodies? What great good magic is here!?”