Helene Cooper Blog

Change of plan...

Well as is always the case I have run into problems before the company has even started. My co-partner Laura Asbury has had a moment very common to people in the field of dance in which she has questionned what dance means to her and how she wants to shape her future. So for the meantime she has decided to remove herself from dance completely in order to have a break and to re-address what is important to her. Consequently she is no longer going to be a part of establishing the company. And as a result I will be going it alone! The thought of this is extremely nerveracking but I have to be grateful that this has happened as without her I don't think I would have taken the leap to decide to set up the company.

Talking to friends of mine about the situation, one of them asked me - 'Well why can't you do it on your own?' and to be honest I couldn't give her an answer. I know what I want from a company, I have a specific direction in which I want to lead it and I believe I have the drive and motivation to see it through. I think the only thing that has stopped me so far is fear and having someone else to share this fear with encouraged me to go ahead. Now Laura isnt' a part of this process the fear is still there but I have taken the first huge step in deciding just to get on with it.

In regards to a name for this company I am still thinking about this. I am very grateful for the comments/suggestions on the forum.I particularly like Saltarium although I have decided that whatever word I asign to the company I do want to follow it with 'Dance Collective' to emphasise the collaborative nature of the company. I also like Graham's comments about the symbolic/allegorical relations to my name. Particularly because my father has always been very inerested in history and why I was given my name.

I keep coming back to the possiblity of Verité Dance Collective but am not 100% sure about this since the company may be mistaken for a french company with both my name and the company name being french.

Posted by Helene at October 21, 2007 01:09 AM