Sarah Bush: Cradeled in the Arms of Women's Music:
One of Sarah Bush’s earliest memories is of dancing around the house to the sounds of Meg Christian singing Leaping Lesbians. The 34-year-old dancer, grew up to the music of
Cris Williamson, Holly Near, Kay Gardner and the other pioneers of women’s music. She’s now paying tribute to those women in a new dance piece called
Rocked by Women, opening June 16 in San Francisco, as part of the National Queer Arts Festival 2011.
A Minister's Daughter and The Music that Moved Her:
When Sarah was growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, her mom, a straight Unitarian Minister, went to a conference and came back with a trunkload full of women’s music albums. Her mom fell in love with the music of these feminist pioneers and rocked Sarah to sleep each night, singing along with Cris Williamson’s Lullaby.
Pioneers of Women's Music:
Sarah owes much of her identity to those pioneers of women’s music. She says she remembers holding the album cover of Williamson’s Changer and the Changed in her hands and looking at it as a child. “This is a woman who is standing in overalls who looks so happy and strong and confident in herself. And she’s out in the middle of the desert. I got to see that idea of womanhood,” she said.
I Could Be Who I Wanted to Be:
She said her early exposure to women’s music gave her permission to be any kind of woman she wanted to be. “I could be the strong woman in overalls. I was the girl who took ballet class and played with Barbie’s too. I learned a woman could be tough and strong and have her own voice.” The memory of those women played in her head when she came out as a lesbian at age 16. And perhaps most importantly, she learned a woman could make a living as an artist.
The Dancers and the Music:
Rocked by Women is a multi-media dance piece performed by Sarah Bush and five other dancers: Sonya Smith, Amie Miller, Ingrid Elizabeth, Joi Cox and Chelsea Anderson. A video montage plays in the background as the dancers pay tribute to a diverse list of women musicians. From Holly Near, Ferron and the Butchies to the Dixie Chicks, No Doubt, Pink and Rhianna. “How do we acknowledge that the reason there is a Lady Gaga now is because there was a Cris Williamson and Meg Christian then?” Sarah Bush asked. “That it took women being strong and to break the mold for all these women to come after.”
Rocked by Women Dance Performance:
Rocked by Women starts with Sarah’s Mom in a rocking chair. Sarah dances up behind her as an audio tract plays of her mom telling stories. All of the dancers have a mother or mother figure who will join them on stage. Holly Near and Judy Dlugacz also narrate the piece, talking of the joy and liberation they found, the youth and vibrancy, the sexiness of the early years of women’s music. And the struggles.
A Tribute to Women in Music:
The performance is tender at times and playful at times and rocking at times. (Joan Jett and Melissa Etheridge.)
Rocked by Women is part history lesson, part autobiography, part love song and all sweet and sexy dance moves by the Sarah Bush Dance Project.
Some musicians whose music didn’t make it in the show are paid tribute in other ways. For one number, the dancers come out wearing band t-shirts from Amy Ray, Ani DiFranco, Sisters in the Pit and Patty Griffin. Sarah admits, “One of the heartbreaks of the show is that I couldn’t include everyone that I wanted to.”
Sarah Bush Wants to Move You:
With some dance, the emphasis is on the movement, but Sarah Bush aims to move. “I want to dance how really good singers sing,” she says. “You know how when a singer goes just past their comfortable place? They get that little edge in their voice, they’re actually feeling what they’re singing about; that extra warble, that extra growl, that look on their face, that willingness to bring a little more guts. That’s what I want to do with dance and choreography.”
To listen to the passion in her as she speaks about how music moves her, you get it. But even more so, you see it in her body and her face as she dances and directs her dancers to move with more than technical skill, but with feeling. She chose dancers for Rocked by Women that she knew could bring that extra emotional component to her movement. “In the show, we might do the same piece of choreography to a different piece of music and it’s their job to do it differently,” Sarah Bush said. “The steps are exactly the same, but they have to [take] the music and my direction and their own life experiences and bring a different quality to it.”
“It’s about women’s music, not just lesbian music,” Sarah Bush said, “Mom wasn’t a lesbian. It’s important for straight women to get the message too, that connecting with women can be a positive thing. You can be a sound engineer, you can be a bass player. I think lesbians have done a lot of the fighting for that.”
And how lucky for us that Sarah Bush realized she could be a professional dancer.
Sarah Bush would like to bring Rocked by Women to other communities. Contact her via Sarahbushdance.com for more information.
