Faculty Dance Concert Coming UP.....

SOFT INTO FOREVER
(Written as the text for Mary Lynn Babcock's Dance "Earth'n Hand")
By Ellie Leonhardt

Part 1: "From the earth"

The skin is my surface
reaching through my chest
it is in my hips
my head falling backwards
skin stretching
floating

this (soul) swaying
pull my sit bones back
my eyes looking to the right

I fly back to my home
this field of gold(ly) sand
vast
beyond the field

I feel the vision
sink in
sunken
in
soaking my feet
-- arrow through my heart

I come out, still alive
contoured
capsulated
turned inside of this place
looking through

Sharp
I cut my hands with this blade
the pain sucks through my body: the vast open ending space
burning in the light
climbing
catacomb
buried alive
pulled out of my ground
pulled back into my surface
there is no rhythm, here, in this group of what is solid

length and pull
my ears go under
the water with you
my soul goes with you

I'm making it through
this love of my heart aches
in the pull from the sky

I don't want to go
or let
or go
this is the story of who you think I am

My head lays and sinks
and I soften
I won't fight you:
my teeth grip

It's not really funny
I'm stuck in this mud
my feet are STUCK!
Sinking
trying to get out of here
coming up my stairs
I hear you, I hear them

I have woken
underwater
breathing
air
finding my way through
pull me up
let me go
I know how to pull
out of the ground
CATCH CATCH CATCH

MY Earth is endless
THIS Body is endless
I scream, I breathe
I have nothing, I have everything
escapable

CLICK CLICK CLICK
I come from above
I am thunder
reach with me
through the wheat
to the beach
aspen open eyes
eat the never ending taste of soft light green floating from my hands
the ice is cold on my front, this heat is cold on my back-
I am made out of rock and sand and water, dust, death


Part 2: “For you”

The candle ritual sits at my feet
as you move around my head
my feet are open wide
standing here over you
under you
surrounded by you
I am here in this place I can smell, I am here
in this landscape
this body
this time

you are next to me, you
are next to me

I am sunken under this ship
you swim through me
my broken soul, you
walk on me, stride
you stride
backwards over my bones

I am here supporting you
up LEAN into me
lean back into me

Sing to me with your foot
this ground we both hold and connect
this stillness
sacrificed scared
pounded pounding
streaking
my skull is fractured

Silver shining in my eyes
I can't see
so bright
brittle
and bright
broadcasted

I can't see the stars from here or smell the mild green air
I'm sucked in between
this sky and your earth:

I beg you,
This is my underbelly
TUNR ME OVER
grab me from the air

calming the redness
the realness
the restlessness

my skin is torn
torture
this is my curve
my heart
my head
my landscape:

You are my children,
you are welcome here,
place your left hand on my base
come with me, children, as we turn