Joe Dennison is a poet, painter and playwright.
Before the interview, Joe and I free-wrote on the prompt:
can dancers paint? Free-writing, Joe created this poem:
dancing, painting, beyond scope
beyond hope, no stopping
not slop, no flop, just breath and breathing.
I dance as I paint, my hips move
my lips word up sounds
sighs and anger at wrong turns
and joy of the correction of that wrong turn.
sometimes in tune with Pink Floyd rhythms,
I start to add color and mystery, I start to add depth
is it there?
if it's ever there . . .
painters dance
dancers paint like a Merce Cunningham leap,
almost freeze frame beauty,
still unfolding story.
painters dance with brush
with color, with the expression jump and leap.
we are all dancers and painters.
we are all leapers of faith
and singers of self, that soul searching jig
that eyeful of hip hop
that dots our insides with fear and frustration
the pigments I love are bold
are orange, my only color, that great glory orange
I dance orange.
