Created by MovementLab, Nadine Lollino and Trey Donovan
Textile Installation designed by Rachel Damon

“Ineffable, hidden, brilliant scion, whose motion is whirring, you scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and through this world you brought pure light.”
-Orphic hymn

The 22 folds to make one paper crane are 22 opportunities to pay attention, slow down and experience the present moment. Each fold, an opportunity to shed light on feeling, thought, and action. Assembled into a dress of 1000 cranes or a single offering to a fellow human at a coffee shop. How do we participate in the change we wish for, what is our inner light that we share with others that promotes more lightness?

 The Dress

Lollino has spent the last couple of years designing and completing a 1000 crane dress. The dress form is a thrifted dress from Nevada City. The paper from a little art store in Santa Cruz CA, and a shop in the mall in Japantown, San Francisco, colors chosen to emulate the Koi. They cut the paper into 4x4 squares, folded 1000 cranes, mod-podged them to strengthen the paper, and sewed them one by one onto the dress. The folding of 1000 cranes comes from the story of Sadako Sasaki, a child who’s struggle to survive and inevitable death due to exposure of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima during World War II, asks us to hold peace and hope near our hearts and our actions. This dress was first conceived for a grant proposal for Tokyo 2020, a festival to accompany the 2020 Olympics. Although that festival did not happen, the hopes, the struggles, the presence learned and gained through the process of making this dress has been momentous.

The Project

In the next few months leading up to the Paseo Festival they will work with community groups leading them in some group appropriate expressive movements that speak to the symbolism of the origami peace crane, and how our lightness can be a powerful force in individual and communal health and healing. Class will last 45 minutes to one hour. Each group will learn how to fold the origami peace crane. Each crane will have a tag added to it with yarn where a single word can be written that represents the person's answer to the question “What is your inner light that you share with the world?” The class participants will make two cranes, the first one made at the beginning of class, will accompany the installation at the Festival. The second crane made at the end of the class will be made for a festival attendee, with a blank tag so it can be written on at the festival. 

At the festival there will be a table for the participants to choose a folded crane and write their answer to the question “What is your inner light that you share with the world?” They will take this crane through the installation of fabric and projected light and color, choosing a place to hang their crane, and to choose someone else's crane that inspires them to take home. I will also supply extra paper for those interested in learning how to fold their own crane.  

Performance

Accompanied by artist, cellist Trey Donovan, the dancer costumed in the 1000 crane dress, interweaves among the textiles, supported by a free-standing structure, an environment lit by projections of dance, color and nature. Three to four other dancers will continue to move within the installation throughout the evening supported by the textiles designed by Rachel Damon, director of Synapse Arts in Chicago and created by Rachel and Nadine. The audience can continue their participation before and after each performance. The music, projections and other dancers will continue all evening. The set performances will last 10-15 minutes, performed once an hour.About the artist: Nadine Lollino has been creating and performing in the arts of dance, costume making, and video since 2002. She is currently working under her creation, MovementLab, and also co-founder of multi-media collective PosterchildArt. Her dance work revolves around authentic movement, the emotions, and story of a hero’s journey, symbiotically relating to the rhythms of life. Nadine has previously danced with Anatomical Dance Theater, Breakbone Dance Co., and the Humans, all Chicago-based companies. She has been presenting her own works since 2005, traveling nationally and internationally. Nadine also practices massage therapy and teaches yoga and TRE®. She has been developing a MovementLab class curriculum, and 3Bodies classes, combining various somatic practices with freeform expression for all communities to connect to the healing found in dance and music.

Trey Donovan brings together such diverse cultural elements as music/sound-art, language, dance, sculpture, structure, and technology to synthesize impressions of our place in the universe. His recent projects involve him in music and dance composition and improvisation and draw on influences from nature, culture, and experimental artistic discoveries.

Trey has studied, taught, and performed with a variety of butoh-based companies and teachers since 2001, in the SF Bay Area and Seattle.