LDHP Interview with Wendy Hammarstrom
LDHP: Describe what influenced your work, who did you influence. Did
you work individually, collectively, collaboratively?
WH: Yvonne Rainer, Contact Improvisation, Trisha Brown, Kei Takei’s Moving
Earth, Meredith Monk, Medicine Show Ensemble, Nirtan Lim, Omega Institute,
Rhinebeck NY; in Philadelphia, Tom Updegrove - Kenpo Karate, Jerry
Fleischman Tai Chi, Bradford Chien - White Crane Kung Fu, Terry Fox and
Ishmael Houston Jones and friends, improvisation, Joan White and Connie
Fernandez -Iyengar Yoga instructors at the University of Pennsylvania, Group
Motion, Zero Moving Company.
LDHP: Were there issues that you addressed in your work, socio-political
atmosphere of the time, antiwar movement, nature/environmental, spiritual,
other -“isms” activism, feminism.
WH: We created and performed “Amanita” at several Nuclear Freeze events,
and at my Quaker Meeting in Bethlehem. I don’t think feminism was a theme,
although of course it was in our blood. I think that the ancient female was visible
as many of the pieces had a ritualistic and nurturing quality, incorporating circles,
repeated movements, and a few of them primal toning or vocalizations. I found
toning fascinating but never really pursued it as part of performance. Love of
nature and working/playing with natural settings was a big part of Agape.
Raised as a Quaker, and having worked at the American Friends Service
Committee I definitely had a service or humanistic approach to life. We toured to
several out of the mainstream places including a Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center
in Eagleville, PA, to a
mental hospital in Norristown, a day site for the mentally and physically
challenged in East Oak Lane, Phila, and several other places. In fact, when we
were about to perform as part of the Dance and Dancers Series at Drexel Univ.
we were concerned that there might not be enough turnout. So several of us
called social service places in the area and invited them to come for free.
Several of them did!
LDHP: What of forms?
WH: We used improvisation in our rehearsals to arrive at choreographed
movements. For some of the outdoor and indoor environmental pieces we used
improvisation along with an agreed upon structure. Yoga, tai chi, animal frolics,
karate were all a part of choreography.
Kenpo Karate got me in touch with my power and I was never as strong as when
I studied it. I achieved balance, speed and height that I never came close to
before in any dance medium. White Crane Kung Fu, taught by Bradford Chien, a
speaking and hearing- challenged man from Taiwan, added the flow element.
And Nirtan Lim at Omega Institute introduced me to the animal frolics. Also at
Omega Institute was Valentina Litvinoff, a dancer, Alexander instructor, and
former student of Stanislavsky. At the time I studied with her, much of her focus
was alignment and moving with ease. I also studied some Brazilian stick forms,
and Hung Gar Kung Fu. The Hung Gar martial artists were the bodies behind
the huge dragons at Chinese New Year in Chinatown. All I remember from
classes was standing in horse stance-knees bent, thighs parallel to the floor, for
twenty minutes— or else. I didn’t stay with that too long, but was definitely
influenced by it.
One of the movement techniques in the 1970s and 1980s was Contact
Improvisation, made popular by Steve Paxton and Trisha Brown. We danced
with another person or more, maintaining physical contact the whole time. We
balanced and counterbalanced each other, supported, moved underneath, or
next to. This was often done with the eyes closed, as the tactile sensation of the
other movers’ bodies and that ever-present energy flow were what created the
motion. Although obviously visceral, it was more of a spiritual/energetic
connection, and not a sensual or sexual experience. I think this movement
training was valuable in helping me work with the physically and mentally
challenged. Our best work seems to be when we are simply in the moment,
reacting to each energetic action or non-action.
Ballet and I certainly never clicked, although I suppose it was there somewhere
in our performances. (Today, whenever I am in a swimming pool the first thing I
do is barre work!)
LDHP: What was going on at the time? The prevailing zeitgeist?
WH: At the time I started getting involved in art I began therapy. Then I stopped
therapy. I became overwhelmed with so many changes in my life as a dance
major, member of an avante garde theater company that included long and late
hours and intense and at times grueling exercise, including plastiques, working
as a secretary, selling all the wedding gifts we received and moving into my ex’s
studio so he could afford to pay the rent, dating another man in West Phila at the
same time, putting myself out there with little time or space to decompress, …. I
had a meltdown. Tough period for a year. Went back into therapy, out of
necessity and stayed with it until I moved to California. The same therapy group
for ten years. I am saying this because it was a time of discovery and transition
for me and many others, along with my own personal rough patch when it was
too much too fast.
As dancers and artists of the 1970s/80s we were breaking with the past and
trying to find the essence of ourselves and each other and the world. We wanted
to find the truth or our truth and to express it without any illusions. It was
important that the movement came from a source deep inside, connecting to all
times and peoples, to inspire and heal both performers and audience.
LDHP: What of the material question? Did you make a living as an artist?
WH: No. I had a few yoga classes (teaching at Tyler School of Art, Beaver
College, two recovery homes for people with addictions) and got a tiny bit from
PA Council on the Arts and PA Humanities Council, and cleaned houses. Mostly
I was supported by my husband , Steve Braff, who when I met him was a full time
yoga teacher and part-time bodyworker. Since our divorce in 2001, I have been
struggling to survive on the money I make from bodywork and mandala art and
yoga, and hoping my book that has taken up most of my free time the last 8
years, Circles of Healing, will help.
LDHP: Where were places you worked/performed?
WH: We created in my home space on 66th Ave in East Oak Lane, Innerworks,
occasionally at Temple Univ. when I was still a student there, or at the
performance sites.
