Just beginning my residency for Song and Dance Man at Greywood Arts in Killeagh, Ireland. Today: a day to get oriented on all fronts: unpack, get my gear to the studio up in the third floor eves, slowly unspool myself out of airplane body, and pursue a few ideas. There are very large hares here in Ireland! This is like following rabbits, sometimes down holes. I’ll do it. Just listen, look, smell, pay attention to see where this piece wants to go, what shape it wants to be. Songs? Dances? Stories? All of the above? How do one put this thing together? I have no idea. Sniffing it out.

Greywood is a special place to be at on many fronts – how amazing to be here in Ireland – but a most special reason for me is that it is the brainchild of Jessica Bonenfant Coogan – whom I taught from 1999 – 2001 at the Bridgeport Regional Center for the Arts. Jessica has gone on to do great things: a career in dance and choreography, directing Lola Lola Dance Theatre, teaching in academia – and now, becoming an impresario for the Arts! She and her husband Hughie Coogan acquired  a 17th-century house in need of loving attention, which they are giving it – all sorts and manner of renovation going on – right on the main street in the little village of Killeagh. It is just what a town with three pubs, two grocery stores, one restaurant needs.  I feel so lucky to be here –  to be a little part of Jessica’s vision-in-realization –  and to get this zero-ing in time, for me.