Photos by Michael Luke
WHEN THE BIRDS FLY HAPPY (2011)
created and performed by Sarah Joy Stoker
sound by Lori Clarke
light by Jean Philippe Trépanier
20 minute solo
It started with the drives to and from the farm in Portugal Cove, watching the trees and seasons change. Then I read a book by Birger Sellin, I don't want to be inside me anymore, an autistic. I thought about beauty, and fairness and suffering. I thought about people trapped in their bodies. I thought about animals and environments trapped in what we have created.
I wondered if the seagulls that I watch fly over my house each day and night are happy, at the same time thinking how foolish a question. But what a feeling to watch them fly happy, and what a difference when they seem sad. Like they know what we have done...what is coming.
And then Robbie got sick. Her mind and spirit intact, her body attacked.
I think about life and love, and love and life.
We love you Robbie. We miss you.
Funded by The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the City of St. John's
Performed at the Festival of New Dance, LSPU Hall, 2011