Monique Courcy worked tirelessly to bring together a summer dance camp in Yakima with support from the Gear Up program and our host space, Melody Lane Academy for the Performing Arts. We taught many different dance classes and at the end of the week the participants and us performed in Larson Park. Monique, Jacki, and Anh were all teaching in the camp and Ian was visiting home so they were able to perform this excerpt from a work in progress.

RandAll Dance had our first all Randall collaboration!

My little brother Ian and I had the opportunity to perform in Aiko Kinoshita's Park Dance that takes place in the Bellevue Downtown Park. We did a fun improv score called "Sibling Revelry!" Our shirts say "Big Sis" and "Little Bro." The big and little refers to our ages, not our sizes, since Ian now towers almost a foot taller than me. I think it is funny because my "little" bro can lift, carry and throw me about, but I feel like I'm still the big boss because I am older. We were playing with physicalizing the different kinds of interactions siblings have with each other like teasing and taunting, ignoring, supporting and playing.

I love dancing with Ian! He is my best and only big/little brother!

RandAll Dance had our first performances this summer in Beyond the Threshold International Dance Festival at Seattle Center, and in Georgetown's Artopia Festival. It was an interactive performance where we asked audience people to "connect the dancers" by stringing red yarn between us and tying us in knots.

The miles of yarn came from my late grandmother's collection of yarn. She unintentionally collected 13 storage boxes worth of yarn, always in anticipation of starting new projects. I like to think that we are all still connected even though my grandmother's ashes were thrown into the sea breeze. The lines of quivering red yarn in a confusing tangle and connecting the dancers gave a glimpse of how we are all tied together.

Thank you to the amazing dancers who joined me for these performances:

Marta Brown
Jacki Carter
Monique Courcy
Carey Cramer
Alex Daves
Anh Nguyen
Ian Randall
Aliza Rudavsky
Erin Simons
Chastity Wilson

Photography by Nathan Vass