BLOOM: Bevin Poole

BLOOM KIDS 2020 is a residency for choreographic creations, in this case by choreographers with their kids. Join us for tea, laughter and short dance films in the safety and comfort of your home, and ring in the new year. This is the 16th season of BLOOM at MascallDance.

Bevin Poole Leinweber Photo by Eleanor Leinweber

 Bevin is a lifelong student of movement. Having danced from a young age, she has over thirty years of movement training including dance, pilates, theatre and somatic practices. As an independent artist, Bevin has had the pleasure of interpreting works by Tara Cheyenne Performance, Action at a Distance, plastic orchid factory, The Contingency Plan, Chick Snipper, Helen Walkley, MACHiNENOiSY, Nicole Mion, Co. Erasga, Desiree Dunbar and Vancouver Opera. Bevin has been a company member with Dancers Dancing since 2008, appearing in works by Judith Garay, Simone Orlando and Serge Bennathan

Bevin and Eleanor:

Bevin and Eleanor have been in love for over four years. They eat together, play together and sleep together, however this is their first time working together. They spend no more than seven hours apart each week, sharing their lives with a mutual love for art, baking and snuggles. And chocolate. 

How’s the collaboration between you and Eleanor going?

It’s all speculation at this point - all 4 rehearsals are scheduled for next week.  I’ve never worked one-on-one with a 4 year old before (Not to mention my own 4 year old).  I’ve done movement with children for shows, but always with a director.  

So I’ve done fairly minimal preparation. Eleanor has a lot of strong opinions about costumes and music, many of which align with a balletic aesthetic. So I’ve decided to roll with her biggest interest(s) and make the planning an integral part of the piece.

What can you tell about the process (as you foresee it).  

I’ll facilitate – recording our conversations, movement, her process of what she understands. She also has a planning notebook, that she is filling regularly with very specific scribbles of “the making of” – in her mind. 

“The making of” is where Eleanor really comes into her element. She loves to draw and paint. She makes hundreds and hundreds of butterflies – folded paper, cut into butterfly shape, then painted pink purple gold, and then squished together. We spend at least an hour everyday doing youtube drawing videos drawing with those big, thick markers (very satisfying!)  – and seeing her tendencies.  She needs perfection, and I’m trying to coach resilience – if it isn’t what you first intended, perhaps the drawing is not failure, it is becoming something else?

Bevin and Eleanor Photo: Bevin Poole

How will you shoot and edit?

I’m thinking of editing on i-movie. I’ll do the set-up and shoot it, and Eleanor will do some shooting too.  We are a three person bubble, so my husband will be involved in shooting as needed.  

Any thoughts about music?

Not yet.  We tend to dance to soft classical, but we can also groove to really hardcore hiphop..

How has CVD-19 affected things?

We’re together every waking moment except during preschool, 3 days a week (they wear masks and so on), and a little bit of teaching time I still do. What’s shifted is that the support network built over the last four years is no longer present - activities, lessons, playdates, babysitters – so we have needed to learn our natural rhythms together.   We are much better for it of course. It has changed my approach to things, reinstating my needs into our flow. There is the pressure of constantly being “on”.  So, when we are tired, we rest. Play? As long as we like. But now, there are also times I need to rest. Quiet time when I read a book (and Eleanor does what she does) – things like that are now part of us. 

Parenting in the early years – how has that influenced your dance practice? 

Being a mom and not dancing much is about my capacity to only focus on one portion of my life that I love. I've stripped dance away in order to be able to make it through my day. If I had more capacity and created the infrastructure that gave me the chance to dance more, I would. But I don't think I'm built like that. 

As a parent, I feel a separation from the dance community, and of missing out. What has changed the most is visibility (attending class regularly) and being available at a moments notice. My career has shifted from relying on others to hire me, to understanding that I now need to be a self-starter, and I am going to patiently wait until I'm ready to make my own work and can give it the energy it requires.  

 I want to be careful not to negate any parent who chooses to find more balance between parenting and art making. This choice was mine and I embrace it! And I admire anyone who can do both!

A Tara Cheyenne Performance work that involved me was in the plans this year, but CVD-19 made it difficult to work in a group. There’s talk of a smaller project in spring 2021.  For this short period where I have a lot of time together with Eleanor, that’s what comes first. I really love to work with Tara Cheyenne Performance – Tara is absolutely brilliant, the company pays for my childcare and works around preschool pick up and drop off. I’ll work with Tara until the end of time, if she’ll have me. 

What are you seeking, if anything, in this process?

I hope to connect her dance and my dance. Eleanor is four and very caught up in what she’s doing and how she feels. I’d love this process to reveal to her that I can offer something of value as well. She has opinions about what is good or bad, which we nurture, though we always encourage kindness first.  She was all set to start dance classes – but then came lockdown.  As soon as it’s available again, she’ll be there; there’s no stopping that train.  She craves it. And not because of me being a dancer.