and the fearfulness of that and that listening quality of being at war. She’s not only depicting a woman’s response to this, but also the idea that the woman may be seeing by not seeing; not being there, but seeing what could be her husband or her son out in the fields, and what they might be feeling. Lea Clay Are they in a sense putting themselves into the male position by “seeing, but not really seeing?” Terese Capucilli Well, we can only know what happens in the trenches. We can’t be in the trenches. So if you are woman and you are home, hoping your loved one will come back home, what do you see? You’re not seeing them, but you’re seeing them. You’re imaging from afar what might be happening. Martha would not talk about putting the female in the male role; that is looking into it in a different way than Martha would ever think about things. The narrative comes from the individual that is dancing the work. It’s an essence of something that is powerful that she is seeing, and so as a dancer, as the instrument for helping her to bring this dance to life, it’s about making that essence of that come out. That’s why when I had that stance forward, because I had seen it in the photographs, and I did that for her, that somehow registered to her in a really strong way by bringing back a memory of a certain kind of power, or courage, that needed to be upheld during this kind of event in our lives. […] Terese Capucilli. You also ask about Martha straying from traditions. Martha didn’t stray anywhere; she didn’t choose to stray. Martha, as with any artist, was affected by something. Martha would never choose to create a dance called Deep Song because it relates to the cante jondo of
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