10,000 winds - score excerpts & performance notes

"We say, 'the wind is blowing from the west,' when we feel air pushing against us from the west. But actually, when the wind is blowing from the west, there is in fact some point of environmental inhalation in the east, rather than some exhalation from the west. Thus, if we let the wind direct our movements, its originating point becomes our destination."

- score excerpt

In 10,000 winds, each performer repeats a single word 10,000 times. We use our bodies, and our direction to orient ourselves in our counting as well as in space, time, and mood. And thus, we send our intent/wind/breath in all directions; we receive wind/energy/breath from all directions.

"Begin in any one of the peripheral points. Consider:

• the sun rises in the East;

• the sun apexes in the South;

• the sun sets in the West;

• shadows fall in the North"

- score excerpt

10,000 winds explores the interconnection of breath, wind, spirit, wish, energy, and intent - connexions that are inherent in many languages, such as the Greek pneuma, a word that encompasses all of those meanings at once.

Breath is a force that moves through us, comes from us, exchanges our molecules and consciousness with the molecules and consciousness of everything else. It is a bridge. It moves us. It moves things around us. Motion is life, change, and within that, there is hope.

Breath is a wind that moves us and moves through us, that connects us with all other living and breathing things. In honoring the wind, we become the wind. In becoming the wind, we honor the breath and life of all things.

10,000 winds was written for and performed at the event, "Make 10,000 things and let them go - an emergency of joy," on March 20th, 2019, in which artists around the world engaged in their practice for the duration and focus of 10,000 repetitions or moments. This event was a response of creative and joyful yet mourning reverence of the Ghost Ship fire of 2016, and a defiance to the state of the arts in the U.S. in general - a wealthy country in which a great many under-funded artists cannot afford safe places to live and create.

The image above is a "score sculpture" from autumn, one of the Long Tone Choir's seasonal cycle performance installations.