What is the Jungian Shadow, anyway, and why is it relevant? Here is a short new video of Shadow Tender’s artistic director, Natasha Kolosowsky, explaining & contextualizing these things + some art and dancing.
In brief, it’s a performance and workshop series that asks how humans create and interact with the monstrous within ourselves and in others, and seeks to provide the tools and inspiration to meet our shadows with compassion rather than fear, shame, or rejection. We’re examining these ideas through the lens of fantasy, theater, wearable sculpture, and movement, with inspiration ranging from neuroscience to alchemical philosophy. We’ve been invited to perform and teach at the World Stage Design festival this July in Taiwan, Taipei - one of the largest international performance design festivals in the world! But we’ll need your help to get there! We’re only about 26% of the way to our funding goal, and we only have a few days left of our crowdfunding campaign!
SHADOW TENDER IS ON THE POSTER for SCENOFEST - the performance program of the entire World Stage Design festival! The poster is up in Taiwan right now. Wha…?!! That’s Aurelia Cohen and Maria in the bottom image. What an honor….now we have to go!
Speaking of which, we are just past 25% of our total goal for funding with LESS THAN a week to go in our campaign. If we are able to get to get to at least 45% of the full sum, that may be enough to get us to the festival.
We have been blown away by the generosity of our communities thus far — thank you SO MUCH for supporting us and believing in Shadow Tender. I cannot begin to express how much it means to be able to share these ideas with you and to hear affirmation that yes, this work is necessary, timely, and welcome in the world.
Can we do it? Can we actually make it to Taiwan?! As we near the final, deciding week of our Indiegogo campaign, we are working extra hard to reach out far and wide to encourage people to donate and make Shadow Tender a reality. Our whole team is giving it absolutely everything we can, but we still have a ways to go.
Will you help us spread the word in the coming week? Its as simple as sending a short note or sharing the campaign linkwith somebody you think may resonate with our work – every little bit counts.
….After all, we are already on the poster : )
Thank you for being part of this adventure with us!
Mask prototypes for the Shadow Tender project, directed by Natalya Kolosowsky. Shadow Tender looks at the psychological mechanisms of demonization at the root of extreme nationalistic policy and personal fears through the medium of theater, wearable sculpture, and movement.
Our masks and costumes seek to externalize our inner anxieties, doubts, and struggles–we can move in them, face them when worn by another, and hopefully, find healthy ways to reintegrate with them, free of both wallowing or blind rejection.
“The Jungian Shadow lays curled up in the darkness of the fictional mind-body split, in the chasm that we tell ourselves separates our “civilized,” “rational” selves from the “primitive,” “uncultured” aspects of our being. Within this darkness dwells the “other”: the deep trauma, shame, and pain of the colonized and the colonizer; the oppressed and the oppressor. The body knows these secrets – blood and sinew cannot be fooled, cannot be made to ignore these aspects of the self.“ -Natasha Kolosowsky
Here is a small snippet of a Shadow Tender rehearsal from our first week of workshops at the Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR. Part of exploring our Shadow selves is honoring the parts of ourselves that are not always…”approved of” by society. This is SO up my alley when it comes to beastly, feral movements–I’m so grateful to have an outlet for the type of movement that feels like it’s running just under my skin, more often than not…
To take a page from The Princess Bride; It’s got masks, and ballet, and monsters; butoh, and biofeedback technology, and prosthetics; martial arts, modern dance, and circus arts; Jungian psychology, alchemical philosophy, and neuroscience; fearsome things and tender things.
I can’t imagine a project I would be more excited to work on right now. This is one of the largest projects I’ve ever tackled, and what I truly want my art to achieve: using the transformative magic of costumes and movement to help people understand more about themselves and even find the tools to interact more healthily with each other.
I’m working with some of the most talented artists and performers I know, but even as excited and determined as we are, we’re not going to be able to do this alone. Please take a moment to watch our video and check out our campaign. If you can contribute we’d be forever grateful, but you can help us succeed just by spreading the word. Do you know anyone who likes any of the things in that first sentence? Share this with them!
What is the Jungian Shadow, anyway, and why is it relevant? Here is a short new video of Shadow Tender’s artistic director, Natasha Kolosowsky, explaining & contextualizing these things + some art and dancing.
In brief, it’s a performance and workshop series that asks how humans create and interact with the monstrous within ourselves and in others, and seeks to provide the tools and inspiration to meet our shadows with compassion rather than fear, shame, or rejection. We’re examining these ideas through the lens of fantasy, theater, wearable sculpture, and movement, with inspiration ranging from neuroscience to alchemical philosophy. We’ve been invited to perform and teach at the World Stage Design festival this July in Taiwan, Taipei - one of the largest international performance design festivals in the world! But we’ll need your help to get there! We’re only about 26% of the way to our funding goal, and we only have a few days left of our crowdfunding campaign!
SHADOW TENDER IS ON THE POSTER for SCENOFEST - the performance program of the entire World Stage Design festival! The poster is up in Taiwan right now. Wha…?!! That’s Aurelia Cohen and Maria in the bottom image. What an honor….now we have to go!
Speaking of which, we are just past 25% of our total goal for funding with LESS THAN a week to go in our campaign. If we are able to get to get to at least 45% of the full sum, that may be enough to get us to the festival.
We have been blown away by the generosity of our communities thus far — thank you SO MUCH for supporting us and believing in Shadow Tender. I cannot begin to express how much it means to be able to share these ideas with you and to hear affirmation that yes, this work is necessary, timely, and welcome in the world.
Can we do it? Can we actually make it to Taiwan?! As we near the final, deciding week of our Indiegogo campaign, we are working extra hard to reach out far and wide to encourage people to donate and make Shadow Tender a reality. Our whole team is giving it absolutely everything we can, but we still have a ways to go.
Will you help us spread the word in the coming week? Its as simple as sending a short note or sharing the campaign linkwith somebody you think may resonate with our work – every little bit counts.
….After all, we are already on the poster : )
Thank you for being part of this adventure with us!
Mask prototypes for the Shadow Tender project, directed by Natalya Kolosowsky. Shadow Tender looks at the psychological mechanisms of demonization at the root of extreme nationalistic policy and personal fears through the medium of theater, wearable sculpture, and movement.
Our masks and costumes seek to externalize our inner anxieties, doubts, and struggles–we can move in them, face them when worn by another, and hopefully, find healthy ways to reintegrate with them, free of both wallowing or blind rejection.
“The Jungian Shadow lays curled up in the darkness of the fictional mind-body split, in the chasm that we tell ourselves separates our “civilized,” “rational” selves from the “primitive,” “uncultured” aspects of our being. Within this darkness dwells the “other”: the deep trauma, shame, and pain of the colonized and the colonizer; the oppressed and the oppressor. The body knows these secrets – blood and sinew cannot be fooled, cannot be made to ignore these aspects of the self.“ -Natasha Kolosowsky
Here is a small snippet of a Shadow Tender rehearsal from our first week of workshops at the Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR. Part of exploring our Shadow selves is honoring the parts of ourselves that are not always…”approved of” by society. This is SO up my alley when it comes to beastly, feral movements–I’m so grateful to have an outlet for the type of movement that feels like it’s running just under my skin, more often than not…
To take a page from The Princess Bride; It’s got masks, and ballet, and monsters; butoh, and biofeedback technology, and prosthetics; martial arts, modern dance, and circus arts; Jungian psychology, alchemical philosophy, and neuroscience; fearsome things and tender things.
I can’t imagine a project I would be more excited to work on right now. This is one of the largest projects I’ve ever tackled, and what I truly want my art to achieve: using the transformative magic of costumes and movement to help people understand more about themselves and even find the tools to interact more healthily with each other.
I’m working with some of the most talented artists and performers I know, but even as excited and determined as we are, we’re not going to be able to do this alone. Please take a moment to watch our video and check out our campaign. If you can contribute we’d be forever grateful, but you can help us succeed just by spreading the word. Do you know anyone who likes any of the things in that first sentence? Share this with them!
