It's Enough (for a rooftop)
Zine and audio edition (2020)

Black screen: [muffled street sound], followed by slides with the transcript: Voiceover: The following six photographs were taken by Gemma Crow during the rehearsal process for It's Enough (for a rooftop). A pandemic era exploration of time proximity and relationship undertaken by all bodies Dance Project over multiple phases through changing seasons spanning from October 2020 to September 2021. The project took place on the vacant parkade rooftop of the Sunwah Centre in Vancouver's Chinatown on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. The parkade rooftop located seven stories up is wide open except for a small covered area supported by concrete pillars and two enclosures that house the elevators and the stairs. From this height, there are views in all directions - the North Shore mountains, the buildings of downtown, the waters of False Creek, and the trees of East Vancouver.  The multi-season process, the spacious setting and the panoramic views shaped the work in beautiful and unexpected ways.  Featured in the photographs are Andrea (she/her) a standing dancer. Carolina (she/her) a standing dancer. Danielle (she/her) a standing dancer. Harmony (she/her) a dancer who uses a manual wheelchair. Rianne (she/they), a standing dancer, and romham (they/them) a dancer who uses a motorised wheelchair. All of the dancers are white.  The photographs were taken over multiple days through changing seasons. As such, the clothing of the dancers is different from image to image. Consistently the dancers dressed for comfort and functionality which included wearing medical masks for safety.  These descriptions are written and voiced by Danielle and Andrea, two dancers from the project. Their poetic approach is informed by their embodied memory of the time spent on the rooftop, and sometimes includes atmospheric elements not always apparent in the photographs themselves. The ambient sound heard in the background of these descriptions was recorded during the rehearsal process by Jemma Crowe.  We make a formation. Danielle, Carolina, Rianne, romham, Andrea.  A Flying V, all arms lifted, stretching, searching, carving the contours of a distant horizon like the birds we share this space with: pigeons, seagulls, crows, geese, eagles.  We listen. We feel. We notice. Summer on the roof.  A dusty exit sign over the door to the stairs.  A string of lights with half the bulbs missing. The crane from the construction site across the street. The giant unloading equipment at Crab Park like distant dinosaurs.  There's a slight haze around the North Shore mountains.  Warmth on the brink of pure heat.  Rianne and Andrea congregate, eyes closed. They arc their spines towards each other, and each reach an arm toward the curb between them. Andrea squatting, Rianne standing, and the sun hits all their limbs.  The ground of the roof is rough, dappled by a recent rain.  romham and Andrea coil away from each other, the distance between them stretched tight. romham twists away from the backrest of their chair, one arm pulls the other across their chest.  On her belly in front of romham, Andrea twists in the opposite direction, the flesh of her hands and cheek pressed into the sandpaper ground - a ground covered with dirt cracks, tar, traces of upkeep. Rianne, Harmanie and Andrea, far across the vastness of the roof, bundled up in winter clothing. They are paint swatches, bright accents standing out against a wash of grey stillness.  Harmanie grasps her wheel, facing Andrea who perches on a railing. Mirroring her behind them, Rianne, jaunty. The wide legs of her pants show the twist in her motion. From this distance they appear small, little figures each with an arm placed up or out. Behind them the skyscrapers of downtown appear small, too, with windows like open eyelids all covered by a blanket of low clouds. The day is bright. Neighbourhood trees meet city, meet mountains, meet sky.  Rianne and romham share momentum - a rounded trajectory, one follows the other. Pillar between them as gravitational centre. Rianne is mid-step, weighted yet lively. romham leans towards the pillar pressing the joystick of their motorised wheelchair. Velocity banked turns a moment of joy, not controlled or predicted, like the memory of these two pressed on either side of this pillar, so close and not knowing, touching through concrete.  romham, Rianne, Andrea - held within the borders of the rooftop, framed by both the fresh paint lines of parking spaces and the faded lines they replace. romham a witness, a proximity. Andrea and Rianne a collision of comfort. romham is quiet, their hands on their lap, their back wheels against the concrete parking curve.  Andrea and Rianne are stacked together in a forward bow, all arms dangle down. Andrea below with Rianne draped over her back. Rianne's face presses between Andrea's shoulder blades, Rianne's feet behind, Andrea’s hover over wet ground. A puddle reflects their nestled bodies, a glimpse of a future of closeness.