All My Life

2007, 20 minutes

I am, therefore I dance

I am, therefore I dance. The world hums and throbs and gives rise to a thousand dances. I am swept into the rhythms of the world that inform the beating of my heart and the pulsing of love within me. Bewildered, I blend into the dances of others. I lose and find myself in them at the same time. All My Life is part coming-of-age story, part personal mythology. Influenced by the ubiquitous subtexts of synthetic experience, the artist/dancer in All My Life asks, "Is this my life, or is this a Hollywood movie? Am I growing and becoming, or am I just listening to a self-help tape?" In her joyful, wistful, and humorous new work Fox explores the role of Hollywood production numbers and dance videos in her life. Ever present in the background of the events and experiences that have shaped her identity and sexuality, they serve as yardsticks for her life. And the personal-improvement tapes whether actual or in the internally recorded voices of her parents, therapists, and friends, are always running, informing her emotional well-being. When all is said and done she asks, does the voiceover of self-help in our heads guide our dance, or is it the other way around? Do the mind and the body move in sync or symbiotically step on each other's toes? Whatever the answer, let's listen to the whispering in our ears, and above all, let's laugh and cry and dance.* -M. Fox

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