It's not heavy, its a tree

I'm working on some new work this summer that will be apart of a project I will start in earnest in the spring. One of the things I'm working on is a solo which I've talked about before here & here. The solo has basically two sections - the first one being a slow walk and then the second section that happens extremely close to the audience, doesn't move around much and the movement is initiated by the spine. For this solo I'm working with two statements that came out of my "Home is..." writing exploration - "Home is a nest" and "Home is my daughter's breath". The first statement about the nest has certainly changed and continued to evolve throughout this rehearsal process. It began as an image of me walking onto stage with a big package of stuff (as if it was all my belongings) on my back as I walked slowly. I imaged this package would be a bunch of paper and other light weight material so it could be very big. This transformed into the idea that I would carry a huge load of sticks that I would eventually put down and build into a kind of nest-like structure. Lastly, and this is what I tried tonight for a feedback session, is to carry a very tall tree on my back - kind of on my neck - as I walk in. It is a surprising image and could totally not work because it could feel like it's just way to over the top. But, after the showing today a number of people said that the image worked for them as it contained many layers of meaning - it could be a burden, or I'm saving something from dying, it's something important to me, it is my home (symbolically). I'm curious to see the video as it is hard to see yourself when you're carrying a tree on your neck.