Have Company brick and mortar store in Grand Rapids, Michigan which closed, but the online shop is still open

In regards to one of her instagram accounts, Personal Practice, Marlee says it "began as a project and a place to document my dancing on July 26 2015 in Lancaster, PA while I was attending the Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation with my longtime teachers The Architects (Katherine Ferrier, Jennifer Kayle, Pamela Vail, & Lisa Gonzalez)."

For nearly every day since the fall of 2015, Marlee has filmed herself dancing in any situation she may find herself in, using her body as the form, no place to small or vast or uncomfortable or mundane: a cramped corner in a coffee shop, her cabin in Point Reyes, the car, at work, often with her roommate's pup.

Marlee filled us in about her new book, A Sacred Shift (limited quantities available in the shop here), how Personal Practice began and her process.

How has Personal Practice evolved from the beginning to now? What did you unearth about yourself through doing it – even in just the practice of doing something consistently and daily?

When it started it was just a digital space, just a place. I had no expectation. I just knew I needed a digital space to put things, that weren't finished. There was no book in mind, no desire to practice daily.

But then within a few weeks, I found myself doing it every day. And i found myself feeling better, and getting better, at dancing, at showing up for myself.

It was around the same time that my partnership began its ending, or its transition to the end. So personal practice as a project really documents that shift. 

And I think that in many ways, if I hadn't done it every day I am not sure I would have made it out alive, literally. It transformed me in ways I cannot explain. To show up to my body every day with no excuses, while everything around me was crumbling was so steadying. 

There are so many people now using the #personalpractice hashtag, as opposed to the 150 people practicing yoga moves when you started using it. Already knowing that you had such a large instagram following as Have Company, did you think about how would inspire others?

I had absolutely no idea, truly. I had no idea so many other people would also want to move their bodies daily, and share it with the world.  I mean what an incredible gift. People reach out to me so often saying they are listening to the Spotify playlist or that they were inspired to dance, and that was never my intention – It's just the icing on the cake. And the icing is always my favorite part.

From reading, A Sacred Shift, I know you began dancing at an early age. How did you start? 

My dancing as a child really began in an entirely freeform way. The first video of me dancing is a home movie my dad made of me in my Easter slip on the couch jumping up and down to Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation. That album is still so important to me; Janet as a dancer as well. She was also my first concert in the 4th grade. 

When did dance evolve from more than an extracurricular activity into a form of art and expression for you? 

As a teenager I became very serious about dancing. I was part of the Grand Rapids Ballet Company's school company from age 9-18, practiced ballet with a lot of commitment and rigor, and then went on to study it in college. So really, at a young age, dance was already transforming into something serious. Then in college, it truly became my main medium of art making and life processing. 

What prompted you to begin this book?

Because the project is about my physical body – but you experience it through a screen – I felt like a physical object would be something special to hold. I also thought, "This will be easy. I'll just go through each video and copy and paste all the song titles and captions and VOILA, a book."

But it took editing, and a lot of emotional patience, and self forgiveness to go through every video – especially when my marriage was ending. That was incredibly difficult. 

Were there things, through working on this book, that you discovered about yourself/your process you hadn't known before?

I learned that i am incredibly tender. Which i knew, but am always relearning. I learned that I am truly a channel of Great Spirit. Like i was reading the things I wrote from almost 2 years ago, being like "Wow, this is incredible, and I really need to learn WHO wrote this?!" . . . . and then remember that I wrote it. The dancing and the words often feel so outside of myself. I think I am always writing in a way that I am just trying to learn it, so maybe if I say it out loud I can learn it faster. I'm still learning things I wrote down in zines 5 years ago. So maybe in 7 years, or something, this book will make sense to me. 

Could you list some of the more unusual places you've danced?

a rest stop, outside of a starbucks, the ocean, the speaker aisle at target 

Did you ever feel uncomfortable? 

No. Sometimes when i see my shadow self – when i really dig in to where my addiction surfaces outside of substances, but in relationships and food and habits – i can feel uncomfortable. But in terms of the day to day execution of things, no, I do not feel uncomfortable. 

I don't unpack its meaning much, it is so deeply in my bones, in my skin, in my muscles. There is no other way I can figure out being alive. I mean, I have other ways. I have writing, and being quiet, and walking (so much walking), and swimming. But in terms of what it means; it means everything to me. Especially teaching it to others. I love watching other people unlock what is so already available to them. They just so often need someone else to say, "yes move around. you can do this too."  

Who are the dancers / movement artists that inspire you - past and present? Are there particular pieces you love?

Trisha Brown in Watermotor is incredibly important to me – dance on film. Tori Lawrence is a peer of mine, her dance films are also magic.  Jacqueline Suskin and Jack Sjogren who are both reading with me [tonight!] at Otherwild are incredible documenters or movement and I am constantly inspired by them both 

How do you feel your art as a dancer has evolved?

I dove back into teaching and improvising by birthing my daily commitment. I reentered into a constant state of research that I had drifted away from. And my movement vocabulary continues to evolve and become more and more my own. 

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Marlee Grace's Book "A Sacred Shift" is available for purchase in The Radder shop, here.

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LOS ANGELES : 2 events this upcoming weekend with Marlee:

BOOK RELEASE PARTY

Friday 8/11 | 7:00pm-9:00pm

FREE, RSVP here

Otherwild LA | 1768 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Join Marlee Grace in conversation with Jacqueline Suskin & Jack Sjogren as they discuss their lives as both documenters of movement and makers of books. The evening will be part reading // part panel discussion

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OPEN MOVEMENT IMPROVISATION with music by John Hanson

Sunday 8/13 | 3:15pm -5:00pm

$25 purchase here

Pieter Space | 420 West Avenue 33, Unit #10, Los Angeles, CA 90031

All levels welcome, no dance experience required : we'll move our bodies though space in the spirit of authentic movement and then transition into composing small works together, supported by the ambient soundscapes that john will create for us