Megan Pitcher took leap of faith when she moved from Cleveland, where she was already a well-established dance and movement educator and performer, to Chicago to join the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA program at Columbia. And, if starting over with new friends, a new home, and a new academic environment wasn’t enough, she also started a new family. Her first-year experience in Bryan Saner’s course “The Body” in InterArts provided some essential grounding during what was a challenging time of transition. Says Pitcher, “Saner encouraged me to embody living in the same way I would embody creative space.”
At the end of her first academic year, Pitcher has hit the ground running with multiple new initiatives to connect her practice with her new community. “My first year at Columbia has brought me back to the realization that nothing read or written feels as powerful as an idea enacted. In realizing the critical power of my movement practice, I also realize that I cannot accomplish my goals when moving alone—My work takes root through conversations with others. The work is the thing.”
Creating a dynamic connection with community, and wishing to make a stand through the collective gathering of bodies in movement, led Pitcher to open Solid Ground Studio in Pilsen, in partnership with Monitor Dentista of Grupo Unidade Capoeira. Their new space is dedicated to embodied living, where participants can be “active and engaged and amused and involved and immersed in the amazing possibilities created by space and work.”
Says Pitcher, “There are so many ways to make life easier, but I want to learn and struggle and grow beside others who are putting forth their best efforts to do the same. In working with and alongside others, I practice patience and respect. I earn more than I expend.”
The new space offers many interdisciplinary classes, and will also be host to varied events and exhibitions. The location on west 18th street is ideal for new collaborations and cross-pollinations with the Columbia community, starting with a Solid Ground Studio group exhibition of work by Megan and her InterArts colleagues, scheduled for fall 2012.
