unglued.

i remember  spending nights with my stack of blank paper, cup of tea and box of colored pencils- drawing each level of the brain stem (those of you who have done this know who you are) over and over and over again. oddly enough,  i loved it. (what I did not love was the “all-nighter hangover” that usually kicked in around 12pm the following day- oh the sacrifices we make to reach our goals.)

our neurologic system, simply put, is complicated. information descends from our cortex through our brain stem to our spinal cord and then out to our extremities, information also is ascending in the opposite direction.  when our neurologic system has some kind of insult to it things, simply put, go haywire.

“life has a way of turning on a dime and in a matter of a few hours or a few days or even a few minutes everything can seemingly come unglued.” –eric lowen

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), in America widely known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a relentless, degenerative and terminal disease causing degeneration of the upper (communicating with our cortex) and lower (communicating with our spinal cord and brain stem) motor neurons. it’s the most common form of motor neuron disease, with an incidence of 3-5 per 100,000, a mean age of 57, men: women/ 1.5:1, 95% sporadic and 5% familial. characteristics are rapid progressive weakness and muscle atrophy, cause is unknown, mean survival time is 4-5 yrs. (1)

led by miriam, a dear friend of the late eric lowen (guitarist, songwriter, singer from LA), we are journeying together into creating and developing dance aimed to raise awareness and educate ourselves and all who will listen, about ALS. the more we become informed, aware and learn we will together get closer to finding a way to treat this devastating disease. as movement artists the thought of a disease limiting the ability to move is hard to grasp, as a musician eric lowen slowly lost his ability to play his guitar, sing, perform and tour. he passed on march 23, 2012, after complications from ALS.

listening to eric’s songs you can hear his soul, he talked a lot about ALS and his dealing with a terminal disease, he wrote songs directly and indirectly about it. his music, his art, allowed him safe space to do this.

“we are journeyman, working hard for a relatively small return, but it has been the most satisfying and rewarding experience I could ever hope for.” –eric lowen

sometimes it takes an unforeseen set of circumstances to help you gain perspective on what is important, eric lowen has done just this for me.  as i hung up the phone with miriam after discussing plans for work surrounding ALS, i searched to learn more about eric- what i found was remarkable, empowering, inspirational and absolutely beautiful. rid the excess, stay true to yourself, pursue your dreams- life is too short to do it any other way.

we will premiere the first of a series of dances centering on ALS and inspired by eric lowen, at our june 15-17^th show, “1 x 7”, in cambridge, ma.

“it will end for me, but the songs will go on, and the memories are mine forever.” –eric lowen

-tara




(1: Umphred, Neurological Rehabilitation- 5th edition, 2007; 475-497.)