By Letty Bassart, Thought Loom

The idea for Thought Loom began with my memory of James Burke’s Connections. It was circa 1980 when I first watched him urgently address the camera and describe the connection between the hulls of massive ships and Strauss’ Indigo.  It changed my entire world view. With a child’s logic, I discovered you can connect almost anything. A few decades later, I have the privilege of watching colleagues in the art community lay their ideas before audiences. I relish the unfolding of these imaginations and envision a place where these concepts can interact free of time, space, and politics.  This is the goal of Thought Loom’s virtual platform. Its intention is to serve as a public, personalized “loom,” for each user.

At its heart is the Movement Tank, Thought Loom’s version of a think tank. It is a place for movement inventors, performers, choreographers, etc. to post material in any state. Each post is an invitation for an international community of dance artists to respond to that material, either by changing it, copying it with their own bodies, adding to it, commenting on it, or posting something entirely new. It is a place for artists to inspire and be inspired by one another between rehearsals and performances.

The Guest Thinkers area is a place where interdisciplinary ideators of all kinds are invited to contribute their thoughts on a particular topic. With posts by Brigid Baker and David Hernandez, our inaugural topic is fragility. Upcoming topics include: magic, reverie, vigor, rigor, and thirst. Thought Loom’s mission is to cultivate the generation, execution, and communications of ideas that nurture and push the field of dance. It hopes to create a generative pipeline between and among dance artists from around the globe, as well as thinkers from other disciplines.

Come visit and contribute!