Carolyn Roy Dance

 Why Speak of a rose in winter?

Dori Laub writes of the witness as an enabler of testimony, who triggers its initiation, and is guardian to its process and its momentum. In the sanctuary of silence, a witness is present, has first-hand and sensory knowledge of an event, and through their testimony, accepts responsibility for its representation.The figure of the witness and role of keeping vigil is enacted by Musarc, a collection of bodies with different ways of seeing, hearing and doing. The body of the choir bears responsibility for witnessing events, observing, reflecting, lamenting, celebrating and interpreting. Meaning is co-created through the interaction of the witnessed and the witness. Our presence to self. Ecce homo. I see you. I witness your presence there by my presence with you, now. “No saying what it is they somehow say. The eye will close in vain. Say that a body. Somehow standing. In the dim void … Say for now still seen.” (Samuel Beckett)

In silence my breath will be your witness.