Hey, there. My name is Jessie Sawyers. I’m a visual musician (aka, tap dancer) based out of Seattle. I’m currently enjoying a 10-month residency with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX. That said, Seattle is very much my home. There’s a palpable energy in our town’s music scene and I am proud to be a part of it and to have met and collaborated with such lovely, talented, and visionary human beings during my involvement and growth in the past 6 years. So far, I’ve been in Austin for one month and, while I do miss home, I am excited to do my best to represent the essence of Seattle music while here. 

My time outside of rehearsals and performances with Tapestry will be spent cultivating an event back in Seattle. My goal with this event is to present a visual music (or “VIMM”) concert that also serves as the launch of my first book in an illustrated series I’ve been building. My current goal is to seek a March 2014 booking for the concert – this is TBA pending venue availability and my collaborators’ schedules. Speaking of collaborators, I have confirmed participation from Michelle Dorrance (tap dancer/musician) from NY, as well as Seattle’s own Josh Rawlings (keys), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), and Jeremy Jones (drums), collectively known as The Teaching.

The last time I collaborated with The Teaching was back in 2010 for a concert at the Triple Door. I’ve been itching to do another collaboration ever since, but I’ve also been wanting to hibernate and expand my ability to contribute to the music soundscape with more than just my feet. Part of why this upcoming concert feels so significant for me is that I will, in fact, be integrating some new forms of musical expression. I’ve been doing vocal studies for the past year and a half and also picked up the ukulele about three or four months ago (initially, just to accompany myself during singing practice, but that little uke sure is growing on me!). I’ve been writing seeds of ideas for some songs and will work with Josh along the way to create complete pieces. In my mind, I also imagine that my tap dancing can become an actual written rhythmic line in some of the compositions. Other times, it will be used in improvisational soloing. Other times, not at all.

I want audience-goers to feel the connective, participatory energy of a music concert, and to feel free to let their enjoyment be a physical experience – in other words, to not be afraid to dance, sway, or clap along. In a nutshell, I want to create Music that Moves.

So what will I be sharing about this endeavor via The Monarch Review?

Expect to see snippets of music/dance/vocal creations, as well as posts about business and timeline developments, planning and brainstorming, my adventures as a Seattleite in Austin, announcements about website updates and launches, crowdsourcing campaigns, the inside scoop on my book writing and illustrating, and most definitely my challenges, uncertainties, and revisions throughout the entire journey. I hope we can all learn something as I move through this experience! As such, I will aim to share my process and capabilities with complete transparency. If I don’t know something, I’ll say so. If I feel inadequate at times, heck, I’ll even share that, too. It’s all a part of me and I feel that sharing the many layers of my human experience will allow for a deeper connection with all of you. Let’s call this mindset ‘open-source living’.

To be continued…

Peace,

Jessie