Help us complete our latest contemporary dance film

I'm Harold Tausch and I'm asking for your support to help me and my friend Carlynn Reed – choreographer, dancer, director, actor, and writer extraordinaire – to finish our contemporary dance/theatre film “The Conversation”. Carlynn and I are probably unique, as we are considerably older than most dance performers – I'm 75 and Carlynn just turned 80. Money raised will go towards rehearsals, costumes, music, location rental, cinematography, editing, and promotion.

Carlynn and I started working together in 2019 on a dance/theatre piece for live performance that she had written. I'm primarily an actor and she was looking for someone who could both act and dance. That piece was abandoned in 2021 after the death of Carlynn's younger son. Instead, Carlynn started choreographing a piece exploring grief. This resulted in our first short dance film called “More Than Breath”. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pJpjQl2RC8.

Our next film was inspired by the wonderful Canadian choreographer, Crystal Pite. She created a compelling piece called “The Statement”, where the dancers danced to prerecorded dialogue. Carlynn wrote the script and choreographed a piece called “Of Two Minds” using the same approach, exploring the worst and best in relationships. The first half is about a bickering couple and the second is danced to quotes from the bible about love, using similar choreography for both parts. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g-9q1bv2K4

“The Conversation” is an 18 minute long dance/theatre piece about the angel of death coming to gather someone who is not quite ready to go. A serious theme, but it has lots of lighthearted moments too. We dance again to prerecorded dialogue, but also music written and performed by Carlynn's son Kirk Reed.

We have been working on the “Conversation” for a year and a half. We've been delayed by tragedy in my family, the death of my older son and, more recently a serious health issue for Carlynn. She had a stroke in October after a catheter ablation procedure for atrial fibrillation. Fortunately, she has made a remarkably rapid and complete recovery. We both intend to keep dancing for many years but, given our ages, you never know what is around the corner.

“The Conversation” is a powerful, moving exploration of the process of accepting our mortality. Your support will help us to complete this dance film project and move on to further adventures, including possibly performing it live.