In March of 2024, aerialist Erin Clark had a mysterious stroke. There were no recognizable symptoms, no deficits. Her blood pressure spiked out of nowhere and a chance CT scan showed that the neurological event had happened. No one knows when, or how, or ultimately why. 

 

After two years of creating a virtuosic aerial dance performance, with a debut of new material pending, she was expected to do nothing strenuous for at least 6 months. 

 

So used to long recovery periods, used to her body spontaneously retreating from ability, and accustomed to her bed as the hub of her life, this was already a prominent element in the show she had developed. 

 

Erin Clark is an artist whether she can perform aerial dance or not. 

 

Instead of cancelling the show, she wrote a special version of Special Process that honours her body —for as long as it is in this state— while still connected to all the other elements of the show; wheelchairs, peonies, aerial dance and being in bed. 

 

The artist invites you to please enjoy the show. 

 

The show uses excerpts and quotations from Judith Heumann’s memoir Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, The Cyborg Manifesto by Donna J. Haraway, the tarot interpretation of Camelia Elias and a passage from her book The Childless Witch, feedback from poet and instructor Sabrina Orah Mark, with contributions from The Modern Witch tarot deck. Inspiration from Mary Oliver, Anne Carson, and the artist’s burst artery and dead spine.