Illustration by Fabio Vermelho
Marlee Grace is an improvisor and writer residing in Point Reyes, California. She works with improvisation as a method for navigating being alive & making work through movement, quilting, writing, & podcasting. Through her instagram account, Personal Practise (which we are avid followers of!) she documents her daily dance practises where music or space are no issue. Whether she’s dancing in her apartment, in a forest or on a street, her routines in movement and her daily rituals are her way of staying accountable. She is an inspiration for those of us looking to start every day with a determination to feel alive and we highly recommend following her journey. You can order her book Sacred Shift: A Book About Personal Practise here or any of her zines and prints here.
1. Do you actively do anything to keep your brain healthy, and if so what? I take feverfew capsules every day for migraines, for my brain.
2. What or who mentally stimulates your growth the most? Walking.
3. If you could add or take away anything from your brain what would it be? Addictive behaviour.
Frontal Lobe
4. Are you more emotion or reason based when making decisions? EMOTION.
5. Do you have any daily or annual rituals? Are they personal to you or your family or are they related to your culture or religion? Yes – every day I do morning pages (journaling) and pray. I try to walk or swim every day. I wish I had annual rituals. I try to pay attention to the phases of the moon and on the new moon I take it easy since I get easily depressed then, when nothing at night is illuminated.
6. If you could live inside of a book, which one would it be? Bluets by Maggie Nelson
7. Is it more important for you to speak or to be heard? To speak … oops is this bad?
8. Do you think a time exists that is easiest to create? For instance, do you strike the muse or does the muse strike you? I try to show up every day so that the muse can appear, to always sweep the steps, to always be available for it to strike me. i don’t know if I ever strike it per se.
9. Do you have an emotional state that you find it easier to create in? Manic
10. Are there certain elements that you employ to set up the perfect mental space for creating? Yes, I have a special loose incense I use that I get at a small hidden store in an alley in San Francisco. I like to drink tea also.
Photos by Amy Harrity Parietal Lobe
11. What smells do you most associate with your childhood? Oatmeal raisin cookies
12. If you could only live on five ingredients for the rest of the life, what would they be? Olive oil, chicken, sweet potatoes, rosemary, rice
13. Do you have spiritual needs and if so how do you nourish them? Yes and yes oh dear goddess yes
14. Do you have a place you go to, either physically or mentally, where you feel the most at peace? The ocean or Lake Michigan
15. Are you more motivated by the promise of reward or the threat of punishment? Sadly I think
the threat of punishment … Sometimes when I step into financial abundance, I sabotage myself and run out of money so that I am motivated to keep working. Sigh …. How to accept this and how to shift it.
16. How much does your conscience/morals come into play when making decisions?
Very little …. I’m mostly guided by intuition.
17. Do you ever experience your emotions in physical ways? If so, how? Absolutely – my migraines & eczema flair ups are DIRECTLY related to stress and not living in line with my truth.
18. What is your least favourite physical sensation? Mud on my foot when I don’t expect it.
19. What is your favourite physical sensation? An orgasm with someone who cherishes me.
Temporal Lobe
20. What is your earliest memory? Oatmeal raisin cookies with my grandfather on the back porch of my parents house.
21. If you got alzheimers or dementia what memory or memories would you be saddest to lose? My memories of falling in love and memories of my dad.
22. Do you expect happiness in your life? Yes
23.Do you try and avoid feeling negative emotions or do you feel it is more constructive to experience your emotions fully? Yes I try to avoid them at all costs but it’s new to me to try to sink in to them and learn what they are telling me.
24. What flaws do you think you have when it comes to communicating with other people? I tend to talk about myself or relate it to my own experience which sometimes can be helpful but also puts the focus back on me instead of staying focused on the friend in need
25. How do you deal with situations or individuals that fail to stimulate you creatively or emotionally? I try to be really transparent and inform people when something isn’t feeling correct
26. What do you think your ex partners would say the hardest thing about loving you was? Holy shit, ha! My mess, emotionally and physically a true tornado.
Occipital Lobe
27. Do you have any recurring dreams or nightmares? My dad getting murdered at a cherry stand in Mexico or falling. I’m always waking up gasping.
28. If you have ever taken psychedelic drugs, did you have any interesting hallucinations on them? Do you feel changed from having taken them? I tripped maybe 10 years ago on acid and it was terrible but I did fly. I literally jumped from one piece of moss to another and in my body I remember what it felt like to fly through the air so I guess it was worth it
29. Do you find your mood affected by different colour palettes? Yes – I prefer all things beige and pastel.
30. If you could live in a world where the aesthetic was controlled by a particular visual artist or film director, who would you choose? Ingmar Bergman
31. What’s the most unbelievable thing you’ve ever seen? The first time I ever saw real mountains at 28 years old driving from Michigan to California.
32. Have you ever seen something which you feel has directly resulted in certain elements of your personality today? Yes, the movie Daisies
33. Do you feel like you surround yourself with the people who see you for who you really are? Yes, 100%. I’m getting better at this everyday.
