Friend a Day | January 30, 2014
Today's Friend a Day is Tamara Ober.
Tamara Ober is a dancer, a choreographer, an educator, a public speaker, and a maker of theatrical experiences. Tamara has toured the world performing her work to audience and critical acclaim. And she's worked with a ton of great people.
I have an odd relationship with Tamara. I've spent very little time with her socially but we have a huge amount of overlapping friendship and professional colleague circles. And the kind of relationships she has with many of these people whom I respect and care about are powerful and impressive. More importantly, to me, is the way I do engage with Tamara.
Every now and again Tamara will reply to a question or comment I've posted on Facebook in a way that gets right to the heart of what seems to be a complicated idea. Inevitably, we end up corresponding electronically and she always make me look at something differently or asks me a question in a way that completely shifts how I'm thinking or feeling about something.
Tamara is the kind of artist who quite literally throws her entire self into her projects. She is vulnerable and raw and a little bit scary in her willingness to maybe hurt herself physically or emotionally. The way Tamara approaches her work, and I believe she approaches the rest of her life in the exact same way, has this intense sincerity that would be obnoxious if she weren't so damn talented. And she leaves room for lightness and humor. I'd love to move my relationship to my work in comedy more in the direction that Tamara approaches dance. But I fear I don't have the balls.
It's intimidating to me how consistently Tamara is able to alter my point of view with a few paragraphs. And impressive that she always does it with an openness and curiosity that we could all stand to have a bit more of in our lives. I feel really like to share an artistic community with Tamara, and even more lucky to consider her a friend.
To find out more about her work check out Tamara Ober Dot Com