The Omni/Visions

Mission Notes

As a dance, somatic, and body-based space we are interested in how to nourish life, self, and society. This is both for the people who come into the space, and in relation with the larger collective. It is our sense that movement as a practice offers many things regenerative for political social movements, and specifically in relation to self-care. The space also supports the creation of art, for cool innovative art to happen, which is done through providing space, time, and resources.

We are interested in how the project is rooted in Oakland, and also want to create a hub and connection with other like-minded and overlapping movement artists around the country and globe. We value doing it together, a collective process, and supporting each other's work. An artist-run space: this is potentially making a space for the art through a grass-roots process, rather than springing from a larger institution; this is actually rare. This could be a blueprint for making art, since the economics and social structure of this city and our larger society require change, as do our politics. - To quote PST catalogue: "artists developing their own cultural infrastructure to support changing methods of production."

The dance space will include weekly events like Open Movement, a place where anyone can join in and move. We also are interested in offering free space and creative forms of exchange for movement in the space, as the space permits.

We are conscious that the demographics of this dance collective and the "Omni" collective are predominantly white, in Oakland, and it is important that we are aware of this and in critical dialogue about 1) how to decolonize our practices, and 2) how to community-build so that the space can be available, accessible, and desirable for people from racially diverse and historically rich backgrounds. This is especially important because we are in a position of potentially having access to space and land. In terms of the Collective of Collectives - how do we facilitate and foster participation of people of color in the leadership of the project? It is a piece that is missing right now.

We seek a process that does not advance the agenda of any one collective over another. So that there is an equanimity amongst and within the groups.

Decision-making process

OMNI-TANZ -- We would like to use a model of consent. We enjoy an informal process, that is fully transparent, and actually fun to spend time together.

"Larger Collective Omni" -- We would like to initiate if it works a spokes council with a consent model. People can block, but they can only do so if they believe the issue at hand does not support the larger mission of the collectives.