Infinite Crescendo

LA-based theater director, choreographer, filmmaker, dancer, and surfer J’aime Morrison describes the experience of losing her husband Jim to cancer as one that “unmade” her. In the slow process of remaking herself, she turned to film—a discipline that was then new to her. Her instincts told her the learning curve and necessity of a team would help her get back into her body. And, that film would help her share the multisensory story of how surfing and the sea were healing her. In this Infinite Crescendo Conversation, the Cal State Northridge professor tells Carly about her short film Upwell, and about her Mourning Surf and movement-for-grief retreats, which help others find what their bodies are feeling. Together, they listen, hold, and honor those embodied emotions—while they ride the waves.  Also in this episode: Details on our upcoming retreat and teacher training in Portugal.

As a model in Paris in the ‘90s, Sibyl Buck walked all the legendary runways and was photographed by the greats. But those things didn’t click into place until she took the risky move of being herself. Her agency wanted her to be pretty, but she wanted to be Sibyl: fire engine red hair (before everyone was doing that) and old flannel shirts and piercings. Turns out, the world wanted the real Sibyl, too. Now, facilitating Regenerative Integration at the New Paradome, her permaculture farm in Topanga, Sibyl is listening to own inner voice and fully loving her true, sovereign self.   And at 52, this iconic beauty is still walking the runway for designers Vivienne Westwood and The Row to name a few.  In this deep dive conversation, the woman who first introduced Carly to breathwork talks about sitting with suffering, ditching the inner critic, and cultivating devotion to all that comes into your life asking to be seen.

Josh Brolin demands emotional intimacy. He’ll admit not everyone can meet him there, but that’s what he’s come to understand as his own baseline. In this very real iteration of what the Infinite Crescendo Conversation world is all about, Carly gives the actor and seeker space to share what’s in his past, what’s in his present, and what’s on his heart. As they move through time from his surf-punk drug haze —when it seemed no one wanted what he wanted to offer—to that very Hollywood cliche where every potential relationship was transactional, we bear witness to what it’s meant for this particular human to find himself, to share himself, to be himself.

Beginning with conceptual themes and abstract ideas and moving from there to intuitively sourced imagery, Brooklyn-based artist David B. Smith constructs soft, colorful sculptures that both relate to and resist the glitchy white noise of the omnipresent world. David’s cozy but also dizzying installations often become environments for live sound in real time, and he and Carly share an affinity for inviting audiences to use their voices. In this dialog about art, performance, and personal exploration, what Carly and David are ultimately exploring is journey design: the process of creating pathways for themselves and others to explore freedom, safety, expansion, and the knowledge inherent in our bodies.

Making good on our promise to continue honoring mothers this month, Carly sat down with Lita Albuquerque—who’s been making art of the body, earth, and universe since the 70s—and her dancer and choreographer daughter Jasmine Albuquerque. In a dialogue that moves from Malibu to Tunisia to the outer planets, and from everyday parenting to cosmology, culture, and conceptual art, the women touch on the micro and macro of expression, togetherness, and care—and the true art of honoring ourselves and each other (and in particular our children and mothers) for who we are.