BODY AND SOUL: Cory Nakasue: embracing complexity

Cory Nakasue

A woman with long, dark-brown hair and brown eyes sits at a desk in front of a computer and looks at the camera from the corner of her eye. A bright orange couch is in the background.

Nakasue in a performance still from Reframed, directed by Brent Felker (2011)

A woman with long, dark-brown hair stands on the grass, at the side of a barn holding the side of her head with one hand and reaching for the sky with the other. It’s like we’re spying on her from behind a tree. A shadow covers half of the barn and her head. The rest of the frame is in sunlight.

Cory Nakasue sees complexity all around us and within us--from the cosmic realm above to the most intimate spaces below here on planet Earth. Self-described as "a theater artist, writer, and astrologer whose work includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video," Nakasue likely inhabits far more than even those multiple identities and roles. In this talk for Body and Soul, she shares thoughts about how our tendency to avoid complexity denies us the pleasure of engaging with what's real.

Listen to this episode of Body and Soul here.

To learn more about Cory Nakasue, scroll down.

The Cosmic Event of the Body (Cosmic Doghouse Press, 2023)

A white book sits on a red rug. On the cover of the book is a bright red circle radiating black tendrils. The title of the book is at the top. The author’s name is at the bottom.

Bio: Cory Nakasue is a theater artist, writer, and astrologer whose work includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video. Her original dance and theater pieces have been presented internationally, and she is currently in dramaturgical process with Elisabeth Motley and Aynsley Vandenbroucke. She is a published poet and dance critic whose first chapbook, The Cosmic Event of Body, is coming out in March 2023. She’s the astrologer-in-residence at The Poetry Barn, Chronogram Magazine, Opus 40, and The Cosmic Dispatch, a weekly radio show/podcast. She holds MA degrees in Choreography and Performance Studies from Middlesex University, London, with additional graduate work in theater from CalArts. She’s been a movement educator and somatic therapist under the moniker Body Intelligence for the past 20 years. Her obsessions include narrative medicine, expanded eroticisms, and the cultivation of metaphor as an embodied sense. www.corynakasue.com and www.astrologybycory.com