Some Thoughts on Race and Advocacy

Got an email with the subject line: Reaching Out in Solidarity Certain student groups on campus were invited to discuss institutional change and "create an actionable strategy to address the national discourse in higher education and create prevention measures here at Grinnell."

We were broken into smaller groups that included faculty, staff, and students. We had 10 minutes to go around in our groups and say why we were there, what we were bringing to the conversation and what we hoped to gain. The first ten minutes was a space to listen to each other without commenting. The whole group came together and summarized what each group had to say concerning one of these questions and then we broke into our small groups again to create a list of actual changes we wanted Grinnell to enact and who on campus would be responsible for making it happen.

Leslie Turner, the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Intercultural Affairs, created a master list of all the suggestions and is planning on presenting it to the president of the college tomorrow when several speeches and a solidarity march are scheduled.

General Thoughts:

• I appreciated the format. The groups were broken up by counting off so that people of all ages, genders, races, etc were getting to talk to each other.
• That our group was a 'safe space' where people were free to speak their minds was iterated 
• No one was forced to talk, and by asking the question 'why are you here' people were able to state their intentions clearly.
• The groups were a little too big for the amount of time we had but we were still able to talk about a lot even with the limited time frame. 
• The exercise of writing down achievable goals and the practical step of defining who would be in charge of seeing them through was very much appreciated and started to address a problem that many people brought up; that while we keep having this conversation nothing is done afterward. I think this sets up a nice trajectory that has a better chance of being seen through.

Connection to the performance:

I received this email a few hours before I was supposed to have rehearsal today. My first reaction was that I had already sent out the email saying who needed to be there and what we were doing, Wednesdays are one of only two days I have the studio reserved, and that we were going to finish the last bit of cleaning for a section today so I'd have a new video to show at my MAP meeting on Friday. This all pretty immediately struck me as ridiculous. Here the subject of my MAP is colonialism and slavery which has led to systematic injustices that continue to affect the world centuries later, all which I'm trying to help bring into the spotlight and I don't have time to go to a discussion on the subject? It's that constant reminder of how easy it is to not pay attention when you've grown up with something that's so ingrained in your own society but it can seem blatant and atrocious when you encounter it in another society. 

I went in not knowing what the layout of the meeting was going to be. When Leslie posed the first few questions, I realized that the reason I was there today was to listen. I didn't share this with my group but remained silent which, looking back, I'm not sure was the right call but I achieved my purpose nonetheless. 

One student was saying that there was no point to our meeting because these talks never change anything and part of why is because it's always the same people coming. Several people spoke up saying that if he really believed that then why was he there because what's the point. I tend to agree, if we give up that anything can ever change then we're becoming passive bystanders who are actually reinforcing it. Also, I think I feel this way because I wasn't somebody who used to go to talks about race or diversity so I think there is always a chance of changing at least one person's point of view. You've got to start somewhere. 

I don't think my performance is making some heretofore unknown observation or statement but it's making it visible to another audience on another day. It's doing something instead of giving into the seemingly impossible obstacle that is systematic oppression. 

Wanna be an accomplice?

Pages Matam, a spoken-word poet, came to Grinnell yesterday evening. He's amazing. Anyone who's interested in spoken word should definitely check out his work. (http://www.pagesmatam.com/) He created a very relaxed environment where people felt comfortable to engage in conversation with him or each other between his poems. It was great to watch as he switched seamlessly between being a person in the room to the performer we had all come to watch.

Anyway, while he was a great performer, the reason I'm writing about him is that he made a point that really stuck with me. He made this point in the context of talking about women's rights as a man but it resonated with me as a Caucasian American trying to create work addressing French Colonialism and slavery.

He was recounting a discussion with a friend of his who said he was sick of having allies. Instead, he wanted accomplices because that suggests they have something to lose as well.

I think this is an interesting distinction that captures the trouble I have with academia sometimes. It can seem like all we do is talk and talk and talk about issues with no real personal involvement. What's at stake for those who sit in the ivory tower?


The example Pages Matam gave for how he becomes an accomplice is that when he's hired to do a show he asks how many women were also hired. If the answer is none or not very many he gives them the numbers of female artists he knows and tells them to book them over him. I was thinking about this and it seems like he's helping women to be recognized but I don't think it's a sustainable practice. If he continues to turn down jobs, people will stop trying to hire him so he won't be able to promote female artists any longer.

Celeste and I talked about this idea this morning in my MAP meeting. We were trying to figure out ways people could be accomplices instead of allies in a sustainable way. I'm really struggling to figure out how to become an accomplice that's not economic without ending up in the unproductive conversation of expressing all the different ways we're individually oppressed so that we aren't perceived as the most privileged in the room. I don't think the point is to 'empathize', spreading the oppression to include more people in counter productive. But then how do you put something at stake to really make a difference?

We didn't come up with an answer but we did decided that being an ally isn't bad. One might be an ally the whole time and then in small, specific instances figure out how to become an accomplice. It's something to think about.

Continuing Relevence - 60 minutes

Here's a link to a longer video of the segment and additional information: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-slave-ship-60-minutes/ 

Two steps forward and one step back

Grinnell just had their Fall  so we got one week off to recharge and catch up. I stayed here and took advantage of the studio time. I had been getting a little anxious before break because it felt like, while I've been doing a lot of work for the MAP, the majority of it hasn't been on the actual choreography part. I've been working with several faculty members to bring Erick Noel, a French scholar, to campus to present on the history of the slave trade in conjunction with my performance, and with emailing the authors whose texts I used to inform them of the impact their work has had on me. It's been really exciting and I'm continually surprised with the wide-spread support this project is garnering but I was starting to freak out that I was doing all this work to bring people but I have nothing to show them. But over break I finished the first draft of another section, have a movement outline for another that I just need to teach to my dancers, and have the movement base for another section. I feel like I'm back on track, choreography-wise but I've had another collaboration set back. I emailed the student who had agreed to compose the sound for my show to check in as he's had a couple of weeks with my sound outline to get started and he informed me that he had decided he no longer wanted to invest his time in my project. I'm trying to look at the bright side because nobody knows what I want better than I do, so if I do it myself at least I won't do anything I can't stand. Also, I think I'm not freaking out too much because as I've been choreographing with just the voices so far so I know that they can stand on their own. I'm thinking simplicity might be the answer. Overall, I feel that the break was really productive and I'm happy with where I'm at.

Lessons on tricking yourself

I'm working on a solo right now. The way I've been working so far is to generate movement through improv exercises which I record and then pick and choose what I want from what was created. Since it's just me working on this seciton; however, I was struggling to come up with a way to improv without 'already knowing' what I wanted which usually isn't what I actually want, if that makes any sense. Celeste gave me the idea to pick a video of someone dancing and describe all the things they were doing that I liked and then make up my own movement following those directions. I picked a video that I like on YouTube and have watched about a million times. I described about half her movement and then put it in a list randomizer to get a new order. I'm really happy with the result! I got a lot of usable material from it. This exercise is definitely a keeper!


Here's the original description:

Release pose and bring hands to elbows

Drop left arm and head at the same time while bending knees symmetrically

Initiate movement with right hand creating a straight line with body (hand to foot)

Turn in a semicircle with weight only on one part of your foot

Flick left foot then extend leg, drop/pull/throw arms in opposite directions

Bring right leg and left arm together with right arm in the middle (separating the two)

Float left leg, create a bend at the knee while bringing hands together in a ‘push down’ gesture

Cross left leg over right, then right over left while handing at the waste

Bring hands to touch behind your back

Cross arms in front while picking up one foot at a time from the ground

Trace a pathway with right foot with your arms straight

Look at your right big toe while bending your left leg

Swing left leg and arm around for a ¾ turn

Bring right arm across the body, throw it in a sequential manner while moving the left leg directly with force

Make a ‘push gesture’ with both hands

Travel for four steps, clasp hands to pull you in a new direction

Arch with symmetrical arms

Circle hands in a grasp gesture

Bring right arm overhead, pull down, bring left hand to meet it, release gesture at elbows

Bring left hand to ear, extend right palm directly while transferring weight to your left leg

After it was randomized:

Bring right arm across the body, throw it in a sequential manner while moving the left leg directly with force
Release pose and bring hands to elbows
Arch with symmetrical arms
Cross arms in front while picking up one foot at a time from the ground
Swing left leg and arm around for a ¾ turn
Cross left leg over right, then right over left while handing at the waste
Initiate movement with right hand creating a straight line with body (hand to foot)
Trace a pathway with right foot with your arms straight 
Bring hands to touch behind your back
Travel for four steps, clasp hands to pull you in a new direction
Drop left arm and head at the same time while bending knees symmetrically
Turn in a semicircle with weight only on one part of your foot
Bring left hand to ear, extend right palm directly while transferring weight to your left leg 
Look at your right big toe while bending your left leg
Bring right leg and left arm together with right arm in the middle (separating the two)
Make a ‘push gesture’ with both hands
Flick left foot then extend leg, drop/pull/throw arms in opposite directions 
Bring right arm overhead, pull down, bring left hand to meet it, release gesture at elbows
Circle hands in a grasp gesture
Float left leg, create a bend at the knee while bringing hands together in a ‘push down’ gesture

Fun with Ribbons and a Chair

I haven't worked much with props before so I'm having a lot of fun trying to figure out what I can do with my chair. I've been trying to work with this tan string I have but, because it's so thin, it's hard to see it/the visuals I'm creating. I'm now on a quest for 2 inch wide ribbon that is somewhat resistant to pulling and not semi-translucent.

Yesterday, a friend came into the studio and I taught her my A - F movements. They still need some fine tuning but I think I'm close to being happy with them. I'm mainly having trouble with my 'stop' phrase but I had a potential brain wave last night as I was falling asleep so I'll see how it looks when I get into the studio later today. 

Trio Movement Outline

As I was working on the History section, I became a little overwhelmed with all the potential movement combinations which exist for trios. So I tried an exercise to give me an outline of sorts to work from. I went to YouTube, typed in dance trio, and clicked on the first one that popped up. Then, I wrote down all their different movement combinations on separate slips of paper. Combinations which were repeated were written down more than once. I then mixed up the slips of paper, turned them upside down so I couldn't see what they said, and lined them up. The only rule I went in with was that two repeating combinations couldn't be back to back. I mixed them up and turned them over several times before I was happy with the result. I ended up choosing the first and the last one deliberately and then leaving the rest up to chance. Here's the order I came up with:

1. Move in Unison
2. Duet & Solo
3. Hold different poses 
4. Move in Unison
5. 1 moves, then 2, then 3
6. 3 move individually at the same time 
7. Two unison, 1 individual 
8. All 3 on ground, move in unison 
9. One standing, 2 on ground (all doing a 'horizontal' movement)
10. Moment of connection
11. Two unison, 1 individual 
12. 3 do something different to travel
13. Make a shape
14. Three move in unison 
15. Make a shape 

Dramatic Reading of L'esclave vieil homme et le molosse

Sent the video to my sound guys as possible inspiration.

"Models of Collaboration: Dance, Art, and Music" - Talk given at Grinnell College on 10/06/15

Juliet Bellow, "Working Simultaneously: Robert and Sonia Delaunay and the Ballets Russes"
Julia Randel, "Pas de deux of music and dance: Balanchine's Stravinsky ballets"

A point that both women touched on was the idea that in collaboration there is an inherent hierarchy between collaborators. These made me pause as normally, when talking about collaboration, it's with the intention of multiple people bringing their ideas to the table and creating something amazing from it. When I think about it, this has always been the case in every group project I've ever worked on; someone has to take the lead or nothing ever seems to get decided or finished. But I've never applied the term "hierarchy" to a collaborative situation, especially when it's a project in the arts. I'm having mixed feelings about being in a position of power for my MAP. On the one hand, I do get to make the final call on what to keep and what to change so it's can be exactly how I want, but I'm also afraid that someone else will have an idea that I would love but they aren't saying anything because I'm 'supposed' to be telling them what to do. I like to think I've set up a relationship with those I'm working with to establish an open exchange of ideas but it always takes time to become comfortable enough with people to be bluntly honest about ideas. So, I guess I'll check back on this question in a few months when we've had the chance to work together a little more.

Julia Randel gave the audience a handout with certain quotes from Stravinsky and Balanchine. There were two in particular that stuck out to me. The first makes me feel better about the fact that I'm choreographing right now with no clue as to what the music is going to sound like. The second, I love because I want the music to convey what is being said for non-French speakers.

"Choreography, as I concieve it, must realize its own form, one independent of the music though measured to the musical unit. Its construction will be based on whatever correspondence the choreographer may invent, but it must not seek to duplicate the line and beat of the music."
                                             -Stravinsky

"Well, that's what the music said."
                                            -Balanchine 

Sound Outline

My composer asked me to create an outline that correlated with the text describing what tones I was going for, potential sounds I was thinking of, and images that came to mind. I've been pretty nervous about sitting down to do it because I had such a hard time giving explicit tone directions to my readers. Although, I think because I struggled during each recording and consequently would discuss what I was trying to evoke by any means possible (me trying to read it and let them hear where I changed tones, discussing the content together, etc), I had a much better understanding when I sat down to make this outline. I made my text into a PDF so I could use the handy dandy comment tools that professors always use to tear apart your essays. It felt nice to explicitly state what I've been trying to explain to various people about each section since I first put it together. I'm now waiting to hear back from the composer to see if he got what he needed to start making some mock-ups.

Saturday's Rehearsal --> Objective: Generate Material

Rehearsal went great! We were able to generate a lot of material which I can now go through, re-arrange, put together, and/or build from so I'm happy! I had a great time today because it was the first time I got to see everybody's individual styles. I was really inspired by all of them and I think making their individual styles work cohesively is going to result in great work, yay uniqueness!

The section of the day was History. I had them do two improvs, one of which I also participated in, to generate movement. 

The Name Game:

I had them spell their name. My reasons for doing this were two-fold; one, to see how they moved when they got to choose their movement and when they were essentially embodying themselves, and as a way to insert themselves and their own history into the piece. 

My fist directive was just to spell their names. Whether it was their first, first and last, or a nick name was up to them. We recorded. Then I asked them to add "weight" to it or to make it "heavier." We recorded again and then I asked them to think of puppets and we recorded that. The directives were inspired by certain words/ideas in the text of this section.

One Word at a Time:

Next I gave them one word at a time and asked them to make a movement for each, transitions between movements were included. The words I used were from a sentence that repeats four times in this section. I put it into Google Translate so the words would be in English and then used a word randomizer to create the order. I used Google Translate rather than my own translation because I wanted to get them as far from literally acting out the words as possible. I used the first 12 of the 16 words generated due to time constraints.
Here's what was generated:

1. Can
2. Weight
3. We
4. The
5. Color
6. Desperate
7. Minimize
8. Anachronistic 
9. And
10. Recognition
11. Question
12. Not

Once they finished creating, we recorded it. Something unexpected that came up that I loved was that, because they had trouble remembering the order the words came in, they kept looking over at the board where I had written them with a look of genuine confusion and a need for understanding Not only does this fit well with what I'm trying to evoke in the section, but it sometimes altered their movement itself and created something new.

Overall, it was a great rehearsal and progress is being made!

Thoughts on the similarities between essays and dance

I realized I choreograph kind of like I write essays. Normally, I start off your typical way: thesis, intro, body. However, by the time I get to the end, I have to go back and change the beginning to reflect what I ended up actually talking about because what I planned on writing about never works out the way I think it will. But what I find ridiculous is that even knowing that I'm going to not use what I start with, I have to start with it. It's all very counter-intuitive to me but I've come to accept it. 

Working in rehearsal with Kaya today though, I felt bad because it wasn't me re-doing everything. It was me flip flopping everything and her having to remember/execute the new movement patterns. Despite my wonky brain though, I think it went very well. Having the actual recording altered how I was thinking about it which is why I came in with a new game plan. Luckily I still loved the majority of what we had come up with last week; it was just a question of which section I wanted to put it in and in what order. But I think I set the movement for a poem in the Maternity section and we came up with about 30 more seconds in addition for the beginning so that was exciting. 

Picture from rehearsal, dancer featured: Kaya

Super excited for my second 'first' group rehearsal this Saturday! History section here we come. 

The use of language in Șerban's Medea

I'm still on the subject of language and communication. Andrei Șerban, a Romanian born American theater director, explored "how to communicate the power and passion of the play without the mediating influence of modern language" (102) in his adaption of Medea, a Greek tragedy. 

"Serban's rejection of recognizable language came from a desire to find the emotional core of the drama - something that was not merely hidden under inadequate translations but, he felt, impossible in  a modern language whose relation to the emotions and to the very structure of society had become dulled" (104).

He wanted to understand and emphasize the emotions inspired by the play but felt that much was lost in translation. I definitely empathize with this sentiment. I attempted a translation for my non French speaking collaborators of the excerpts I've chosen. While in some parts I felt as if I got the gist of what they were saying, it was never said in the same way, thereby losing much of its impact. Everything I'm using was written by renowned authors so not only am I probably not translating the literal meaning very well but the style in which it's written is getting lost in the translation. 

I love this quote by him from "The Life of a Sound," an essay on his approach to language:

"Hidden vibrations start to appear, and we begin to understand the text in a way truer than any 'analysis' would have afforded. It is not only the imagination but our entire being which lives through the words. It is a matter of discovering the paradox that the head, the heart, and the voice are not separate but connected to each other...Movement and voice rediscover one another in a common effort...This potential cannot be realized by means of any technique, but rather through the opening of a particular sensibility" (104).

I do think that movement and voice are connected in a way that makes them mutually reflexive (I'm not sure that's a real description but I think it works). If you don't understand the language but can see the movement and hear the tone you're still going to understand something about what is being said, and vice-versa, if you can't see the movement but only hear the words and tone you'll understand something about what images are being evoked.

On another note, audience/performer relations:

"Serban's productions created a vibrant emotional connection and intimacy through the staging, but it never violated the implicit boundary between performer and spectator. It was an attempt in modern times, to recreate the sense of connection with a powerful aesthetic, religious, and civic event that the Greeks might have experienced. The audience implicitly understood its role and responded accordingly" (106). 

I'm very interested in the audience/performer relationship (I think I've mentioned it in early posts) so this quote caught my attention. I think playing with this 'boundary' will be an interesting part of this project because I want to make an impression on my audience but I don't want them to feel overwhelmed to the point where they detach and leave their reactions in the performance space. I think how the language is presented to them will alter this dynamic. I'm looking forward to creating small test groups this semester to experiment with audiences who A) can speak French - no context given, B) can speak French - context given, C) only speak English - no context given, D) only speak English - context given. 

Be on the look out this semester for posters / an email advertising this! 

La traite transatlantique des esclaves en 2 minutes by Vincent Hiribarren

Professor Caradec forwarded me this link. If you read French, it's an article on the transatlantic slave trade published this month (the topic is still relevant!!) in the Libération.

http://libeafrica4.blogs.liberation.fr/2015/09/20/la-traite-transatlantique-des-esclaves-en-2-minutes/

Here's a video that was included. TThis video, created by Andrew Kayn, shows the displacement of over 12 million slaves over 315 years across the Atlantic.

Magic Moments™*

1. Rehearsal this Wednesday was exactly what I needed after last Saturday. Currently, I've reserved my Wednesdays for the solo I'm working on with Kaya but I just wanted to touch bases with everybody who still expressed interest in participating after I sent out an email asking for explicit commitment. It was the first time we've all been in the same room together. A quick discussion on Fig Newtons made me inordinately happy and left  me feeling completely assured that this is going to work. Sometimes you just know a group is going to work together when they're debating the bug content of snack foods. 
2. Then we were able to set about a minute of choreography in like half an hour. It was nice to see the improvisation tasks, discussions we had, and the text all come together pretty seamlessly. Progress!
3. Having a discussion with one of my readers about the section I asked her to read. It was great to engage in a conversation about tone, symbolism and the cohesiveness of the script. It's always nice when someone else expresses interest in a subject you've put a lot of time into thinking about and brings new insights. 
4. Discussing the benefits of collaborating with a potential sound designer / seeing her get excited at the possibilities for this project. 
5. The Registrar telling me that I can get credit for continuing my MAP in the Spring. 

* Shout out to Heidi Howard in Atlanta 

Methods for overcoming the Language Barrier

In an earlier post I discussed the potential difficulties with the language barrier created by my performance for a non-french speaking audience. Celeste gave me several artists who have created work that dealt with this subject. The first was Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Babel (words) - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet
--> How people from different cultures communicate and overcome the language barrier while                 respecting each other's cultures.
Excerpt: http://www.numeridanse.tv/en/video/361_babel-words 

The dancers interact with each as a group at the start, both by physically touching each other and by actively watching each other's movements. They then break into pairs where they continue similar movements but are face to face. Slowly, they start to break off into individual facings and movements but a continuity remains between all their movements. It should be noted that the 13 performers in this piece are from different countries and dance backgrounds. For me these three changes parallel communication between people who speak different languages. In the beginning they are working together deliberately to understand each other. The inquisitive gazes show how comprehension doesn't happen immediately. When they reach the moment where they're acting as individuals but a common thread can be seen in their movements, it suggests that something deeper than language connects them, their humanity.

For me, their work reinforced the idea that the context, the emotion inspired by the music and the tone of the reader, and the movements themselves will convey something to my audience. They won't leave with zero impressions! (choreographer's worst nightmare :O)

Frustrations of Collaborating and Lessons on Plan B

I've set choreography on people in Salsa before (for those who don't know, I'm one of the leaders of the Latin American Dance Club on campus) and in my final project for Choreography. I feel like those were both very different experiences for me than this project. In Salsa, we're a lot of people's first exposure to Latin dance so we start out as teachers. The goal in choreographing for campus events is to have fun and show off what they've learned. Our choreography is in no way political and often we choreography to music rather than working from a concept. My final for Choreography was very much in the same vein. I was interested in how to integrate various dance styles and it was created to the music I had chosen. En contraste, in this project, the subject and text came first so I'm trying to build relevant movement that enhances the text and can convey the subject. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I still very new to this process. I became more comfortable with this type of creation this summer but I wasn't the director. Now that I'm in this position I'm trying to figure out how best to organize rehearsals, and what the timeline needs to be and who I want in what. I'm the type of person who, when I'm in a rehearsal, I like it to be organized well and for the person running it to have a plan/direction.

Today was my first group rehearsal of the semester. Everyone who wanted to be a part of the project (well those who are a part of the project and actually in the performance) were set to come. I was excited because it would be the first time everybody who was interested was in the same room together and we could start moving together. There's one section in which I want to have all my dancers participate so I thought it was the perfect chance to really get a good start on it.

Rehearsal started and I had one dancer show up. I knew two weren't feeling well so I had already come to terms with that and had decided that I would just mark their places when needed but I was completely unprepared to work with only one dancer. Quick side note: I'm part of the Dance Ensemble/ACTivate dramaturge team and we had just had a meeting yesterday to discuss the topic for the show: Plan B (see http://danceplanb.blogspot.com/ for further info) so it was on my mind. I found myself in a situation which we've been calling "reactionary Plan B" where your hand is forced. It's not a back-up Plan B which already in place when things go wrong but it's when you have to react in the moment. We're back: To be perfectly honest, I didn't react well. I was totally unprepared to work on a different section and I don't like to think through my choreographic decisions for the first time with other people. I like to take my time by myself where I don't feel pressured and then bring it to other people.

There was potential for it to still be a productive rehearsal because Kaya has a solo that we started on Wednesday but I had been focusing on preparing for this rehearsal so I hadn't refined anything we had worked on. Of course my mind went completely blank for other improv exercises we could use to generate more movement so we did the same phrase activity we had done Wednesday but with a few new words. Personally, I wasn't as committed as I should have been. I was obstinately holding on to my original plan and frustrated that I wasn't getting to play around with the ideas I had brought to the rehearsal. I only kept her for an hour and then tried to work on my own solo. It wasn't unproductive but it wasn't the super inspiring rehearsal I had envisioned either.

I know there's an inherent commitment difference because this project counts as a class for me, I'm getting credit for the time I put in whereas everybody else is volunteering theirs. My hope had been that that would mean that those who had expressed interest were really invested. I really do think this is the case for some and I can't wait to share a space with them.

I think today was a good lesson in learning about myself as a choreographer. Above all else I value people who are committed and open. I'm putting a lot of time into not only into achieving the end goal of a finished performance but into the process of creating itself. I appreciate collaborators who respect my commitment to them and reciprocate.

Performance and Theatricality: The Subject Demystified by Josette Féral and Terese Lyons

To be perfectly honest this article didn't demystify anything for me. It was one of those articles where you can read the same sentence five times and still not be able to explain what exactly it was saying. Never good for the academic ego, but good for the dendrites.

Anyway, here were a few quotes that stuck with me:

"Performance does not aim at a meaning, but rather makes meaning insofar as it works right in those extremely blurred junctures out of which the subject eventually emerges. And performance conscripts this subject both as a constituted subject and as a social subject in order to dislocate and demystify it. (173)

"A problem identical to one presented by the theatre of non-representation: how can we talk about the subject without betraying it? How can we explain it? From descriptions of stagings taking place elsewhere or existing no longer, to the fragmentary, critical discourse of scholars, the theatrical experience is bound always to escape any attempt to give accurate account of it. Faced with this problem, which is fundamental to all spectacles, performance has given itself its own memory." (175)

"Performance can therefore be seen as a machine working with serial signifiers: pieces of bodies...as well as pieces of meaning, representation, and libidinal flows, bits of objects joined together in multipolar concatenations*...And all of this is without narrativity" (178/179). 

* Concatenations: a series of interconnected things or events. 

Translating Performance by Diana Taylor

This article was written in reaction to the Second Annual Encuentro where the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics brought together artists, activists and scholars to talk about how they approached politics through performance. It's focus was on how the word performance couldn't be directly translated which left many people confused as to the exact nature of their work. For any linguists out there, it's a very interesting article, discussing the nuances in meaning between performance and words such as representation, theatricality, etc. I came across it trying to research techniques on how to convey meaning when your audience doesn't speak the language you're using in your performance.

Taylor's view on performance (the author, not myself) : "[p]erformances function as vital acts of transfer, transmitting social knowledge, memory, and a sense of identity through reiterated...behavior" (44).

I found the debate on whether by its revelatory nature, performance is a revealer of culture or whether by it's constructed nature, it's artificial to be very interesting.  Taylor argues against the second idea saying that just because "a dance, a ritual, or a political demonstration requires bracketing or framing that differentiates it from other social practices surrounding it does not imply that the performance is not real or true. On the contrary, the idea that performance distills a truer truth than life itself runs from Aristotle, through Shakespeare, and Calderon de la Barca, through Antonin Artaud and Jerzy Grotowski, and into the present." (46) [italics added] I agree when thinking of dance under the umbrella term performance. Because of the abstract nature of dance, the form needs to be constructed but it doesn't make the content any less real.


Quotes:

"As its different uses - scholarly, political, scientific, business-related - rarely engage one another directly, performance also has a history of untranslatability. It has been locked ironically into the disciplinary and geographic boxes it defies, denied the universality and transparency that some claim it promises its objects of analysis. the many points of untranslatability are of course what make the term and the practices theoretically enabling and culturally revealing. While performances may not, as Turner has hoped, give us access and insight into another culture, they certainly tell us a great deal about our desire for efficacy and accesss, not to mention the politics of our interpretations." (47)

I really liked this quote (above) because it alludes to the self-reflexive side of performance. In watching performances from other cultures, maybe it's not what it's revealing to you about their culture so much as what you're realizing about your own through comparison.

"Performance carries the possibility of challenge, even self-challenge, within it." (49)

Parlez-vous français? Non, tant pis pour vous.

All text used in my performance will be in French. I attend college in Iowa where the one language we all have in common is English, not French. Consequently, I've been thinking about the potential language barrier between my performance and my audience.

Dance is abstract. Language is abstract. In black and white, I'm seeing the connection and therefore don't necessarily see it as a problem that some people won't be able to understand exactly what is being said. I'm hoping to evoke certain responses during the performance. It is not as if watching a dance performance that is set to music with no words is meaningless for the audience. And oftentimes, to those who grew up seeing traditional, western dance performances, dance is movement to music.

However, I think the text I'm choosing to use is important and an integral part of the performance, otherwise I wouldn't include it. I want people to know what is being said but I think I'm mainly struggling over the lengths to which I should go to assure this happens. I'll put translations in the program but how many people do you know who read the program cover to cover before the show starts. I never do; I usually assume it'll all be made clear in the performance.

My other thought is that the imposition of a language is part of colonialism. It's hard to watch a performance, a TV show, hear a conversation, listen to a song in another language and draw a complete blank on the subject. I'd be putting the audience (well those who don't speak French) in a position where they are living the reality of having a different language forced on them and having to see what meaning they can grasp contextually. Furthermore, the part of me that's interested in the unspoken contract between audience and artist thinks it would be fascinating to see how the audience responds to this withholding of knowledge and how the performance differed for those who could and couldn't speak French. But, having seen a performance done in a language I don't speak, it can be hard to stay completely present in the moment which isn't something I want my audience to experience.

I'm thinking a pre-show or post-show discussion will be imperative to the performance.

First Rehearsal

I had my first rehearsal of the semester yesterday! In my mind right now, the section that deals with La Maternité (motherhood) is going to be a solo and since only one of my dancers can show up every Wednesday that worked out nicely. I was really thankful that another of my dancers could make it yesterday because I want these first few rehearsals to generate movement. The three of us have pretty different styles which made for a very interesting collaboration.

Employing the time-honored Celeste exercise, I gave my dancers a list of words from the text I'm using and asked them to create a short phrase. We then taped our individual phrases (to Zoe Keating's Escape Artist and Hold On by SBTRKT), taught them to each other briefly and then did an improv where we were allowed to use our individual phrases, moves we remembered from each others, or create new movement if the moment called for it.

The list was as follows:

• La volonté - Willpower
• Le mépris - Contempt, Scorn
• Stériliser - Sterilize  
• Le destin - Destiny 
• L'agression - Aggression 

It feels good to have officially started and be moving on from the concept only phase of things.

Working on the Text!

Accountability versus Empathy

Victoria Mark's "Not About Iraq"

A section of the piece, in which Victoria Mark's in alone on stage, stuck in my mind when I was done watching it. She is moving two fingers on her hand to create certain recognizable images. Some examples include scissors, human legs, and a gun, as seen in the image below.

Her serene and somewhat playful attitude, which led to laughter in the audience, allows for a moment of release during the heaviness of the rest of the performance. However, when she turns her hand into the gun, maintaining her serene expression, she manages to sharply bring the audience back to the serious nature of the subject and evokes the need for their active participation in addressing political issues. This relates to ideas brought up in both the Cecilia Olsson chapter on Protest Ballets in Sweden and comments made by William Forsythe in the New York Times Article by Diane Solway. They all speak to the need to find a balance in making your audience feel accountable versus empathetic.

Chpt. 11 Your Fight Is Our Fight Protest Ballets in Sweden by Cecilia Olisson

"Visualize a heritage and a tradition of politically committed choreographers, that is, choreographers who take a moral stand in order to heighten awareness of injustice and encourage social change." (140)

"Artists were no longer called artists; they were named cultural worker" (144). 
The combination of anthropology and art!

"And within the education system, from elementary to high schools, South African and South American arts and culture were taught to reflect the parts of the world in which Sweden was politically engaged, as well as to counter dangerous commercialism."  (144) 

I really like this idea and in reflecting on the United States involvement around the world, I feel like it's something we could really use. I didn't learn about Iraq or Afghanistan in school except where they were located geographically and what contact between our country and theirs led to conflict. I think learning about another country's culture and their arts is a great way to humanize them and lead people to better understanding which, in my opinion, is a better way to resolve conflict then through military force. The fact that Sweden started teaching these lessons in elementary school means that whole generations grew up with the idea that it is standard to learn about different cultures and more importantly cultures that are different from your own.

Culberg's Rapport (1976) - about the political conflict in Chile at the time 
"The closing moment offers no tangible suggestions as to how to solve the political conflict"

"A delicate balance between accusation, without causing guilt, and empathy, without being patronizing" (148). - how to criticize passivity of audience while at the same time getting them to become engaged in the cause for human rights and equality

Culberg's Soweto - about apartheid in South Africa
"in the program he states that his work is an 'attempt to provide empathetic insight into the blacks' situation,' knowing it to be impossible to really know, belonging to a privileged group spared from living in horror." (149).

As an anthropology student I think empathy is so important because it garners understanding; however, I do think it gets dangerous taking on the role of telling someone else's plight. Good intentions don't always prevent negative consequences. Where's the line in socially engaged performance between  creating/inspiring change without contributing to the problem by speaking for others. This was something I studied this summer in a different research project with Celeste Miller, Halley Freger, Ebony Chukwuu, and Sophiyaa Nayar. (see mapsummer2015.blogspot.com)

I think the inclusion of the Mother Earth character which "convinces [women and men with different histories, yet all experiencing discrimination and oppression] not be victims, to acknowledge their roots and be proud and realize that they themselves can make a difference" (150) is key in giving agency to those they're trying to help.

Take away phrase: Firm individualism within a strong collective