THE PROJECT

I became interested in this topic while studying abroad in Nantes, France, a city which was France's largest slave port during the 18th century. My program offered a history course called France and the Atlantic World in which we explored le commerce triangulaire or the Atlantic Slave Trade. In French it's called le commerce triangulaire because of the triangle created between Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean and/or North America depending on the century. Upon my return to Grinnell, I enrolled in a French literature course entitled Francophone Caribbean World in which we analyzed literature written by Haitian, Guadeloupian, and Martiniquais authors. In another seminar taken the same semester, Anthropology of Disaster, I analyzed Le Monde, a French newspaper, to determine France's level of accountability in the role that the colonization of Haiti (Saint-Domingue) played in creating the high-level of vulnerability that the country exists in in the present day (See "pages" on the right hand side for a copy of the paper).

All my encounters put together led me to want to make something in response to what had happened and its continued effects on today's world. I discovered a love of dance when I came to college and wanted to use performance as a way to react to the subject and share the knowledge I had learned with a larger audience.

As an anthropologist, however; I am very apprehensive about inserting myself where I don't belong. It should be noted that I am not French nor Haitian nor Guadeloupian nor Martiniquais nor African. A key inquiry of this choreographic exploration is how to talk about a subject or a history that is not your own. I do not want to speak for a group of people, acceptance or judgment is not my place. But I do think that subjects such as these need to be brought to light because they continue to affect the world today and I believe knowledge and understanding are the only way to move forward. It's a fine line that I'm trying to find. I haven't found the answer yet and maybe I never will but I'll fill you in on the progress through this blog!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

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.
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