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!

Thursday, September 17, 2015

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.
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