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!

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

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. 
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