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!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

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 

    Posted by at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)