After years of studying Sociology I lost my mind and depleted my imagination by using it solely to see injustices and enemies. I did not realize that the stories I was telling myself were only stories. I did not realize that the depression that consumed me came from unprocessed anger.
When I met Celeste Miller in her class, “Movement for the Performer,” I studied the Nikolais/Louis dance technique. By study, I do not mean engaging only the mind and intaking only facts. I studied by opening myself to a new world of theory. The idea that man was not the first creature to dance and that some animate life-form sensed its life and moved solely as an expression of ecstasy.
I started moving differently in my day to day because of Nikolais’s words. Walking on the sidewalk, I began to feel body, mind, and spirit connect joyously, and I realized this is what would heal me from the burnout I caused myself. The sense of urgency to fix the world’s problems dissipated. I was learning exactly what I needed to be learning: how to heal.
My purpose at the moment is to share the joy of movement with intent with others. These are the Times to Grow our Souls. I take this phrase from the first chapter of Grace Lee Boggs’ The Next American Revolution. Although I have no clear blood relations with Dr. Boggs, I consider her to be one of my ancestors who been a guiding light on my soul journey.
We are at a point in our evolution as a human race when we can no longer consider ourselves victims of the disasters of the present moment. Instead we must recognize that we must each become a part of the solution because we are each a part of the problem.
I dance so I can listen to my body. My body has the solutions. I’ve seen it regenerate skin over a deep scrape I caused when I fell of my scooter. It changed to every color of the rainbow before it turned into a muddy brown scab that will soon fall off to reveal a brand new knee! If my body can do that, then I ought to listen to my body for solutions for myself and my communities. If I can invite others to process what the hell is going on in our world and our bodies right now, I believe we can move forward in our daily work fearlessly and with joy, concentration, and healing.
It is inevitable that we will hurt one another on this earth. However, if we didn’t hurt, we would never have the chance to heal and create something new. That something new can be built upon anger, hate, and distrust, or it can be built upon hope, love, and joy. Let’s try to do the second one.
60-SECOND PITCH: Dancers and musicians, one in visual, one in auditory. One in sound, the other in movement. Yet all dancers engage in sound, whether in a whisp of an exhale that escapes on impact, the rhythms of steps and turns, spoken text, or background music. Likewise, all musicians engage in movement in their performance, whether they intend to or not.
I seek to explore the crossovers between dance and music in my Choreography final project. I explore imitation by taking influence from Jerome Bel’s solo choreography for Veronique Doisneau, as well as the movements of 80’s Korean pop star Min Haekyung. I encourage viewers to question their experiences of performativity in my performance. Hope you enjoy the show!
DAILY JOURNAL:
(before starting our project, I had been thinking and working on developing my musical skills in my free time)
(first day of practice: learned choreography and lyrics to Min Haekyung’s “Like a Rose”)
(second day of practice: started creating my own choreography)
(documented conversation about catalysts for creativity in Choreography class)
(developed my structure for pairing speaking and moving)
(notes from Doris Humphrey layers over notes from a Harold Green poetry)
(beautiful notes from classmates during our first day of critical response)
(more beautiful notes)
(My notes during critical response)
(4/29 notes as working)
(developing movements further)
(drawing out floor plan; my movements would be restricted later by the amp cord for the ukulele)
(notes from classmates during critical response)
(more notes from critical response)
(One of my later rehearsals, two days before performance)
GRANT PROPOSAL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JoecLVI89CBfSoxvKsPZlQi4EBOuw1L1CyJpHJ2Fmbw/edit?usp=sharing
HUMPHREY CHECKLIST: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ig8ZwcoJEh_4knqLU2zY368Ni2ow8f-y3e0eqvW4D8/edit?usp=sharing
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z38CFD3leOrgIL7klDejEbcNStfDPBSscsoSSE7MNXg/edit?usp=sharing
