Responses to "Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion" by Halley

Ch. 8: The hidden Authoritarian Roots in Western Concert Dance

By Robin Lakes

“Why is it that the onstage visions of anti-authoritarianism and social justice do not translate into reforming educational practices in the dance studio? What are the roots of the authoritarian pedagogical heritage of the concert dance world?” (110).

“The authoritarian personality structure harbors such characteristics as low opinion of human nature, punitiveness, fatalism, contempt for the weak, cynicism, aggression, an ironic submission to authority, intolerance for ambiguity, and projection, ascribing to another person attitudes present in oneself” (111).

“The embedded pedagogical message is that it is acceptable to view dancers as the raw material in dance, similar to inanimate paint. When dancers are being utilized for an artistic vision, their thoughts and feelings do not matter” (114).

I think the best type of rehearsal is one that troubles the notion of the teacher/student or director/performer hierarchy. It’s important to allow the performers to have a sense of control over what they’re doing. At Youth Creates, every rehearsal starts the same way: we gather in a circle and we check in. By doing this, it becomes clear that this rehearsal is a safe space where everyone is encouraged to speak. Everyone should bring themselves and their ideas to this rehearsal.

Similarly, at Moving in the Spirit, Dana explained to us that she always adapts her classes to her students. Regardless of what her original lesson plan was, she will change her class so that it best fits the needs of the students. If her students are angry about something, how can she incorporate movement that allows them to work through the anger?

Adapting choreography to the ensemble is imperative. This is the only way you allow dancers to own movement as their own. When Mama Ye Ye came in to teach an African dance workshop to Youth Creates, she asked a student to help her teach. Mama Ye Ye said that the student should take the choreography and adjust it because she actually knows the ensemble and has a relationship with them. Mama Ye Ye realized that as an outsider to the ensemble she couldn’t just barge in and tell them how they should move. Ultimately, the student didn’t adjust the choreography very much. However, the fact that Mama Ye Ye gave her permission to adjust it is what mattered. It still made the ensemble feel like the choreography was theirs and like they weren’t just being told what to do. To borrow Robin Lakes’s words, she didn’t treat the dancers like they were just inanimate paint.

Ch. 2: Practical Imperative

"Is dance by its nature inevitably authoritarian?  Can human rights coexist with the aims of dance, the art of the body? Or will dance be acutely bound to represent stifled individuals, their humiliation and their desire for freedom because it is so interlinked with suppression and violation of the human body itself? And what would a democratic or a rights-based dance look like? Can such a thing exist? Would this be the ultimate anti-art, so politically correct and unprovocative, that it becomes absurdly boring?” (18).

Honestly, I’m not sure how to answer these questions. I’ve been dancing since I was a kid and I didn’t really start to think critically about it until…well, this summer honestly. I am an extremely critical person, always questioning everything. In the past, I’ve always thought very critically about my visual art and my acting. However, I never really questioned my dance training.

I grew up with mostly conventional dance training (ballet, jazz, and hip hop). I NEVER spoke in dance class. I’m a pretty loud, talkative, goofy person, but in dance class I always silently learned the choreography. I didn’t question anything.

After this summer, I’m learning how dance allows room for personal expression. Movements can be altered to fit the dancer. Dancers can create their own movements! There’s so much more to dance than proper technique.

Okay, here is a weird confusing thought I have:

I feel like no movement will ever be “natural” (the way we hold ourselves, the way we sit, etc.). Is doing a pirouette less natural than walking? Even the way I walk is the result of existing within society. How does gender/socio-economics/race affect my walk? Is there a “normal” walk? A “natural” one? I don’t think so. Sometimes I feel like none of my choices are truly my own, because they are influenced by all of these outside factors (and even unconscious processes). So who am I to say certain kinds of dance isn’t natural?

I do think that what’s important is interrogating what we consider dance. There is so much more than ballet and modern. I think the best way to explore human rights through dance is to open up the possibilities of what dance can be. Any purposeful movement can be dance. Everyone moves differently (even if, as I argue, a lot of that movement is potentially based on societal factors and unconscious processes). Instead of dance being about forcing everyone to move in the same way, a way that is often Eurocentric and limiting, it should open opportunities for new movement.

Closing in on closure by Celeste

As we begin to enter our last two big weeks of the MAP - the Dance Intensive week at Core Dance in Decatur and the Alternate ROOTS Gathering in North Carolina - it is time to reflect on the questions that guided the formation of this MAP:

What is exceptional practice for artists working in communities? Who defines exceptional practice?

How do the aesthetics of a community, and the aesthetics of a performance style, inform the approaches to art-making, communication, documentation, and archiving?

Whose voice is it?  When collaborating with non-professionals in the creation of work to be presented publicly for a general audience, what are the power relationships and dynamics?  What is "authorship"?

What is the role of art-making in social justice work?

What do we know now that we didn't know before, based on real-time experiences, about these ideas?

Thoughts on Chapter 8 and 2 so far by Taylor

Chapter 8: "The Hidden Authoritarian Roots in Western Concert Dance" in "Dance, Human Rights, Social Justice"

When everyone fills in the blanks of the sentence at the end of the day, it implies that everyone is being heard and that their ideas are equally important.

When the ensemble is separated into different groups, it implies that a division of labor/skills exists.

When all the teachers and interns do the workshops with the teenagers, it implies that there is no hierarchical structure.  

When a student is singled out in a group activity, it implies that they are doing something noticeably different than the rest of the ensemble. 

Chapter 2, "Practical Imperative" 

Reflect - "Is dance by its nature inevitably authoritarian?  Can human rights coexist with the aims of dance, the art of the body? Or will dance be acutely bound to represent stifled individuals, their humiliation and their desire for freedom because it is so interlinked with suppression and violation of the human body itself? And what would a democratic or a rights-based dance look like? Can such a thing exist? Would this be the ultimate anti-art, so politically correct and unprovocative, that it becomes absurdly boring?" 

I don't think dance is inevitably authoritarian because it is possible for the individual dancer to make their own choices about how they're moving. Dance is not always the result of someone telling you to dance. I'm thinking of when you're in the grocery store and music is playing quietly in the background or if you have a song stuck in your head. When music is present like this, individuals will begin to move unconsciously to it, some will start dancing outright because the music makes them want to move or express what they're feeling. Granted this is not in a formal dance class setting or a company but what about artists who choreograph on themselves. Yes they're using their body as a tool but it's to express themselves. Thinking of the human body as a tool...the question supposes that dance suppresses and violates the human body itself...but I don't think this is always the case. I've heard directives in dance classes where the teacher says don't control your body, release your head or just breathe, for example,  in this situation the dance is the natural progression of your body's movements. 

I think s o long as the dancer's voice is taken into account by the choreographer/teacher/etc than their human rights are being recognized. They should always have the right to say no to a movement and the ability to make suggestions. 

Furthermore, a dance that is trying to say something needs the dancers to connect to the message. If they're simply doing movements with no intention behind them, the audience can usually tell. The dance doesn't have the same impact that it would if the dancers believed in the message they're trying to convey. We saw great examples of this during the collaboration between Youth Creates and Moving in the Spirit. The dancers knew what they were trying to say with their dancers and were able to articulate it to the tech crew to help create atmosphere that correlated. When a dancer was unsure of what they were trying to say it often came up in notes that people were unsure what message they were trying to convey. 

I think democratic and rights-based dance exists in collaborative work. It's hard if one person is in charge because then they have the power to make the final decisions but in work where people come together to create there exists a democracy. We've seen examples of this in Youth Creates when everyone in the circle makes a suggestion or contributes to a sentence. 

Small Spaces Discoveries by Celeste

July 4 what happened.

A personal posting.

Musing on Many Things

Taylor K and I got together to dance today.  We had a choice – her apartment or my apartment.  Dancing solo with Schmoo works, but since Taylor and I wanted to work together, thought it would be easier to meet at her place. Poor Schmoo. No dog dancing today.

Concept 1: Intimate Space/Studio Space: THOUGHTS, HISTORY, CONTEXT

The Luxury of Space

-It has been such a luxury to have the Core dance studios to work in. Big open dance space.

Core Dance studios, Decatur, GA

Real Estate

-I have, pretty much since I was in my 20’s, had studio space.  Starting with the first studio and theatre space I had the lease on when I was in my 20’s.  $175/month.  A 70 seat black box theatre and upstairs a studio space – hardwood floors, brick walls, windows on two sides.   Sidenote: I just came across this interview that was done with me, about my space, back in the 70’s!  I was talking about how small the theatre space was and how it impacted my creativity!

From an article in Creative Loafing, Atlanta, 1975(?)

Access

-From then on in Atlanta I always had a studio. Full time. 24/7 access. Mine.   Living in NY, I rented space (which caused me to work differently), in DC I had the Dance Exchange space. At Grinnell, I have the college space – but I also have the “designated dancing space” I have assigned to one room in my house.

My "studio" at home in Grinnell

Sacred Spaces for Art Making

- Do we need a studio in order to dance?

Small Space = Intimate Space? 

- Since being in Pine Lake this summer in addition to the studio space at Core, I have been dancing in the small space between the bed and the wall.  About 8’x7’.  Because I gave myself the promise this summer that I would be dancing/dance-making every day.

Learning from Small Spaces

- When I saw “Sleep No More” in NY one of the things that totally blew me away was the intense dancing that happened in small small spaces.  And the dancers did not rein in their fierceness at all.  Maybe even the opposite.  As I age, I continue to explore not what I can’t do anymore, but how I can learn to move in ways that are new to me.  I watch myself dancing in contained spaces, and the moments that interest me are when I seem to find an interiority.

Sleep No More

Not the First or Last Time

-Just today I remembered that when I was a kid, and needing to dance all the time.  I would push the coffee table out of the way and the living room became my dance studio.  My father’s stereo was there.  Turn on the music, dance.  No one ever bothered me.  My mother and brother were in the basement watching TV, my father was in his room reading and writing.  I had the space to myself.  As a little girl, I imagined it a grand theatre.  I taped a sign to the front door that said, “Dance Performance 1 cent”  and then lined my stuffed animals up as my audience.  Turned the stereo on and danced, danced, danced (classical music).  As a teenager, late at night when I couldn’t sleep for teenage angst – I found refuge in that living room dance space.  Dancing to Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stones, Incredible String Band…

Dancing in Small Spaces

-This week Taylor and I wanted to keep our dancing/improvising going but the studios at Core were booked.  It was frustrating.  Where could we find space to dance?  Too hot outdoors.  We talked about intimate spaces.  Earlier that day I had done some phone/skype dancing with Michael in my 8x7 Space.  We decided to try.  Weighing in the Schmoo factor, we decided to meet at her apartment.  Ha ha, she said it motivated her to clean her apartment.

-We danced in her small space.  It worked.  It was inspiring we did it.

Squat Theatre

-Precedence and implications:  Squat Theatre, founded in Budapest in the 60’s.  NYC 1977-1984.  Their name comes from “their ability to create a theater and a home from unoccupied space.”

Squat Theatre, 23rd Street storefront, NYC

This group of Hungarian theatre artists “first began working together as a nameless collective in Budapest in 1969. Their identity was solidified in 1972 when government authorities withdrew the group’s license to perform after a single performance of a play entitled The Skanzen Killers … was deemed “obscene” and “apt to be misinterpreted from a political point of view.” The following year, when members of the group attended the Open Theater Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, and gave a spontaneous, anarchic performance, their passports were confiscated by the Hungarian government. Officially censored, the group went underground and over a period of four years created more than a dozen pieces to be shown in unofficial performance spaces, usually the fifth floor apartment of Peter Halasz and Anna Koos.” Watching the play from adjacent apartments, of course the question arises “Are you watching the play, or just life?”

“Unlike underground “living-room theaters” elsewhere in Eastern Europe – such as Czech playwright Pavel Kohout’s in Prague – this was not a political theater created primarily to foster veiled criticism of a repressive regime; its concerns were more interpersonal, psychosexual, and philosophical. “Working on the edges of society, Squat from the outset made a beeline for the taboo, the absurd, the mysterious – utilizing imagery that could be mined on the frontiers of the psyche,”

When they got to NY (via Paris) they rented a storefront in Chelsea, creating works that used the storefront view of 23^rd street to question the notions of the boundaries of life and art. I was fortunate to attend two Squat Theatre shows in their Chelsea storefront.  (They lived in an apartment above the storefront, complete with two chickens, a rooster and a goat.  I visited them there.)  “They operated on the belief that, to make sense of the world, the artist’s task – in the words of Franz Kafka, who has been called “the guiding spirit of Squat’s art” – is “to sit at your window when evening falls and dream it to yourself!” http://donshewey.com/theater_articles/squat.html

Meeting Peter and Anna, and the rest of the ensemble and seeing their performances was one of the profound theatre experiences that has shaped me. And now – so many years later, I find myself channeling Squat theatre.

Notes on the Improvisation Process: July 4

So Taylor and I danced in her small Virginia-Highlands apartment today.  Here are notes on our process.

Our Process:

Round One:

Friday Taylor shared a text she has been working on.  She uses a childhood memory of fireflies as metaphor for entrapment.  We talked about it, as she explored how she might want to perform it, or use it as a start for a piece.  While we talked she googled firefly facts.  When we got together on Saturday we decided to start with the improvisation structure I have been working on.  She got out paper and we took some firefly facts and some lines from her text as the text to work with.  We spread the papers around the room and did Round One of improvising:

Find a piece of paper with text.  Respond to and explore that text. When ready, move on. Timer set for 10 minutes.

Round two:

We talked about how the small space changed how we were finding ourselves at a new text.  In the large studio considering transitions to get from one part of the room to another was part of the improvisation.  In the small space, just two steps and you landed on a new text.

For Round Two we decided to extract main ideas from each text block, turn the paper over and write the extract there.  They made a strange little poem.   We found an order for them and posted them in that sequence on the wall.  As in the original improvisation structure, the task for round two is to understand the text together as a sequential idea.

Round three:

In our debrief we talked about how we had to orient constantly to the wall where the text was.  We could either memorize the text or make more copies.  We made another copy of the text and placed it on the opposite wall.  Improvisation task: to begin  to catalogue and explore movement ideas that are most salient.

Round four:

We added speaking the text.  Each dancer could speak the text, but no repititions and only one time through.  Task: continue developing movement from the most salient ideas.

Round five

Speaking, but a line could only be said once.  Whoever said it, then that signals the other dancer to be on that part of the text.  Task: to continue to look for those moments, solo and with each other where a particular movement idea is developing for particular text ideas.

Here is a video link to Round Five:  "fireflies" link

Final Discussion/Next Tasks:

In future rounds, to decide on certain motifs and begin to weave them throughout the improvisation so that even though there is sequence, it begins to have more layered depth.  For instance, in this one “burrowing” and “digestive” could show up as motifs.