This week took me from reality to middle school, the future and then back to reality, leaving my mind bursting with inspiration.
We alternated between working with Celeste, Julie Rothschild and Andrea Trombetta for a performance called "ThenSome" and going to Synchronicity's Playmaking for Girls.
Playmaking for Girls:
The experience of meeting these refugee girls and girls from group homes, and watching them gain confidence while putting up a show in less than a week was inspiring. I remember watching these girls walk in on Day 1- some speaking in whispers, others making loud jokes, some 'not caring', others nervously making their way through the corners of the room. My first conversation was with a refugee girl from Iraq, named Albanian. She spoke in soft whispers but made the most sarcastic and witty jokes I had heard from a 13-year old. But you'd have to sit just close enough to be part of her world, or you missed it. Slowly I met the rest of the girls and learnt to love every tiny thing they did. It was definitely a strange feeling because I only got to go on alternate days, so I didn't get to see the girls as often as I would have liked.
The three directors along with the singing and dancing teachers were dreams to observe. Rachel, Susie and Jenn (the directors), spoke to the girls with such a level of professionalism that the girls acted like they were part of a professional theatre company. They had their lines learnt in no time, and helped each other. The directors did an exercise with the girls in which they made each of the girls stand in front everyone else, scan the room, stomp and say their names. This was to build stage confidence and presence. The girls were incredibly embarrassed initially- they had all sorts of reactions. But the most wonderful realisation I had of how much they had grown was when in the actual show, the girls stood up at the end and said their names. They spoke with so much confidence that I couldn't move an inch until they decided they were done commanding the stage.
Kimmie, the choreographer for Playmaking for Girls (also Beyonce's lead back-up dancer- that should explain the title) taught the girls a choreography to "Fight Song" which was very empowering. We learnt the dance with the girls, and I remember screaming the lyrics out- "THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG, TAKE BACK MY LIFE SONG" with them.
By the end of the week, the girls knew all the theatre terms I did and acted like complete professionals no matter how exhausted they got. And that was thanks to their wonderful teachers and directors who led by example. These girls had different accents and were from incredibly different cultural backgrounds, but these directors helped them enunciate and project their voices perfectly- and never in the process did I see the girls feel bad about the fact that they sounded different from the other girls. I thought that was a big deal for the directors to achieve. By the end of the week, Albaneen said she honoured herself by "being able to do anything", and I think a lot of girls agreed with her. The program helped these girls build confidence that they will carry into every task for the rest of their lives. I even saw little directors emerging, when they came up with their own exercises to help each other learn lines/project.
The directors were very respectful of the refugee girls' cultural backgrounds. I think its very easy to expect them to blend in with the rest of the kids even though they've been raised in a completely different environment. One specific example of their respectfulness was when Rachel asked one of the girls if she was okay with certain words that were being used in a play. The play was about a girl who prays and studies to a point where she leaves no time for fun (spoiler alert: in the end she has fun, prays, studies and becomes successful). Since one of the girls was Muslim, Rachel checked with her if saying "God" and certain prayer gestures were okay with her. What I loved about this interaction was that she didn't pretend to know these cultures, she respected the girl's opinion as much as she would with her co-directors. That's the kind of leader I would like to be. This was no "social service", they weren't "doing good" for the "underprivileged". These teachers and directors were putting on a show with a group of very creative and talented young women who may have had a tough past, but that doesn't mean they're any less. I was so incredibly inspired by their behaviour.
I only wish I could come back every day of that week to see these girls grow, and be more part of the process. But all in all, it was an experience that taught me what it is to be a good director, and a leader worth following and I am very thankful for that.
"ThenSome"
I was very fortunate to have worked with three artists with very different performance styles and my MAP group-mates to come up with this performance. The idea was to have an introduction with all of us, three solos (by the three artists), a quartet (us four MAP students) and to tie them together as one non-stop performance. I think its easiest for me to list what I learnt from this experience in points.
- Structured Improv: This idea was relatively new to me but was a lot of fun to do. The idea was that our performance changes every time we do it, even though the skeleton remains the same.
- MAPs: Where do I come from? Where am I going? What place defines who I am? We did an exercise in which we visualised a MAP in front of each of us and travelled through the different parts of the world we have called "home"- even for a brief period of time. I found myself travelling a lot, and moving according to how that place made me feel at that time in my life.
- Three Bodies: The inner body (way within our bones), the physical body (what people see), and the larger body (sort of like an aura). This exercise was layered on top of the MAPs exercise. We moved according to those different "bodies" to these 'homes'.
- Taking Someone on Your Journey: The idea that there are certain places you can't go back to on your own- certain memories. So you move with someone, try to take them with you or try to follow them. You can choose to follow or say no, simply with your movement. The above three combined created the introduction to the show. We moved through our visualised MAP with these exercises in mind, so our movement was different every time we performed.
- Layered News: Celeste added a story about a cello player in Baghdad who would play his instrument in places where a tragedy just took place. This added another layer to our introduction.
- Thread Count: We worked with Andrea's fascination with thread and learnt how to work with thread and movement.
- Quartet Through Structured Improv: Celeste gave us three words from the Baghdad news story that spoke to her, and asked us to choreograph different movements based on the phrases. The three words were "stability, beauty and compassion". All four of us worked out our own choreographies, put them together in close proximity and performed them at the same time. We borrowed movements from each other, mirrored each other and created new movements in the process- it was great coming up with this with my incredibly talented MAP group-mates.
I also learned when one should lead versus following. Each of the soloists took leads on their ideas and followed on each others- all very strong and women used to leadership gracefully took turns to follow. They even allowed us to take lead sometimes- it was a truly collaborative process and I was incredibly lucky to be part of it. We perform in Athens this Thursday!
On a different note, this past week has had me raising questions about the idea of "home" and the rights we have to tell stories of places that are not our home. What does it mean to be displaced from home? And how is one's identity formed as a result? The statements that start with, "where I come from..." fascinate me. I'm still working on this idea but thought I'd write about it anyway.
Its been an amazing week, and my favourite feeling from it was when I caught myself at the PFG performance, stomping my feet like a middle-schooler and signing along with the girls- "cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me".
Here's leaving you with a cheesy lyrics video because I think everyone should sing the chorus of this song to the mirror every morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqfrH74wc0
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