Time for an update on our newest work! Our rehearsal last Saturday was really about finding the content of this new piece, based on the artwork of El Anatsui. The company had class (a combination of yoga and modern dance this particular morning), and then we moved out of the body for a bit and into our minds to gather some experiences from each dancer’s life and memory. I asked the dancers to spend a few minutes with me writing – a real “stream of consciousness” writing assignment – about how we define community. Anything the dancers wanted to write was great; they could complete the sentence “Community is …,” write about who or what makes up their community, or write about what they hoped for, admired or even disliked in the community. Some things we came up with that feel particularly potent to me:
My community is made up of many smaller communities.
A community should welcome you.
My community likes to be active.
My community is made up of artistic people and places.
A community needs good energy.
My community disappoints me.
My community can move past disappointments.
My community is intellectual, motivated, free-spirited, successful, vulnerable, and unsure.
My community likes to explore the world.
A community has equality.
I have built my own community.
My community keeps growing.
How will these words fit into a dance? Well, that still remains to be seen, but I anticipate vocalizing and/or using projected text for some themes – others will be imbedded into movement, perhaps going unnoticed to some audience members (but still there affecting the overall mood and environment of the work).
Our second writing activity was to brainstorm words or items we thought of that showed our personal materialism. This was a tough assignment for some of the dancers because the word materialism has such as negative connotation to many of us. Whether we like to believe it or not, there are materials in our lives and “things” that are significant parts of our lives (whether that be good, bad, or inconsequential). The dancers came up with a huge variety of items on their lists:
family & friends
the stuffed duck I had as a child
Grandpa Paul’s necklace
the blankets my grandmothers made
lots of shoes, my laptop, my cell phone, designer bags
Coca-cola
trips & vacations
As you might have guessed, some of these things will make it into the dance as physical props, while others serve to help define our mindset throughout the piece. One of the reasons I asked the dancers to make this list of “things” relates to El Anatsui’s use of materials, which is quite varied and quite extensive. He most usually uses recycled materials and often lots and lots of each item. The following picture is El Anatsui’s work Straying Continents:
As you can see, Anatsui has used lots (and lots) of his material – in this case discarded aluminum caps from bottles of whiskey, vodka, rum, and gin. The use of these materials makes a distinct statement about the interconnection of alcohol to the transatlantic slave trade. The use of recycled materials from alcohol will also play a part in our new work; in our case, we are using discarded wine corks to make a connection to the North Carolina wine business. (And those wine corks will create a cork “beach” of sorts, connecting to the coastal community in the state.) In the greater scope, I feel alcohol can create and at the same time deteriorate communities, so our wine reference is still tying into the overall statement about community.
And so now begins the invention of movement vocabulary to support our themes. I am working on my own on movement prior to our next company rehearsal, where we will “test out” some phrase-work. We will be sure to take some video clips as we continue work; check back here to track our progress!
-Autumn
(Code f.a.d. Artistic Director)
To view more of El Anatsui’s work, visit the NC Museum of Art! Click here for more info on the current exhibition, When I Last Wrote to You About Africa.