I'm not performing 08/10/2013 - 10:57pm

Fellow blogger Lisa Hu asked a good question in her recent post (Aug. 8) and I also always think about what makes "Good Dance." I read Ira Brooker's post about a dance show that reminded me how different we dancers can feel from the arts that use more text. Both these posts made me think about my kinesthetic self and how much i'm checking for the physicality in every kind of performance art I'm looking at. But I'm also not going to front that a lot of dance show are like a big soft pillow for my head and my ocean waves sleep cd pumping softly. A dance show is a power nap before a late night email work session, or an overnight drive to Chicago. I'm a little bit too tired to be driving around town trnya see shows, what i'd really be doing is falling asleep in theaters. I did make it to A Woman's Works at the Southern and Story Ate My LIfe at Theater in the Round - both 10pm shows. (poc#i don't know why i started this i cant count if im not going to use my phone to try to remember) I've been taking naps these days and it helps! I stayed awake! But i also slept in the other day past my writing time, and then I was tryna play catch up but I didn't make it in time to post. I"m also guilty of not acknowledging my prejudices, seeing two dance shows in a row. I need a confession. Karen Charles' Threads Dance Project presented a mixed bill of styles but all infused with ballet. My homegirl Aneka McMullen dances with this company, along with some other dance homies MacKenzie Beck-Esmay and Michala Cornell. It was fun to guess who was who in the first number "Bootyful" by the moves, because the dancers wore hoods. It's obvious why the hoods had to be black. But still the hoods bugged me and the costumes made me think the wrong thing. If I thought of the dancers as fun creatures then it worked but when they revealed that they were women it made me feel weird. It can be really hard to be seen as being critical about the work when I have so many friends in the work and the director is a mentor and community member. I have to be honest when I say that many western forms of dance like ballet and modern don't always speak and convey the emotion of the choreography. It really depends on the dancer and the pairing of the concept with the movers. My artiste homie April Sellers says 'there's no such thing as a neutral body,' and I agree. So there are some questions that come up for me in some of the pieces that Threads presents. The technique of the dancers is really good. Childless Mother is a piece of dance that should be totally gut-wrenching to see, like a wreck set to the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Jennifer James hits moments of frenzy in this dance that make me think of a mournful wail during funeral hysterics. The choreography is technically challenging, yet interesting to watch and it wants to be charged with emotion. But it seems like the dancers have more research to do to connect with each other and connect deeply with the material. I was really feeling Kara Motta and Karen Gullikson in Sacred Feminine. More so than being conceptual, I enjoyed this piece on the level of sheer physicality and and the snap of the movements. The execution and power of the dancers was great. The music choices were excellent and jammin as well. I followed Kara and her man Eric Mayson from Elysium Blues to their show at Theater in the Round. Kara and her partner Margaret E. Johnson know how to move and I must say that they throw themselves around in a very satisfying way. Yay post-modern! Or what? wut. Now, I was just about to write about my experience there, just describe it. Because that is my default when it comes to white art. It's not about anything - this is my prejudice. So - just experience it and don't necessarily look for meaning cuz its not there, so if you find its on you. Alright so I'm going to fight that and go deep... deep... deep... ... ... aaaaaaaaaaaaa! I can't do it! Or I'm acting like I can't do it but I can't get past just replaying the moments that stuck with me like a movie and thats it. Its not like watching Kara in Karen Charles' work, what I view to have a Black aesthetic, and immediately identifying with the concept being explored. The world created in Story Ate My Life has some rules that I just couldn't figure out - mainly why were there two of one and three of the other and what were the rules for each. I loved how the three came in like singing at a bar. And also what does the music have to do with it beyond being beautiful and sung in loud gorgeous voices. But I'm not used to asking those questions of white art. I'm prejudiced to just let it be. Now looking back, I realize I am always questioning Black art, I am subjecting it to the same standard that I claim I'm running away from. Namely, the idea that Black art has to speak to issues, or somehow address injustices, or make strides toward tomorrow...while white art just gets to be. Once again White People are the only ones really free inside of me. Dam it! Something to note that both works of dance did that I HATE is they gave me a whole lotta eyelid. There is this gaze in modern and postmodern dance that is not direct - no one appears to be looking at anyone else, nor into the audience. All we can see is eyelid because everyone is focused on some spot in front of their feet on the floor. It's like meeting someone and looking only at their shins. I hate that.