Death, Life and Art.
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| The Royal Opera House, Mumbai |
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| The proscenium, the performers and two choreographers. |
In a unique Indo-Polish dance performance at the Royal Opera
House in Mumbai, the Navdhara India Dance Theatre and Zawirowania Dance Theatre
from Poland presented a collaborative show of shared choreographic voices and
dancers from each side. Obviously I have a certain bias as I have personal
connections to the performers and choreographers since the Indian contingent
are my hosts under my Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship. Yet the impact of seeing the
work in performance was revelatory beyond the magic that took place on stage.
Even as the creative approaches may have been literally a world apart, the
evening in total was cohesive and well balanced between gravitas, insightful
perspectives and humor, for me as an audience.
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| "1989" solo by Bharat Sharma, performed by Subhasish Dey on which I commented in my previous post. |
I do my best to treat everything I go to see with as little
pre-judgement as I can. This can range from resisting the urge to read a
program or doing “research” beforehand by looking at reviews and written
articles, to simply trying to be observant about how I might be preoccupied
with events from my day leading up to the moment where I am standing in front
of a sculpture or watching a curtain rise, or some such entrée to being an Art
audience. Then I try to stay with the work of Art in front of me as best I can.
Admittedly, there are times when my attention has wavered at
performances, and I may even nod off. Yet, even with that reality, I might
still experience a moment like no other before in my life. Don’t get me wrong,
it is an extremely rare occurrence that such moments are sustained throughout a
performance for me. What I am talking about may only be for an instant.
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| Left: cover of video documentary about Douglas Wright. Right: Neil Marcus and me on our last project in 2011. |
So enough with the pre-amble, this week I learned of Douglas
Wright’s death from cancer at only 62, adding to a disturbingly long list of
people whose lives have ended in the last twelve months, who have touched my
life through dance and art. No matter how limited the intersection might have
been while alive, I might well not be teaching, coaching or living my life in
the field of dance today without the impact of their lives. I did not know
Douglas well, and only saw him dance on film. But I did have a couple of
opportunities to meet him in person. Maybe more importantly, I have worked with
many dancers and creative artists that had much more intimate connections with
Douglas, and the influence of his life may have once changed and shaped the
course of contemporary dance in New Zealand. At least that is my perspective on
the matter.
Social media also reminded me of artistes still actively
creating work; Neil Marcus’s “Storm Reading” celebrated the thirtieth
anniversary of its creation and ensuing tour by Access Theatre. Neil and his
play probably changed a lot of the way people with “disabilities” were
perceived in the Arts in the USA, and he was amongst the early creative forces
where Art created by people with disabilities both became accepted in more
mainstream Art definitions while also gaining legitimacy as a category onto
itself as Disability Arts. Having met Neil in the late 1980’s, I renewed our
connection to work together in 2011 when I was completing my Masters of Fine
Arts degree.
In my opinion, both Douglas and Neil helped change the
landscape and perspective for broad populations of performers, creators and
audiences in different parts of the world. I feel their influences in my own
points of view on my work here in India. A recent conversation with some young
teachers I am mentoring and a more senior artistic staff made me look at something
I had not thought about carefully in my own teaching. Their comments were on my
“positive” attitude and “patience” with dancers of all levels in my classes. When
I thought about why they may have had this perception, my response was that I
spend most of my energy focused on what the dancers in front of me are actually doing, rather than what I want them to do.
Teaching for me here in India, is a lot about setting “tasks”
and seeing how well the dancers achieve an acceptable result for both
themselves and for what I hoped to achieve by the “task.” If the dancers find
the task incomprehensible, then I rethink what are the basic principles they
need to achieve the skill, intent, musicality or form I am hoping to open in their approach to movement. So I
don’t ever blame a student for not knowing how to achieve what I am giving,
instead, I look to see that they are making an effort to change based on a critique. Most of the students are eager to make
such adjustments, but not all of them can do it without my finding the right
tools to help them learn how! So if
impatience comes into my teaching, it is generally with myself at not finding
the right tools to get through to every student in class.
On more mundane note, it has taken me most of the past week
to get back into some kind of rhythm of work, nourishment, chores and rest. My
time in Delhi definitely gave me a different perspective of how a chest cold
and air pollution don’t play well together, and Mumbai has the benefit of being
a coastal city where the potential moisture off of the Arabian Sea helps to
pull some of the particulates out of the air. And obviously, as news circulates that the San Francisco Bay Area currently suffers from air pollution worse that Beijing or Delhi, both of where I have been in hazardous periods, I feel great empathy.
While I was away, a new high-end food store and eatery
opened across the street from my apartment. It is a “pure-veg” (I still find it
fascinating that food establishments in India are universally categorized as “vegetarian”
and “non-vegetarian”) store with different counters for drinks, prepared foods,
and everything from Indian delicacies to oatmeal cookies. Culturally I had a
hard time with the fact that there are more servers and floor “concierges” that
clients, and they are trained to offer you help and samples at every turn you
make. But I fought my instinct to leave rather than browse (not in peace) their
offerings, and I will definitely be back to sample more of their wares.
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| A Catholic wedding in India. |
Last Sunday, I was invited to the wedding of one of the
staff at Danceworx, and I did not realize it would be a Roman Catholic wedding,
but I was glad I opted to wear a suit, rather than my less formal options.
Having been raised Roman Catholic, I was familiar with the sequence of events,
but surprised at a few small differences that I think must have evolved a
little differently in India than in Jamaica or the USA after the Second Vatican
Council (Vatican II) was instituted in 1959. Some of the wording of the prayers
and responses were subtly different (I presume this is to match the form of
English and grammar taught in India). In India, the wedding festivities for
Catholic weddings appear to be the reverse to what I have encountered in the
past. Here the activities all seemed to come first, the introduction of the
wedding party and the bride & groom, then the cutting of the cake, then the
toasts with slices of cake and a beverage to toast, then the entertainment and dancing
while food became available. The bride and groom seemed thrilled with the
evening, and I was very flattered to be invited. Most of the Indians I have met
seem to enjoy a good party. However, I have to admit my “party-quotient” does
saturate much quicker than most of my friends, and I was probably one of the
first guests to head home.
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| If you don't recognize this screenshot, you haven't been on social media for the last couple of months. Noah and PJ lend their fame to promoting the "It Gets Better Project." You can donate to their fundraiser here! |
Speaking about weddings, a good friend and associate at Paul
Taylor Dance, got married to his longtime partner, back in the USA about a
month ago, and I did not have a chance to attend their wedding. However, their “first
dance” video on YouTube went viral and they have turned their new found notoriety
into a positive cause with asking for donations from their viewers to the “It
Gets Better Project.” I think this is an amazing way to affect change when one
gains a far-reaching platform like “viral” fame. However, adjunct to this initiative,
I found out that a local affiliate, "It Gets Better India", has been started
since the legal de-criminalization of homosexuality in India earlier this year.
While the phrase “it gets better” is representative in this charity, started by Dan Savage
and Terry Miller, to empower LGBTQ youth to know that life is both a matter of perspective
and that nothing stays the same forever, I have found these words to be essential in
dealing with young artists whose passion seems to have so little opportunity,
if they don’t match the mainstream of their institution or industry. Yet Art
grows out of passion for both that which is, and that which is not, usually in
line with the common assumptions about a subject or aesthetic. And many times
it is only time which can give
perspective to the necessary dreams and daring of youth.
As I view exciting social media posts from younger associates of mine in dance and the paddlesports industries, I have stopped imagining myself doing those activities alongside of them. Instead I am finding joy in reading about their adventures, and excitement for them as they make their own impact and legacies in the world through their passion for what they do in life. As I continue to venture from one project to the next since retiring from the performing, maybe this is what “It gets better” means for me as I live alongside the accomplishments of those around me, and the legacy left to me by those who have died.
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