Sandra's Response to the July 2009 Creative Assignment

Localized Translations

For the July creative assignments, I built on two different ideas, which were responses to previous assignments. Using the sound score that Cynthia had created as part of the Cyber-Padam assignment, Shyamala choreographed a skype call using an in-built web-cam for the June 09 assignment "Translating Each Other, Translating the Past."

Combining those two ideas with the requirements of the July 2009 Creative Assignment, which asked to "localize" a translation, I translated Cynthia's sound score, which I repeated and layered, into movement, specifically addressing my web cam.  I filmed this in various locations, such as on the train, and in my temporary home during a creative residency.

Here is an excerpt:

Sandra's Response to the July 2009 Creative Assignment from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

Anjali's Response to July Assignment

I translated the following section entitled "wrist" of Cynthia's artbook. I was particularly drawn to how the metaphors came alive to me both on a visual and visceral level....thus followed my study of "wrist" shot close. I will be re-shooting and choreographically refining this study so we can show it at the upcoming Sea and Space performance.

]wrist[

a delicate bandage a bone a twiggy little snap. oh slim white stab of a waist unwrapped. blackened sweet. a virgin chocolate bar crinkles her glittery skirt but such a disapproving purse. disapproving she twists her bittermelon mouth splitting shut. oh. oh oh no. white hot mirchi stops dead in her tracks. cut red. a rough and ready grab, a wolf whistling fist, an iron bangle tapping her curved rear.

(by Cynthia Lee)

Cynthia's Response to July Assignment: Remembering Homes in the Moment

For my "Localized Translations" study, I first spent some time learning the movement from Anjali's June assignment off the video. Then, I did a text-movement improvisation in which I told stories about "home" while drawing on Anjali's movement material. Here is a transcription of what I said:

Remembering Homes in the Moment

The little yellow table in a Mexican restaurant called Tacos Por Favor. The paint’s a little bit, the paint’s a little bit uneven, and they use chicken breast instead of dark meat. I used to go there, I, I used to go there, I used to go there, I would bring my book, my journal, and I would...I would write. And sometimes I would drink an horchata. That’s home number one – Home number two...is the sweep of freeway, the sweep of freeway. The mighty elevated concrete and the way it twists and it turns across each other. The 5, the 10, the 60, the, the, the driving. The perpetual driving. The bluetooth. The talking and driving and working. The perpetual the – the car accidents. The, the the the stop, the stop and go. The waiting. The NPR. The still not. The rush hour. The traffic. The planning one’s life around the sweep...the sweep of time and the sweep of concrete, that’s home number two. Pfwuh! Home number three. Home number three I remember, my pores remember, they remember the...sweat and grime and coming home and sneezing black snot out of my nose. And rickshaws and BEEP! and little trucks and camels and cows and...humidity. And a pair of feet, soft, of my teacher.

Shyamala's response to July assignment

I chose to translate Anjali's contemporized Anandabhairavi Varnam longing for her lover from last month's studies:
"My Lord, please come quickly so that we can be united once again. Love in separation.

In order to make it my own (and because I didn't know the song she sang in hers) I used the Beatles Song "Don't Let Me Down" which I thought could also portray the same sense of longing but also with other emotions...rapture, loss, anger, desperation, cajoling.

Because it was supposed to be a "localized" translation, I did it on the front stairwell of my apartment, like I really was waiting for my lover to return. It turned out to be quite narrow, which was a challenge. I did enjoy using the hand rail to lean into and bounce off of.


Don't Let Me Down (study) from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.


PASSWORD TO WATCH: Stairs

July 2009 Creative Assignment: Localized Translations

Creative Assignment: Localized Translations
by Sandra Chatterjee

From the June 2009 assignments, choose one aspect of one of the studies by another collective members. Choreograph a study that translates this one aspect into the place you call home. In order words, interpret another member’s previous translation according to your specific geographic locale. Localize the interpretation by drawing on and evoking specific imagery that distinguishes your geographic locale and home.

As Cynthia mentioned in the last assignment, the root of translation is “to carry across.” In this particular assignment, please think of it as carrying a translation into your specific home and have it be colored, re-interpreted by this process.

-July 2009