I have been working for the past month with Cal State Long Beach students to craft a performance piece inspired by Post Natyam's Back to the Beautiful installation based on water, borders and memory.
We will be shooting footage of the dancers in the cemented San Gabriel river which has huge wall like sides at the end of this week. The river was cemented to control it from flooding but we also have major droughts in Southern CA, so the water is often just a trickle. The cementing of walls and controlling of the path of the water feels like a strong metaphor for the border wall that is being erected and the controlling of the paths of the real migration stories that some of the cast members have experienced, including deportation.
Here I share the climax of the piece based on two migration stories from the performers themselves. This follows a windy migration section, and a militaristic wall section:
Fight the Fear, Draft from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
password b2blbc
Note:
The bucket of water that the singer is at will be up left on a slightly raised platform - she may actually be in it.
The rest of the performers will be center stage.
The performers are still learning their lines and so you may see them reading from a paper.
Here is the script: black is spoken, purple is sung...
Questions:
1. What are you drawn to? what do you experience/notice?
2. Is there anything else you could imagine the singer doing with the water? (after this she will use it to affect the other dancers in the next section and then will start the passing of bottles through the performers and into the audience)
3. Anything you would adjust/change?
4. Any other thoughts?
We will be shooting footage of the dancers in the cemented San Gabriel river which has huge wall like sides at the end of this week. The river was cemented to control it from flooding but we also have major droughts in Southern CA, so the water is often just a trickle. The cementing of walls and controlling of the path of the water feels like a strong metaphor for the border wall that is being erected and the controlling of the paths of the real migration stories that some of the cast members have experienced, including deportation.
Here I share the climax of the piece based on two migration stories from the performers themselves. This follows a windy migration section, and a militaristic wall section:
Fight the Fear, Draft from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
password b2blbc
Note:
The bucket of water that the singer is at will be up left on a slightly raised platform - she may actually be in it.
The rest of the performers will be center stage.
The performers are still learning their lines and so you may see them reading from a paper.
Here is the script: black is spoken, purple is sung...
Walls.
--
Ahhhh (looking in water)
--
My whole life, I’ve had walls in my face.
--
Fluid memory (elbow in?)
--
There’s just always a wall, always a fear, a layer to tear in order to be
--
ooooooo (water to face or hair dip)
--
Devuelveme mi rostro, I exist, I am not a piece of paper
--
Devuelveme mi rostro (leg moving in)
--
Undocumented? I am here, working hard.
--
Aqui (other leg)
--
I am here.
--
Hmmmm (continuing underneath, )
--
But there’s always that fear
I fight the fear
Always that fear…
I fight the fear.
Always that fear…
I fight the fear!
Always that fear…
I fight the fear!
Always that fear…
I fight the fear!
Always that fear…
I fight the fear! I fight the fear - I fight the fear - I fight the fear!
sing/scream!
Questions:
1. What are you drawn to? what do you experience/notice?
2. Is there anything else you could imagine the singer doing with the water? (after this she will use it to affect the other dancers in the next section and then will start the passing of bottles through the performers and into the audience)
3. Anything you would adjust/change?
4. Any other thoughts?
1. I'm drawn to the interesting and unexpected geometrical shapes made by the dancers around the performer speaking the poetry and the vocal quality of the singer.
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3. I'm curious about investigating gaze and expression a little more. Does the singer ever look at the poetry speaker, or are they in two different worlds? The text suggests a clear linkage between the two, but that's not clear in the performance. Would it be interesting to explore different expressions on the faces of the "wall" (right now they're pretty bland) -- or to use lighting strategically so their faces aren't seen at all?
4. It’s great to see how passionate the person speaking the poetry is. I wonder how it would be to explore different emotional intentions to the same lines (Always that fear…I fight the fear!) to give different layers and nuances as we would do in abhinaya.
Maybe because of the distance, but on the stage this moment did not read as climactic,the wall is more louder, more energy - even though here there is voice/speaking , singing and intense movement. Is there a way to still make it look larger or bring it closer (downstage?)
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