"Super Ruwaxi: Origins" at Highways

On Friday, August 10, Cynthia and Shyamala performed the first draft of "Super Ruwaxi: Origins" at Highways Performance Space as part of SUBVERSIVE GESTURES, an evening of queering Indian dance.  SUBVERSIVE GESTURES was part of BEHOLD!, a queer performance series curated by Highways Performance Space Artistic Director, Leo Garcia.

Note:  not seen here is Shyamala in the low left corner of the stage, doing the hands and face into a live feed camera.  So the audience actually sees her live as well as on the projection.  

Here is the video of the performance!  password "ruwaxi"

FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) What relationships do you see with the other (Un)Epic Wonder Women material?  These relationships could be narrative (ie, different super heroine characters interacting) or aesthetic (ie, use of live feed, narrator, etc).  How might you imagine the different material intersecting in performance?
(2) What moments pulled you in?  Where were you less interested?  What would you like to see further developed?
(3) Do you find the music and sound effective throughout the piece?  (For this version, we were not able to get original music composed, so the tracks should be eventually replaced in the future.)  Does there need to be music during the audience interaction?
(4) What do you think of the theatrical lighting, as far as you can tell from the video?
(5) What do you think of the different backgrounds in the live feed?
(6) How LA or US-specific is the piece and its humor?  Would it be necessary to translate some of the jokes cross-culturally, and if so, how might you imagine doing so?

October 2010 Creative Assignment: Adda with the Ancestors, Revisited

This multi-part creative assignment adapts improvisational structures used during the development of Carol McDowell’s score, Adda with the Ancestors, as a springboard to investigate our personal relationship to the figure of the courtesan and survivors of violence.  

Ideally these tasks would be performed in pairs over Skype so that the figure of the “witness” can be involved.  However, you may do the tasks either solo with an imagined witness or in pairs (self-organize if you’d like to pursue this option).  Please post “traces” of your investigations along with feedback questions by Oct 29, 2010.

TASK 1: AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT MEMORIES

Free-write on the three following prompts.  Take a moment to let the memory/image settle into your embodied imagination before putting pen to page.  Write continuously without correcting grammar or otherwise self-censoring for four minutes per prompt.

·      1. What is your most vivid abhinaya memory?  Where in your body do you feel it?  Can you do the dance now?  Can you do a finger dance to it?  Does it have a name?  Who is the ancestor of this dance? 

·      2. What is your most sensual/erotic dancing memory? Where in your body do you feel it?  Can you do the dance now?  Can you do a finger dance to it?  Does it have a name?  Who is the ancestor of this dance?

·      3. What is a dance you imagine a courtesan would have done?  (Be specific about what kind of courtesan.) Where in your body do you feel it?  Can you do the dance now?  Can you do a finger dance to it?  Does it have a name?  Who is the ancestor of this dance?


4. What is your most visceral physical memory of abuse?  Where in your body do you feel it?  Can you do a dance of this memory?  Does this dance have a name?  Who is the ancestor of this dance?

Choose a writing and take it into the space (or towards the webcam).  If working solo, imagine who the ideal witness/spirit guardian/rasika for this dance might be.  Setting the timer for five minutes, close your eyes and remember the dance in your body.  If you are the witness, watch with loving attentiveness and without judgment.  You may choose to videotape your movement if working solo.

If working with a live partner, the witness now physically “plays back” what she remembers of the dance. 

Now, add to your existing writing by writing about your physical memory of the dance.  Do you remember specific movement, phrasing, choreography, structure, detail, vocabulary, text, imagery, or emotions? 

If working with a live partner, write on her version of your dance as well.  If working solo, you may now wish to watch the video, then write on the video version of the dance.

Write a question for your rasika and/or for your dance’s ancestor.

Repeat the process for the remaining writings.  Be sure to switch roles if working with a partner.

TASK 2: ANCESTOR SOLO OR MAKE-YOUR-OWN

After completing TASK #1, you can choose to do (1) an ancestor solo (see directions below) and/or (2) to extend the material in whatever way you wish (whether it be through choreographing a movement study, working further on a writing, creating another improvisation score, pursuing historical research, creating a dance video using your rehearsal footage, etc.)

Score for Ancestor Solo (Trio for One):

Pick one of your writings.

(1)  1. Do a “small dance” of your memory.  (A small dance is a very brief movement citation -- perhaps just in your fingers or face – that is small in size.)

(2) 2.  Take a step back, name your ancestor, and respond to the first dance as the ancestor.

(3)  3. Take a step back, name the protector, and respond as the protector.  

(4)  4. Now you can move between the characters, putting them in physical and verbal conversation.

If working with a partner, she can ask questions throughout.  As a variation, she can also step into one of the roles, but should call the name (“Ancestor,” “Protector,” or “Protagonist”) first.  You may want to videotape as a record.

Repeat for the other two writings.

Adda with the Ancestors: an improvisational score

Interdisciplinary artist and contemporary dancer Carol McDowell has been creating an improvisational score on Shyamala and myself for our upcoming performance and installation, "Trace," at Sea and Space Explorations.  We've been working with our personal dance memories, which are quite varied and hybrid for both of us, though differently so.  Having a conversation -- a dialogue -- about our dance memories is central to the score.  It is a gift to discover so many new things about Shyamala (she once did a Hungarian bottle dance?) when I thought I knew her so well as a mover and person.

What is your first dance memory?  What is your most vivid dance memory?  What is your favorite dance right now?  Where in your body do you remember the dance?  Can you do you a finger dance of it?  Does this dance have a name?

Among other sources, we've been drawing on the somatic practice of Authentic Movement, with a witness or spirit guardian who protects the body-who-moves-in-remembering.  I had never heard of the witness referred to as a spirit guardian before (though I have posited the witness as the rasika in past explorations of mine).  Since my family is Taiwanese, and ours is largely a culture of ancestral worship, a spirit guardian made me think of an ancestral spirit.  And in our rehearsal last Monday, Carol introduced the idea of an ancestor to our score.  We went through our memories and wrote down whom we thought would be the ancestor of each particular dance memory.  They included: the wind, Medha Yodh, Mama Kariamu, mud, Eiko Otake, a Taiwanese aborigine.  

What would it be like to have an honest conversation with the ancestors of your dance memories?  How might this structure enable imagined dialogues with our teachers and historical predecessors that might be impossible in real life?  

The score was as follows: (1) do a small dance of your memory (2) take a step back, name your  ancestor, and respond to the first dance as the ancestor (3) take a step back, respond as the protector.  The audience can ask questions throughout.

The results were sometimes poetic, sometimes argumentative, at times downright hilarious.