Shy Collective Manifesto Solo

Here is my Manifesto solo with script below. There were no room for my feet, but I think you get the idea. Unfortunately, I think I filmed it in wide screen though I though I tried not to. I can re-shoot if needed, the length won't change cause the sound is already recorded.

password: manifesto




WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
We are not a company
We are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach
We listen with care, we dream wild, we live process, and we create.... magic
We create that unique magic that comes from the unexpected unity of our virtual variety
We share, we learn, we grapple with difference –and we don’t gloss it over
Our open-sourced voices echo across continents in harmony and sometimes in dissonance
We embrace change and our roots are deep
In sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities to create...
Change

Babli's Manifesto background rhythm from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

password: babli's beat

This is my background beat. I had limited and slow internet access at the time of recording it, hence it only referenced Cynthia's audio of clapping (every fourth beat, with one gap at the third four)... I hope it is still usable, because accuracy might be off....

Anj Manifesto backbeat

anjbeat from Anjali Tata on Vimeo.

Password: beat

This is the backbeat I recorded for our Cyber Manifesto. I go off the beat towards the beginning, but I think the rest is mostly in sync. I stuck with simple as I was thinking of how the solos would add to the overall picture

Cyber Manifesto Solo - Cyn

Here is my Cyber Manifesto solo: video, soundtrack, and script!

password "make room"

  Cyn Manifesto Solo with Background by cynthialinglee 

Bite down hard into our naughty knotty histories

How nation-state clamped down

domesticating our bodies

Remember the unthinkable

the intimate erotic exchange between women

powerfully sacred and profane

bending borders of caste class religion and culture

Their songs reenter my body with its American stride its yellow skin its postmodern leanings

I spit and twist and breathe and say,

Make room for the funky

for the butch-femme genderqueer

woman lovin’ hard-hitting rhythm-rappin’

rasa as you ain’t never felt it before. 

Cyber body duet

Prum synched Cynthia's and my backbeats together and came up with this!

(note there are some spots that I"m not perfectly aliged to her beat, but we'll correct it in editing or re-film. Also, it was hard for me to know when she was going to stop so I end after sum, so I do one extra sound. This also will be cut in editing.)

Password: manifesto

Cyn's Cyber Madhya Lay

Here's a minute of Cyn's 5 minute Madhya Lay

password: manifesto

Here's the full 5 minutes for others to sync to:
password: manifesto

Shy's Manifesto Backbeat

This is the first minute of my 5 min of background sounds. It turned out a bit more "jazzy" (as Prum puts it) then I had expected. So I thought I'd post it for feedback cause once we get all 4 parts I would consider re-shooting it if that would help the bigger picture at all...

Here it is, and the password is: manifesto



Feedback Questions:

how does my appearance (sunglasses, earrings, etc.) and background read to you?

how does the movement/sound read to you?

is it "contemporary Indian" enough?

is it weird that the first "mmhmm" falls on even beats, but all the rest the "mmhmm"s are all synchopated?

Any other comments or questions?

Manifesto draft 2.1

After our editing session, Cynthia spent a bit more time with the manifesto, and came up with this, we sent it to the collective for revisions:


Yes to process.
Yes to complexity.
Yes to hybridity.
Yes to being rooted in the local and rocking the global.
Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to sustainability.
Yes to praxis.
Yes to challenging aesthetic hegemonies.
Yes to resisting market ideology.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.
No to identity politics.
SHY: Wait a minute! What do we mean by identity politics? I have made work in the past about my identity and certainly don't wish to erase acknowledging my identity in future work.
ANJ: Much like Shy, I feel I have grappled with this in past work and that we all incorporate the autobiographical into our own work.
SHY: I just hope we’re not saying no to identification at all?
CYN: Well, my discomfort with identity politics is how it often requires a flattening of our complexities -- to be only Taiwanese, or only a feminist, or only a kathak dancer - in order to achieve solidarity.
CYN and BABLI: And what brings the four of us together is not a shared identity but a shared interest in critiquing and creatively expanding South Asian performance tradition.
BABLI: So, broken down it might be: we don’t say NO to identity, autobiography, and community - but we say YES to going beyond the politics of self-interest groups and enforcing borders around identitarian constructions.
CYN: Exactly.
Yes to radical dis/agreement.
Yes to coalition.

Yes to consensual collaboration.
CYN: Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate.
Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings.
Yes to trust.
Yes to honesty.
Yes to respect.
Yes to process without product.
Yes to an online collective process from which we each craft individual products.
BABLI: Create a virtual treasure-box of materials and approaches that circulates to reveal multiple facets of a shared topic.
CYN: As we translate each other, ideas manifest multiply as dance films, scholarly writing, live performance, artbooks, lecture-demonstrations, installations, workshops...
Yes to creative recycling and reusing.
Yes to open-source.
Yes to giving credit.
( Comment shydance:
what do you all think about putting this earlier. in this same section..after yes to consensual collaboration and then cyn's line...I just feel that it makes a good counterpoint to Cyn's comment so that people realize that consensual means to appreciate each other contributions too...)

Yes to supportive feedback.
(Comment Shy: and what about moving this to after Cyn's next comment because I feel she introduces the idea of feedback and then we can affirm it?)
Yes to multiple voices, multiple aesthetics, multiple authors.
CYN: If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity, then make that work on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

Yes to multiplying energy.
ANJ: A creative toss of ideas. Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed our sense of community.
Yes to collectively building infrastructure.
Yes to intelligent divisions of administrative labor.
BABLI: Sharing responsibility instead of multiplying work. Freeing up time and energy for creativity.
Yes to responsibility.
Yes to healthy, balanced lives.
Yes to shared decision making. Yes to moving forward.
SHY: If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard. If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included.

No to divas.
Seriously, no to divas.

Yes to the widest possible definition of dance.
Yes to “natyam” as a multiple-faceted performing art.
Yes to “post.”
CYN: I do resonate with postmodern dance’s valuing of the pedestrian body, of the interdisciplinary, of art-as-everyday-life...as well as its critique of the mainstream.
BABLI: To me “post” resonates in the first place with inquiries that address post-colonialities. I do draw from post-structuralist thinkers. I do not really resonate with postmodern dance as a “genre” (though I like to play with some of the aspects you mentioned, Cynthia).
SHY: From my out-”post”, I send messages through the cyber-”post,” decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating dialogue through art, and art through dialogue.
ANJ: Post is the invention and creativity that develops and takes flight from the roots
Post happens after the solid foundation has been established
Post is the subversive
Post is engaging in the present informed by what has come before
Post followed by Natyam is the infinite possibilities that open up after years and years of training in a traditional Indian dance form
Post is the ability to think outside the box
Post is the meeting of modernity and tradition
Post allows for creation across genres, traditions, and communities
Post is cool
Post is open to learning
Post is not afraid
Post is experimental
Post is anything is possible
Yes to honoring, challenging, and extending our multiple traditions.
Yes to each other.
Yes to Post Natyam.

Manifesto draft 2.0

Cynthia and I keep working on the manifesto drafts. Here is an adjusted draft!

Yes to process.
Yes to process without product.
Yes to consensual collaboration.(1)
CYN: Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate.
Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings.

Yes to the widest possible definition of dance.
Yes to natya as a multiple-faceted performing art.(2)
Yes to “post.”
CYN: I do resonate with postmodern dance’s valuing of the pedestrian body, the multidisciplinary, of art-as-everyday-life...
BABLI: To me “post” resonates in the first place with processes that address postcolonialities. I do draw from post-structuralist thinkers. I do not really resonate with postmodern dance as a “genre” (though I like to play with some of the aspects you mentioned above, Cynthia).
SHY: From my outpost, I send messages through the cyber-post, decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating dialogue through art and art through dialogue.
ANJ: To me, Post allows for creation and communication across genres, traditions, and communities through the medium of dance.

Yes to a virtual Post Natyam process from which we each craft individual products.
BABLI: Together we create a treasure-box of materials and approaches
which we pass around through cyber-connections
to reveal multiple facets of a shared topic or theme.

Yes to trust.
Yes to honesty.
Yes to respect.
Yes to giving credit.
Yes to supportive feedback.
Yes to transparency.
Yes to multiple voices, multiple aesthetics, multiple authors.
CYN: If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

Yes to trust.
No to divas.
Seriously, no to divas.

Yes to honoring, challenging, and extending our multiple traditions.
Yes to the widest possible definition of choreography.(3)
Yes to writing as choreography.(4)
Yes to choreographing the political.
Yes to open source choreography.
Yes to creative recyling and reusing.
Yes to dancing between disciplines.
Yes to breaking the fourth wall.
Yes to praxis.
Yes to theory.
Geeks
Adda

Yes to multiplying energy.
ANJ: A creative toss of ideas.
Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed our sense of community.

Yes to collectively building infrastructure.
Yes to divisions of administrative labor according to our interests and abilities.
Yes to responsibility.
Yes to healthy, balanced lives.
Yes to shared decision making. Yes to moving forward.
SHY: If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard.
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included.

Yes to hybridity and complexity.
Yes to being rooted in the local and rocking the global.
Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to sustainability.
Yes to challenging aesthetic hegemonies.
Yes to resisting market ideology.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.
No to identity politics.
SHY: I'm not sure what identity politics are, but I know that I certainly have relied on identity art making in the past and may still do so in the future.
ANJ: Much like Shy, I feel I have grappled with this in past work and that we all do incorporate the autobiographical into our own work
SHY: I just hope it's not saying no to identification at all.
CYN : Well, my discomfort with identity politics is how it often requires a flattening of our complexities -- to be only Taiwanese, or only a feminist, or only a postmodern dancer - in order to achieve solidarity.
CYN and BABLI: And what brings the four of us together is not a shared identity but a shared interest in critiquing and creatively expanding South Asian performance tradition.
BABLI: So, broken down it might be: we don’t say NO to identity, autobiography, and community - but we say YES to going beyond the politics of self-interest groups and enforcing borders around identitarian constructions.
CYN: Exactly.
Yes to radical dis/agreement.
Yes to coalition.


Footnotes:
(1)Commit to documenting your work so that it can reenter the group dialogue. Commit to the group dialogue. [cyn: not sure this needs to be included?]
(2) “Natya” or “natyam” is a Sanskrit word that refers to the inseparable conjunction of drama, dance, and music in Indian performance tradition. In contemporary times, this concept could also include film and multimedia.
(3) Choreographing can refer to any sort of thoughtful, systematic act of composition. We understand that choreography, narrowly defined, is a historical construct embedded in hierarchical Western concert dance practice, erasing the voices of the street, the club, the community, the circle, the temple, the court, the picket-line, the oral tradition, the non-west.
(4) Susan Foster talks about the linguistic root of the word choreography as referring to “writing dance.”



No mention of outreach/teaching, and writing??


note: ask anj and shy to write 1-2 sentences about what “post natyam” means to them.
Shy: (this is my response to Post not to Post natyam, did you want something different?)
Post is a tribute
a recognition
a nod
to the post modern in me
to the period after I first learned Bharata Natyam and modern dance simultaneously

Post as in after AND post as in choreographic tools to grapple and reformulate my chosen techniques.

Post as in Post colonial and the tools and approaches to grapple with my dance forms’ herstories, their legacies, their complex gender roles, and their contributions to nation-states.

Post as in a pole to ground myself locally into the earth and fly a flag with my chosen dance forms as a beacon to others who wish to engage in the critical and creative dialogue (not as a marker to exclude others or rally nationalist pride).

And from my outpost, I send messages through the cyber-post, decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating meaning through art, dialogue, research, and becoming part of a movement.


Post (Anj)
Post is the invention and creativity that develops and takes flight from the roots,
Post happens after the solid foundation has been established
Post is the subversive
Post is engaging in the present informed by what has come before
Post followed by Natyam is the infinite possibilities that open up after years and years of training in a traditional Indian dance form
Post is the ability to think outside the box
Post is the meeting of modernity and tradition
Post allows for creation across genres, traditions, and communities
Post is cool
Post is open to learning
Post is not afraid
Post is experimental
Post is anything is possible




Regarding Choreography

I [we] choreograph to make connections between my [our] disparate homes and worlds.
I[we] choreograph to ask questions that I [we] usually can’t answer.
I [we] choreograph to play in possibility and to dream of new possibilities.
I[we] choreograph as a rehearsal for life. I [we] choreograph because sometimes it is easier to be brave in the studio than in life.

But choreography is also its own prison, a historical construct embedded in hierarchical Western concert dance practice, erasing the voices of the street, the club, the community, the circle, the temple, the court, the picket-line, the oral tradition, the non-west.

Hence
I [we] defy choreography that erases my ancestors. My [our] choreography is my [our] ancestors speaking through my [our] body [ies]; my [our] choreography is arguing with my [our] ancestors using the body they gave me [us].
I [we] defy choreography as dictatorship. I [we] embrace collaboration, shared ownership, multiple voices blending and clashing in dialogue.
I [we] defy choreography as product. I [we] embrace process. Resonant material transforms over time, as it alights in new contexts, as it forms relations with new audiences.
I [we] defy choreography as dance; I [we] dance through movement, sound, rhythm, film, writing, academia, but coming back, always, to the body.


Yes to innovation
No to Insisting on innovation

Yes to growth and change
Yes to rigorous artistry and craft
Yes to deep rooted understanding of Indian dance forms through our bodies and intellects...
Yes to passed down material
YES to honoring (multiple) lineages
YES to TRANSLATION
YES to Re-Using
YES to process
yes to making work that breaks boundaries and challenges norms
yes to work that matters
yes to bold, fierce and juicy!
yes to extending from traditions
yes to choreographing the face
YES to sharing (each others material)


Choreography is opening ourselves to infinite possibilites
Living large
Dreaming big
Creating the unexpected
Listening to each other and being astute observers of the world and living now



Yes to interdisciplinarity
NO to disciplinary loyalty
no to narrow definitions of dance


Yes to branching out into that which enhances our artistic vision (“SCAVENGER METHODOLOGY”- Judith Jack Halberstam)
As a way to draw upon our various talents and expertise (but not to sacrifice artistic rigor). A way to build bridges with allies/collaborators.

yes to using our whole selves to create work
yes to writing
yes to speaking and making noise with our bodies
yes to screaming at the top of our lungs or making the tiniest whisper
yes to rhythm and a-rhythm and musicality and silence
yes to theater
yes to film
yes to audience involvement and breaking walls (4th and otherwise)
yes to new things we haven’t thought of yet

Yes to “natya” as a multiple-faceted performing arts, historically inclusive of dance, music, theater; now perhaps including film, multimedia.

We create beyond borders
Artistic process opens up to inventive ways of integrating across disciplines
Visionary in how we approach and define dance making through deconstruction and translation
Not limited but limitless in how we integrate music, writing, spoken word and multi-media into our creative sunbursts

Regarding distance, ownership and geography

Creating art in a virtual world
We embrace internet as a way to facilitate our creative process, to circulate creative material to collaborators and audiences that are distant from us in time and place.

Making space for creation, community, and translation in cyberspace
Opening up our artistic process in real time

Make work that acknowledges our specific geographies and how they shape each of us!
Build the community that we need with any tools available. We embrace technology as a means to an end, as a means that may transform the end!
Build homes and alliances in multiple places!

yes to open source
yes to accessibity
yes to inclusion
yes to bounding across geographies and political divides in our communications and eventually in our bodies
yes to being rooted in the local and rocking the global
yes to community –however you choose to make it
yes to consensual sharing and translating and using and confusing
YES to CIRCULATION
YES TO RECYCLING

NO to BORDERS
NO TO CLINGING TO MATERIAL and Ideas

Circulating creative material feeds the Collective
Adds to our multiplicity and strengthens our greater philosophy and vision
Eases us into the area of Translation and opens up interesting art in terms of construction, deconstrucion, innovation

Regarding dialogue and collaboration

A Creative toss of ideas
Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed sense of community
Supportive group feedback to enhance artistic generation

YES TO DIALOGUE
YES TO DIS/AGREEMENT
YES TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

yes to open source
yes to accessibility
yes to writing our own herstory
(yes to process as an important part of the product)
yes to process without product
Yes to sharing our unique visions because no one else can make work exactly like us.

yes to a consensual construct (?????) CUT?
yes to sharing material with each other REPEATED
yes to transforming and growing each other’s ideas
no to trying to be carbon copies of each other - if you’re going to use it, make it your own
yes to giving reins to the those who can run with it
yes to giving credit wherever possible (where due)
no to holding each other back
yes to inclusion
yes to complex pieces that come out of a complex process
yes to communication and transparency
yes to making things so exciting and intermixed that we don’t know who the author is
yes to taking leadership

yes to respect for each others work

yes to trust
yes to trust
yes to trust

no to divas
no to divas
no to divas

Together we create a treasure box of choreographic materials and approaches
To be passed around and reveal multiple facets of each topic/theme we approach together

Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate. Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings. Commit to documenting your work so that it can reenter the group dialogue. Commit to the group dialogue.

Deciding collectively what is up for grabs among us members and what is owned by individual and need permission to be used

Ask if you’re not sure. Give credit where credit is due. Recognizing each others’contributions enriches rather than diminishes your work.

When not engaged in a consensual collaboration:
yes to asking permission before using, transforming, or performing each other’s work
yes to supporting each other’s individual work
yes to feedback on the choreographer’s own terms

Initiate collaborators, introduce them to our way of working and then create a contract with them upon entering the process.
When differing from the “norm,” create a contract upon entering a new project/process.



Regarding multiple perspectives

Paolo Friere: A monologue is a colonial pedagogy; dialogue is liberatory.
A coalition as a shared context of struggle, not a shared identity.
Do we need to make work that provides “the answer”? Or can we make work that asks questions?
How can we learn from each other’s differences?

Yes to multivocality
No to aesthetic Unity
No to a single vision
no to a single artistic director

yes to diverse points of view
yes to variety
no to only one right way

yes to a whole that is bigger and better and more amazing than any of its parts could possibly be alone...
no to one truth, one vision
yes to messy, as long as it’s fulfilling!

We are stronger with a shared voice
Many perspectives instigate juicy dialogue ergo interesting art
“United we stand divided we fall”---Abe Lincoln

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.


WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
we are not a company
we are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach
we listen with care, we dream wild, we live process, and we create.... magic
we create that unique magic that comes from the unexpected unity of our virtual variety
we share, we learn, we grapple with difference –and we don’t gloss it over
we value hybridity; we value humanity
we embrace change and our roots are deep
in sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities
to create... change
we support the creations of the individual, the creations of the collective, and everything in-between
our open-sourced voices echo across continents in unison and sometimes in dissonance -and even that is part of our aesthetic
we are structured and skilled
informed and investigative
we create the meaningful; not carbon-copied empty form
we are “thinking bodies,” we are “dancing words,”
we are sonic images, we are projected thoughts
we are live, we are virtual
and WE ARE POST NATYAM


ORGANIZING OURSELVES

Yes, to responsibiity
yes to division of labor
yes for making consistent time
yes to rise to the occasion

Yes to limiting unpaid work hours

We need to get a lot done
And also need to
Take into account each others preferences, interests, abilities and availability

We are committed to multivocality
We try to keep moving -- lack of time and availability cannot unduly slow down the process process
Time Commitment will determine each persons involvement
Those that are most present and committed should make the (most) decisions
Larger issues that affect the Collective as a whole should be communicated to all

Yes to inclusiveness
invite others to participate in the decisions in each role

BUT If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included

Our multiple voices in dialogue are the compost that makes our soil rich and fertile.
The farmer/project lead plans for the seasonal arc of the year.
Delegates the tasks of tilling, hoeing, planting, weeding, harvesting to her worker/collaborators. All commit to the timeline, to communicating, to asking for help.
We adapts for unexpected droughts, floods, and sunshine.
Throughout we continue to compost and fertilize the soil.
Sometimes we harvest something different than we planted.

We strive not to multiply work, but to lessen the administrative workload for each of us. We recognize that this is only possible when we consistently commit to doing a certain amount of work.

YES TO efficiency
YES TO smart streamlining
YES TO sharing work (in order to reduce individual work)
YES TO discipline
YES TO collectively building infrastructure
We strive to emphasize that which can be achieved collectively, but not as easily individually

We need to reflect our artistic Committment to transnationality in administrative planning

If I’m doing something for me, I might as well do a little more for us
and likewise when you do something for you, please do a little more for we

we are women, we need to make a living, the collective should be facilitating our creativity rather than drain it
should be administrative support network, rather than extra burden

yes to responsibility
yes to healthy, balanced lives
yes to the passion!
yes to communicating when we’re overwhelmed
yes to divisions of labor
yes to delegation
yes to understanding
yes to taking care of ourselves.

Honesty and transparency about what you can and are willing to commit to.
Among your different life priorities, where does PN fall?
What would you need to push it higher on the list?


POLITICS/INTERVENTION

I bite down hard into knotty histories of Hindu patriarchal nationalist clamping down into erasures of Muslim courtesan secular voices I imagine erased voices the form reenters my body with its American stride its yellow skin and short hair and postmodern leanings I spit and twist and breathe and wonder about boxes and the division of the classical image from the classical practice. I want to make room for funky butch-femme gender queer loving woman centered hard-hitting rapping rhythmic subtle virtuosic heartfelt abhinaya rasa for movement across oceans and cities and bodies.


yes to challenging gender norms
yes to inclusivity
yes to QUILTBAG
no to injustice
no to racism
no to exoticism
no to orientalism
yes to hybridity...hybrid bodies, hybrid genders, hybrid forms

We collect our many voices to create and translate choreography, writings, and art across distant boundaries, overseas, here and there, everywhere that dance happens in the “liminal” space between Classical and Contemporary. Constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing, we grapple with South Asian aesthetics, in dialogue with each other and informed by the space where our lives and art intersect. Our process is shared between ourselves and amongst the public as it happens. We dare to enter into multi-media explorations as they interface with South Asian aesthetics and feminist politics in relation to race, gender, dance studies, and contemporary living. Our Dance Collective is on the move. Our travels take us around the world and into cyberspace, where we use the virtual world as our canvas and continue to forge community to create connections

Challenge, Refuse, Counteract:
Any Discrimination
Exoticism
Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Communalism
Class/Caste-ism
Aesthetic and other hegemonies
Senseless Market-politics

NO to orthodoxy
Yes to Equality
Yes to equal rights, equal access, equal chances
Yes to Diversity
Yes to in-betweenness
Yes to queering
Yes to Sustainability
Yes to Openness
No to “centrisms”
Yes to continued learning
Yes to new perspectives

no need to make a unified artistic or political statement-- multiple approaches/voices/opinions can coexist

Cyber Manifest-oh

We have decided that the next Cyber Chat is going to be an artistic version of the Manifesto we are writing. Anjali and I have been brainstorming artistic ideas for it while Cyn and Sandra have been working the verbage (compiling and styling all our separate contributions). And Prumsodun Ok has graciously agreed to be our guest video editor!

CURRENT VISION (subject to change as we finalize the verbage)

Start; cyber ring

Intro: One at a time, each of us adds in a simple repetitive phrase of sound and movement to make an interlocking sound/movement landscape or background. The sound movement should be a video of a zoomed in body part.

Manifesto section:
One at a time each becomes the "soloist" over the backbeat. In our own style, each person tells/expresses some part of the manifesto (with or without sound but text should be included). The section can be a single chunk or a small series of interjections.

Closing: depending on text
either all do something in unison
or the background sounds come to a cacophony, 2 go double time and 2 slower ones pepper imporant words from the manifesto into their rhythm. One at a time, each drops out and we're left with one last person peppering the few important words we want to end with.

End: Cyber hang-up

DEADLINES:
Wed August 31st: a written draft of the manifesto is finished, skype meeting to determine who is doing what in the background and what deadline each person will meet for recording. Also divy up any text for solos.
Mon Sept 5: comments on script idea for cyber performance version.
Wed sept 7: edits on script for cyber performance version.
Wed Sept 7: __Cyn___ drop boxes everyone and Prum her close-up background rhythm/video (once we have the beat, all can work on their solos)
Wed Sept 14: _Shy and Babli_dropbox Prum and all their background videos
Sun Sept 18: Prum syncs background videos dropboxes to all
Wed Sept 21: third person _Anj_ dropboxes Prum and all her background video
Sun Sept 25: Prum syncs all background videos and sends to all
Wed Sept 28: All dropbox Prum and all their solo videos
Sun Oct 2: Prum dropboxes all draft 1
Mon Oct 3: All look and let Shy know if need to google "hangout" to discuss anything
Wed Oct 5: all give feedback to Shy who will compile and communicate to Prum
Sat Oct 8: Prum dropboxes all final copy


Locations: a simple background that is indicative or our different geographic locations
Costume: TBD
Export specs from Prum:

- On similar computers and computer applications (I think we all using Final Cut and Macs?)

- Select 640 by 480 or a bigger ratio that is similar to that

- .mov is best

Manifesto draft 1.0

Based on the collection of ideas we have posted before, Cynthia and I came up with this first draft of the manifesto:


Yes to choreographing (1) possibility.
Yes to the widest possible definition of dance.
Yes to choreography that honors, challenges, and extends our multiple traditions.
Yes to breaking the fourth wall.
Yes to choreographing between disciplines.
Yes to natya as a multiple-faceted performing art. (2)
Yes to “post.”
CYN: I do resonate with postmodern dance’s valuing of the pedestrian, multidisciplinary, art-as-everyday-life...
BABLI: Well, for me “post” resonates in the first place with processes that address postcolonialities. Secondly, I do draw from post-structuralist thinkers. I do not really resonate with postmodern dance as a “genre” (though I like to play with some of the aspects you mentioned above, Cyn).
SHY: From my outpost, I send messages through the cyber-post, decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating dialogue through art and art through dialogue
ANJ: To me, Post allows for creation and communication across genres, traditions, and communities through the medium of dance.

Yes to choreographing the political.
Yes to open source choreography.
Yes to translating, transforming and growing each other’s ideas.
No to being carbon copies of each other . If you’re going to use it, make it your own.

Yes to consensual collaboration.(3)
Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate.
Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings.

Yes to trust.
Yes to honesty.
Yes to respect.
Yes to giving credit.
Yes to supportive feedback.
Yes to transparency.
Yes to process.
Yes to multiple voices, multiple aesthetics, multiple authors.
If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

Yes to local and cyber-community.

Yes to trust.
No to divas.
Seriously, no to divas.

Yes to multiplying energy.
A creative toss of ideas.
Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed our sense of community.

Yes to collectively building infrastructure.
Yes to divisions of administrative labor according to our interests and abilities.
Yes to responsibility.
Yes to healthy, balanced lives.
Yes to shared decision making. Yes to moving forward.
If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard.
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included.

Yes to process.
Yes to process without product.
Yes to a [Post Natyam] process from which we each craft individual products.
Yes to [creative] recyling and reusing.
Together we create a treasure-box of choreographic materials and approaches
which we pass around to reveal multiple facets of a shared topic or theme.

Yes to hybridity and complexity.
Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to sustainability.
Yes to challenging aesthetic hegemonies.
Yes to resisting market ideology.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.
No to identity politics.
Yes to radical dis/agreement.
Yes to coalition.



FOOTNOTES:
(1) But choreography is also its own prison, a historical construct embedded in hierarchical Western concert dance practice, erasing the voices of the street, the club, the community, the circle, the temple, the court, the picket-line, the oral tradition, the non-west.
(2) “Natya” or “natyam” is a Sanskrit word that refers to the inseparable conjunction of drama, dance, and music in Indian performance tradition. In contemporary times, this concept could also include film and multimedia.
(3) Commit to to documenting your work so that it can reenter the group dialogue. Commit to the group dialogue. [cyn: not sure this needs to be included?]

_______________

note: ask anj and shy to write 1-2 sentences about what “post natyam” means to them.
Shy: (this is my response to Post not to Post natyam, did you want something different?)
Post is a tribute
a recognition
a nod
to the post modern in me
to the period after I first learned Bharata Natyam and modern dance simultaneously

Post as in after AND post as in choreographic tools to grapple and reformulate my chosen techniques.

Post as in Post colonial and the tools and approaches to grapple with my dance forms’ herstories, their legacies, their complex gender roles, and their contributions to nation-states.

Post as in a pole to ground myself locally into the earth and fly a flag with my chosen dance forms as a beacon to others who wish to engage in the critical and creative dialogue (not as a marker to exclude others or rally nationalist pride).

And from my outpost, I send messages through the cyber-post, decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating meaning through art, dialogue, research, and becoming part of a movement.


Post (Anj)
Post is the invention and creativity that develops and takes flight from the roots,
Post happens after the solid foundation has been established
Post is the subversive
Post is engaging in the present informed by what has come before
Post followed by Natyam is the infinite possibilities that open up after years and years of training in a traditional Indian dance form
Post is the ability to think outside the box
Post is the meeting of modernity and tradition
Post allows for creation across genres, traditions, and communities
Post is cool
Post is open to learning
Post is not afraid
Post is experimental
Post is anything is possible




Regarding Choreography

I [we] choreograph to make connections between my [our] disparate homes and worlds.
I[we] choreograph to ask questions that I [we] usually can’t answer.
I [we] choreograph to play in possibility and to dream of new possibilities.
I[we] choreograph as a rehearsal for life. I [we] choreograph because sometimes it is easier to be brave in the studio than in life.

But choreography is also its own prison, a historical construct embedded in hierarchical Western concert dance practice, erasing the voices of the street, the club, the community, the circle, the temple, the court, the picket-line, the oral tradition, the non-west.

Hence
I [we] defy choreography that erases my ancestors. My [our] choreography is my [our] ancestors speaking through my [our] body [ies]; my [our] choreography is arguing with my [our] ancestors using the body they gave me [us].
I [we] defy choreography as dictatorship. I [we] embrace collaboration, shared ownership, multiple voices blending and clashing in dialogue.
I [we] defy choreography as product. I [we] embrace process. Resonant material transforms over time, as it alights in new contexts, as it forms relations with new audiences.
I [we] defy choreography as dance; I [we] dance through movement, sound, rhythm, film, writing, academia, but coming back, always, to the body.


Yes to innovation
No to Insisting on innovation

Yes to growth and change
Yes to rigorous artistry and craft
Yes to deep rooted understanding of Indian dance forms through our bodies and intellects...
Yes to passed down material
YES to honoring (multiple) lineages
YES to TRANSLATION
YES to Re-Using
YES to process
yes to making work that breaks boundaries and challenges norms
yes to work that matters
yes to bold, fierce and juicy!
yes to extending from traditions
yes to choreographing the face
YES to sharing (each others material)


Choreography is opening ourselves to infinite possibilites
Living large
Dreaming big
Creating the unexpected
Listening to each other and being astute observers of the world and living now



Yes to interdisciplinarity
NO to disciplinary loyalty
no to narrow definitions of dance


Yes to branching out into that which enhances our artistic vision (“SCAVENGER METHODOLOGY”- Judith Jack Halberstam)
As a way to draw upon our various talents and expertise (but not to sacrifice artistic rigor). A way to build bridges with allies/collaborators.

yes to using our whole selves to create work
yes to writing
yes to speaking and making noise with our bodies
yes to screaming at the top of our lungs or making the tiniest whisper
yes to rhythm and a-rhythm and musicality and silence
yes to theater
yes to film
yes to audience involvement and breaking walls (4th and otherwise)
yes to new things we haven’t thought of yet

Yes to “natya” as a multiple-faceted performing arts, historically inclusive of dance, music, theater; now perhaps including film, multimedia.

We create beyond borders
Artistic process opens up to inventive ways of integrating across disciplines
Visionary in how we approach and define dance making through deconstruction and translation
Not limited but limitless in how we integrate music, writing, spoken word and multi-media into our creative sunbursts

Regarding distance, ownership and geography

Creating art in a virtual world
We embrace internet as a way to facilitate our creative process, to circulate creative material to collaborators and audiences that are distant from us in time and place.

Making space for creation, community, and translation in cyberspace
Opening up our artistic process in real time

Make work that acknowledges our specific geographies and how they shape each of us!
Build the community that we need with any tools available. We embrace technology as a means to an end, as a means that may transform the end!
Build homes and alliances in multiple places!

yes to open source
yes to accessibity
yes to inclusion
yes to bounding across geographies and political divides in our communications and eventually in our bodies
yes to being rooted in the local and rocking the global
yes to community –however you choose to make it
yes to consensual sharing and translating and using and confusing
YES to CIRCULATION
YES TO RECYCLING

NO to BORDERS
NO TO CLINGING TO MATERIAL and Ideas

Circulating creative material feeds the Collective
Adds to our multiplicity and strengthens our greater philosophy and vision
Eases us into the area of Translation and opens up interesting art in terms of construction, deconstrucion, innovation

Regarding dialogue and collaboration

A Creative toss of ideas
Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed sense of community
Supportive group feedback to enhance artistic generation

YES TO DIALOGUE
YES TO DIS/AGREEMENT
YES TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

yes to open source
yes to accessibility
yes to writing our own herstory
(yes to process as an important part of the product)
yes to process without product
Yes to sharing our unique visions because no one else can make work exactly like us.

yes to a consensual construct (?????) CUT?
yes to sharing material with each other REPEATED
yes to transforming and growing each other’s ideas
no to trying to be carbon copies of each other - if you’re going to use it, make it your own
yes to giving reins to the those who can run with it
yes to giving credit wherever possible (where due)
no to holding each other back
yes to inclusion
yes to complex pieces that come out of a complex process
yes to communication and transparency
yes to making things so exciting and intermixed that we don’t know who the author is
yes to taking leadership

yes to respect for each others work

yes to trust
yes to trust
yes to trust

no to divas
no to divas
no to divas

Together we create a treasure box of choreographic materials and approaches
To be passed around and reveal multiple facets of each topic/theme we approach together

Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate. Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings. Commit to documenting your work so that it can reenter the group dialogue. Commit to the group dialogue.

Deciding collectively what is up for grabs among us members and what is owned by individual and need permission to be used

Ask if you’re not sure. Give credit where credit is due. Recognizing each others’contributions enriches rather than diminishes your work.

When not engaged in a consensual collaboration:
yes to asking permission before using, transforming, or performing each other’s work
yes to supporting each other’s individual work
yes to feedback on the choreographer’s own terms

Initiate collaborators, introduce them to our way of working and then create a contract with them upon entering the process.
When differing from the “norm,” create a contract upon entering a new project/process.



Regarding multiple perspectives

Paolo Friere: A monologue is a colonial pedagogy; dialogue is liberatory.
A coalition as a shared context of struggle, not a shared identity.
Do we need to make work that provides “the answer”? Or can we make work that asks questions?
How can we learn from each other’s differences?

Yes to multivocality
No to aesthetic Unity
No to a single vision
no to a single artistic director

yes to diverse points of view
yes to variety
no to only one right way

yes to a whole that is bigger and better and more amazing than any of its parts could possibly be alone...
no to one truth, one vision
yes to messy, as long as it’s fulfilling!

We are stronger with a shared voice
Many perspectives instigate juicy dialogue ergo interesting art
“United we stand divided we fall”---Abe Lincoln

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.


WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
we are not a company
we are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach
we listen with care, we dream wild, we live process, and we create.... magic
we create that unique magic that comes from the unexpected unity of our virtual variety
we share, we learn, we grapple with difference –and we don’t gloss it over
we value hybridity; we value humanity
we embrace change and our roots are deep
in sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities
to create... change
we support the creations of the individual, the creations of the collective, and everything in-between
our open-sourced voices echo across continents in unison and sometimes in dissonance -and even that is part of our aesthetic
we are structured and skilled
informed and investigative
we create the meaningful; not carbon-copied empty form
we are “thinking bodies,” we are “dancing words,”
we are sonic images, we are projected thoughts
we are live, we are virtual
and WE ARE POST NATYAM


ORGANIZING OURSELVES

Yes, to responsibiity
yes to division of labor
yes for making consistent time
yes to rise to the occasion

Yes to limiting unpaid work hours

We need to get a lot done
And also need to
Take into account each others preferences, interests, abilities and availability

We are committed to multivocality
We try to keep moving -- lack of time and availability cannot unduly slow down the process process
Time Commitment will determine each persons involvement
Those that are most present and committed should make the (most) decisions
Larger issues that affect the Collective as a whole should be communicated to all

Yes to inclusiveness
invite others to participate in the decisions in each role

BUT If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included

Our multiple voices in dialogue are the compost that makes our soil rich and fertile.
The farmer/project lead plans for the seasonal arc of the year.
Delegates the tasks of tilling, hoeing, planting, weeding, harvesting to her worker/collaborators. All commit to the timeline, to communicating, to asking for help.
We adapts for unexpected droughts, floods, and sunshine.
Throughout we continue to compost and fertilize the soil.
Sometimes we harvest something different than we planted.

We strive not to multiply work, but to lessen the administrative workload for each of us. We recognize that this is only possible when we consistently commit to doing a certain amount of work.

YES TO efficiency
YES TO smart streamlining
YES TO sharing work (in order to reduce individual work)
YES TO discipline
YES TO collectively building infrastructure
We strive to emphasize that which can be achieved collectively, but not as easily individually

We need to reflect our artistic Committment to transnationality in administrative planning

If I’m doing something for me, I might as well do a little more for us
and likewise when you do something for you, please do a little more for we

we are women, we need to make a living, the collective should be facilitating our creativity rather than drain it
should be administrative support network, rather than extra burden

yes to responsibility
yes to healthy, balanced lives
yes to the passion!
yes to communicating when we’re overwhelmed
yes to divisions of labor
yes to delegation
yes to understanding
yes to taking care of ourselves.

Honesty and transparency about what you can and are willing to commit to.
Among your different life priorities, where does PN fall?
What would you need to push it higher on the list?


POLITICS/INTERVENTION

I bite down hard into knotty histories of Hindu patriarchal nationalist clamping down into erasures of Muslim courtesan secular voices I imagine erased voices the form reenters my body with its American stride its yellow skin and short hair and postmodern leanings I spit and twist and breathe and wonder about boxes and the division of the classical image from the classical practice. I want to make room for funky butch-femme gender queer loving woman centered hard-hitting rapping rhythmic subtle virtuosic heartfelt abhinaya rasa for movement across oceans and cities and bodies.


yes to challenging gender norms
yes to inclusivity
yes to QUILTBAG
no to injustice
no to racism
no to exoticism
no to orientalism
yes to hybridity...hybrid bodies, hybrid genders, hybrid forms

We collect our many voices to create and translate choreography, writings, and art across distant boundaries, overseas, here and there, everywhere that dance happens in the “liminal” space between Classical and Contemporary. Constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing, we grapple with South Asian aesthetics, in dialogue with each other and informed by the space where our lives and art intersect. Our process is shared between ourselves and amongst the public as it happens. We dare to enter into multi-media explorations as they interface with South Asian aesthetics and feminist politics in relation to race, gender, dance studies, and contemporary living. Our Dance Collective is on the move. Our travels take us around the world and into cyberspace, where we use the virtual world as our canvas and continue to forge community to create connections

Challenge, Refuse, Counteract:
Any Discrimination
Exoticism
Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Communalism
Class/Caste-ism
Aesthetic and other hegemonies
Senseless Market-politics

NO to orthodoxy
Yes to Equality
Yes to equal rights, equal access, equal chances
Yes to Diversity
Yes to in-betweenness
Yes to queering
Yes to Sustainability
Yes to Openness
No to “centrisms”
Yes to continued learning
Yes to new perspectives

no need to make a unified artistic or political statement-- multiple approaches/voices/opinions can coexist

Manifesto Writing Process

MANIFESTO WRITING PROCESS:

leading up to our 7th anniversary, Post Natyam has begun to work on our "manifesto"-- here is one step of our process... initial collection of content ideas... its completely free and open in terms of form, the content is structured in terms of our work areas and themes that came out of an initial brain storm of what the manifesto should contain.

Part I of this post contains a summary of our brainstorm for the manifesto- what it should be for the collective, and what it should contain -- for your reference. I also pasted the timeline below.

Part II is a set of questions designed to collect our ideas. I have divided the collection into different areas and included guidance questions for each-


PART I:
1- DEFINITION: Summary of what we want our Manifesto to be:
It should be brief, to the point, and inspiring of course
proclaim our politics/policies/intentions in a clear and interesting way
A bold and inspiring public declaration of what we believe in, how we act, and how that makes us unique (our principles and intentions)
artistic mission on crack
unapologetic
vision (manifesto) vs realistic goal (mission)
It should articulate our believes in
collaboration:
Authorship/Ownership
our future vision and our politics

(details see p.2 onwards)

2- TIMELINE: Proposed Process of Writing the Manifesto:
We agree on questions/themes/topics it should contain (July) DONE
We each individually write up a draft of a manifesto from our personal point of view (no need to be super long/ well crafted yet- its a DRAFT) ( in progress)
We brainstorm a performative version (skype-call type) of the manifesto (August)
Complete written and performative versions in September (One or two of us are in charge of written document, one or two of us are in charge of performative version)-
Announce in our 7 year anniversary October 2011
Sandra present in Salzburg 13./14.October 2011



PART 2:

1: Collaboration

A. Artistic collaboration:

how do we ( want to):
a. think about choreography

CYN:
I choreograph to make connections between my disparate homes and worlds.
I choreograph to ask questions that I usually can’t answer.
I choreograph to play in possibility and to dream of new possibilities.
I choreograph as a rehearsal for life. I choreograph because sometimes it is easier to be brave in the studio than in life.

But choreography is also its own prison, a historical construct embedded in hierarchical Western concert dance practice, erasing the voices of the street, the club, the community, the circle, the temple, the court, the picket-line, the oral tradition, the non-west.

I defy choreography that erases my ancestors. My choreography is my ancestors speaking through my body; my choreography is arguing with my ancestors using the body they gave me.
I defy choreography as dictatorship. I embrace collaboration, shared ownership, multiple voices blending and clashing in dialogue.
I defy choreography as product. I embrace process. Resonant material transforms over time, as it alights in new contexts, as it forms relations with new audiences.
I defy choreography as dance; I dance through movement, sound, rhythm, film, writing, academia, but coming back, always, to the body.

BABLI: Not insisting on Innovation, instead emphasize

YES to TRANSLATION:

(Cyn and I have thought about choreography as translation rather than innovation
in terms of a way of relating to traditional, passed down material (movements, images, texts, structures) - Thinking in terms of (multiple) lineages being translated, juxtaposed, brought into dialogue, etc)

YES to RECYCLING
YES to Re-Using

(each others material)
I feel as though to make our transnational work more fruitfully transnational creating a treasure box of choreographic material around a given theme through our long distance process that each one can draw on locally would be a great enriching model


Shy:
Yes to innovation
Yes to growth and change
Yes to rigorous artistry and craft
Yes to deep rooted understanding of Indian dance forms through our bodies and intellects...

Anj: Choreography is opening ourselves to infinite possbilites
Living large
Dreaming big
Creating the unexpected
Listening to each other and being astute observers of the world and living now

yes to making work that breaks boundaries and challenges norms
yes to work that matters
yes to bold, fierce and juicy!
yes to extending from traditions



b. think about interdisciplinarity

BABLI:
collect anything useful
cultivate a “SCAVENGER METHODOLOGY” (Judith Jack Halberstam)
No disciplinary loyalty


Shy:
no to narrow definitions of dance
yes to using our whole selves to create work
yes to choreographing the face
yes to writing
yes to speaking and making noise with our bodies
yes to screaming at the top of our lungs or making the tiniest whisper
yes to rhythm and a-rhythm and musicality and silence
yes to theater
yes to film
yes to audience involvement and breaking walls (4th and otherwise)
yes to new things we haven’t thought of yet

CYN:
“natya” as a multiple-faceted performing arts, historically inclusive of dance, music, theater; now perhaps including film, multimedia.
A way to draw upon our various talents and expertise (but not to sacrifice artistic rigor).
A way to build bridges with allies/collaborators.

Anj: We create beyond borders
Artistic process opens up to inventive ways of integrating across disciplines
Visionary in how we approach and define dance making through deconstruction and translation
Not limited but limitless in how we integrate music, writing, spoken word and mulit-media into our creative sunbursts

c. negotiate barriers of distance and geography (blog as open source of our process?)
BABLI:
NO to BORDERS
NO TO CLINGING TO MATERIAL (OWNERSHIP)
YES TO OPEN SOURCE
YES to CIRCULATION (of artistic material, ideas, information, etc)
yes to changing, re-using, drawing upon each others
BUT what about others- beyond collective: draw on choreographic approaches, but not our material?


Anj: Creating art in a virtual world
Making space for creation, community, and translation in cyberspace
Opening up our artistic process in real time
Shy:
yes to open source
yes to accessibity
yes to inclusion
yes to bounding across geographies and political divides in our communications and eventually in our bodies
yes to being rooted in the local and rocking the global
yes to community –however you choose to make it
yes to consensual sharing and translating and using and confusing

CYN:
Make work that acknowledges our specific geographies and how they shape each of us.
Build the community that we need with any tools available. We embrace technology as a means to an end, as a means that may transform the end.
Build homes and alliances in multiple places.

d. create materials that relate to each other are in dialogue with each other, feed each other, comment on each other, etc.

BABLI: see

YES TO RECYCLING (above)
YES TO DIALOGUE
YES TO DIS/AGREEMENT
YES TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

Shy:
When we’re in a group collaboration:
yes to a consensual construct
yes to sharing material with each other
yes to transforming and growing each other’s ideas
no to trying to be carbon copies of each other - if you’re going to use it, make it your own
yes to giving reins to the those who can run with it
yes to giving credit wherever possible
no to holding each other back
yes to inclusion
no to divas
yes to complex pieces that come out of a complex process
yes to communication and transparancy
yes to making things so exciting and intermixed that we don’t know who the author is
yes to taking leadership
If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included
yes to respect for each others work
yes to trust
note: I have some notes from Urmika’s lecture on copywright that would be useful to share with
you all when talking about this...

When not in a collaborative process together:
yes to asking permission before using, transforming, or performing each other’s work
yes to supporting each other’s individual work
yes to feedback on the choreographer’s own terms

Anj: Creative toss of ideas
Supportive group feedback influencing artistic generation
Listening, processing, filtering, feeding, and vocalizing in constant dialogue to sustain and feed sense of community

GROUP PROCESS: Be generous. Be a thief. Encourage each other to borrow, steal, appropriate, translate. Do so fearlessly rather than tiptoeing on eggshells. Trust each other as artists and human beings. Commit to documenting your work so that it can reenter the group dialogue. Commit to the group dialogue.

Ask if you’re not sure. Give credit where credit is due. Recognizing each others’ contributions enriches rather than diminishes your work.

e. negotiate a multiplicity of perspectives
BABLI:
no a single vision
no a single artistic director
collaborative development of theme and base materials
multivocality
no need to make a unified artistic or political statement-- multiple approaches/voices/opinions can coexist
no aesthetic unity


Shy:
yes to diverse points of view
yes to variety
no to only one right way
yes to a whole that is bigger and better and more amazing than any of it’s parts could possibly be alone...
no to one truth, one vision
yes to messy, as long as it’s fulfilling!

Paolo Friere: A monologue is a colonial pedagogy; dialogue is liberatory.
A coalition as a shared context of struggle, not a shared identity.
Do we need to make work that provides “the answer”? Or can we make work that asks questions?
How can we learn from each other’s differences?

If you need to create unity, coherence, a singular clarity: then make that choreography on your own, and we’ll give feedback.

Anj: We are stronger with a shared voice
Many perspectives instigate juicy dialogue ergo interesting art
“United we stand divided we fall”---Abe Lincoln

f. circulate creative material

BABLI
Treasure box of choreographic materials and approaches
“Energy-ball”/Crystal-Ball being passed around
reveal multiple facts of one topic/assignment/etc.

Shy:
yes to open source
yes to inclusivity
yes to accessibility
yes to writing our own herstory
yes to process as an important part of the product
yes to process without product
Yes to sharing our unique visions because no one else can make work exactly like us.

CYN:
We embrace internet as a way to facilitate our creative process, to circulate creative material to collaborators and audiences that are distant from us in time and place.

Anj: Circulating creative material feeds the Collective
Adds to our multiplicity and strengthens our greater philosophy and vision
Eases us into the area of Translation and opens up interesting art in terms of construction, deconstrucion, innovation---more to work with

g. think about authorship (see II)

Shy:
see “d” above
CYN: See “d.”
Regarding collaborators, introduce them to our way of working and then create a contract with them upon entering the process.
When differing from the “norm,” create a contract upon entering a new project/process.
Anj: Deciding collectively what is up for grabs among us members and what is owned by individual and need permission to be used

Formal contracts? Not familiar with what this would be

h. anything you want to add

Shy’s draft:
WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
we are not a company
we are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach
we listen with care, we dream wild, we live process, and we create.... magic
we create that unique magic that comes from the unexpected unity of our virtual variety
we share, we learn, we grapple with difference –and we don’t gloss it over
we value hybridity; we value humanity
we embrace change and our roots are deep
in sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities
to create... change
we support the creations of the individual, the creations of the collective, and everything in-between
our open-sourced voices echo across continents in unision and sometimes in dissonance -and even that is part of our aesthetic
we are structured and skilled
informed and investigative
we create the meaningful; not carbon-copied empty form
we are “thinking bodies,” we are “dancing words,”
we are sonic images, we are projected thoughts
we are live, we are virtual
and WE ARE POST NATYAM


B. Administrative Collaboration

how do we (want to)
a. divide and rotate roles

BABLI:
yes to sharing responsibility
yes to dividing work
no to multiplying work
yes to freeing up time and energy for creativity
take into account each others
preferences
interests
abilities
availability


Shy: (NOTE:
Administratively: I think division of labor without rotation makes the most sense; we’ve fallen into roles that we are more or less good at and have gotten used to these roles. Some roles I would be better at then others...
Aristically : rotation of roles makes the most sense depending on the project, though I have to admit I think that we don’t rotate as conscientiously as possible and more often rely on egalitarian opinions)

Yes, to responsibiity
yes to division of labor
yes for making consitent time for PNC
yes to rise to the occasion

CYN: ditto Babli.

Anj: Ditto Cyn and Babli

b. approach decision making (e.g. inclusiveness while keeping things moving)
BABLI
commitment to multivocality
but emphasize keeping moving
lack of availability cannot unduly slow down process


Shy:
Yes to inclusiveness
invite others to particpate in the decisions in each role

and to quote my self in sec D earlier:
If you aren’t present, you can’t be heard
If you don’t communicate or contribute, you can’t expect to be included

CYN:
Ditto Shy’s quote.

Our multiple voices in dialogue are the compost that makes our soil rich and fertile.
The farmer/project lead plans for the seasonal arc of the year.
Delegates the tasks of tilling, hoeing, planting, weeding, harvesting to her worker/collaborators. All commit to the timeline, to communicating, to asking for help.
We adapts for unexpected droughts, floods, and sunshine.
Throughout we continue to compost and fertilize the soil.
Sometimes we harvest something different than we planted.

Anj: Time Commitment will determine each persons involvement
Those that are most present and committed should make the decisions so process is not slowed down
Larger issues that affect the Collective as a whole should be communicated to all

c. share responsibilities to further our artistic work and nourish an infrastructure for efficiency of work
BABLI
YES TO efficiency due to
YES TO smart streamlining
YES TO sharing work (in order to reduce individual work)
YES TO collectively building infrastructure
emphasize that which collectively can be achieved, but not individually as easily


Cyn: We strive not to multiply work, but to lessen the administrative workload for each of us. We recognize that this is only possible when we consistently commit to doing a certain amount of work.

Anj: Clarity in each persons roles and responsibilities will aid in streamlining and efficiency
Revisiting ongoing vs. project to project duties

Shy: if I’m doing something for me, I might as well do a little more for us
and likewise when you do something for you, please do a little more for we

d. balance work load in the collective and the member’s work load, responsibilities and circumstances outside the collective
BABLI:
we are women, we need to make a living, the collective should be facilitating our creativity rather than drain it
should be administrative support network, rather than extra burden


Shy:
yes to responsibility
yes to healthy, balanced lives
yes to the passion!
yes to communicating when we’re overwhelmed
yes to divisions of labor
yes to delegation
yes to understanding
yes to taking care of ourselves.

CYN: Honesty and transparency about what you can and are willing to commit to. Among your different life priorities, where does PN fall? What would you need to push it higher on the list?

e. negotiate transnational complications
BABLI
commitment to transnationality needs to be reflected in administrative planning



II. Authorship/Ownership
what is a Post Natyam project or not

CYN:
Maybe there is never a Post Natyam project, only a Post Natyam process.(this is interesting to Babli, cyn and shy), Anj agreed in a separate conversation with Shy
Alternately, it could be a Post Natyam project when 2+ members are centrally involved AND the project advances contemporary South Asian art by virtue of aesthetic investigation and/or subject matter.(this is what we have defined it in the past)
Or when all four members are involved in either virtual or live form AND the work advances our artistic mission (creative and critical approach to S. Asian art).


BABLI NOTE FROM DISCUSSION ABOUT “WHAT IS A POST NATYAM PROJECT”-- WE REALIZE THAT ON THE WEBSITE it was Cynthia’s option 2-- but the website was done before we started
CYN summarizes: point of collective IS NOT to perform together, but for us to engage in a shared process with each other, which might manifest itself in many different ways nteresting to Babli, cyn and shy), Anj agreed in a separate conversation with Shy



ex: “SUNOH! tell me sister” created through Post Natyam ’collective’s creative long distance process, don’t call a project of Post Natyam, but can call a project of POst Natyam members.
all projects of PNC members...

ex: “TRACE”

Website: reorganize all to be in one place?
past repertory page and clarify current stuff

REORGANIZE WEBSITE!!!

SHY:
every-project has to be defined in the beginning-- re-defined as necessary; no project assumed
collective process is where we “steal”-- define at beginning what a project is
how do we (want to)
deal with ownership of each other’s material
sharing of each other’s material
citing of each other’s material
borrowing of each other’s material
“stealing” each other’s material


I generally agree with Shy’s outline above.

SHY: Ownership about circulating “stealing” re-using, recycling each others material within a consensual shared process (four-way, three-way, two-way)
how we honor or credit contributions (from each other and others beyond the collective)

Regarding teaching: how do we think about our practices in teaching and sharing our tools, both in terms of dance forms and choreographic methodologies (are we open source or guru shishya or ?, etc.)
Keeping in mind that many of us make the bulk of our income through teaching, how much do we want to make our teaching curriculum public and free online? Are we okay with publicizing teaching ideas before we’ve actually taught them?

Shy: yes to the above question - each teacher has a unique style and even though you and I may use the same idea, the outcome may be extremely different.
How might online “teaching” interface with some of Sangita’s ideas about creating a web-based community around contemporary S. Asian dance?


Shy:
No to power plays
no to dominatrix gurus (not sure I would really make this line public)
no to cultural ownership
no to cultural stagnancy
yes to transformation
yes to honoring our legacies
yes to mentoring
no to surrender (submission)
yes to practice
yes to consistant practice
yes to committment
yes to life-long learning
yes to learning from our students
yes to transformation
yes to facilitating other’s growth
no to factory teaching
yes to individuality
yes to critical thinking
yes to creativity
no to carbon copies
yes to thinking bodies
yes to leadership
yes to respect

CYN:
Honor your ancestors.
Don’t touch my feet.
This is what it meant to me when I touched my guru’s feet.
Contextualize.
Historicize.
Critique.
Problematize.
Dialogue.
Play.
Translate this to your own lives.
Refuse the myth of mastery. Refuse to be worshipped.
Submit to the practice while asking “why?” and “what if?”.
Be curious.
Celebrate and challenge the aesthetics epolitics embedded in the form.
Give your students agency.
Be generous.

III: POLITICS/INTERVENTION
How do we define
our motto to critically and creatively engage with classical Indian dance forms and aesthetics
what is the driving factor(s) behind our work (our political agendas) and why?
where we want to intervene politically and how,
where and how we want to work towards cultural and social change, beyond the collective.


Cyn: I bite down hard into knotty histories of Hindu patriarchal nationalist clamping down into erasures of Muslim courtesan secular voices I imagine erased voices the form reenters my body with its American stride its yellow skin and short hair and postmodern leanings I spit and twist and breathe and wonder about boxes and the division of the classical image from the classical practice. I want to make room for funky butch-femme gender queer loving woman centered hard-hitting rapping rhythmic subtle virtuosic heartfelt abhinaya rasa for movement across oceans and cities and bodies.

Shy:
yes to challending gender norms
yes to inclusivity
yes to QUILTBAG
no to injustice
no to racism
no to exoticism
no to orientalism
yes to hybridity...hybrid bodies, hybrid genders, hybrid forms

PN Manifesto Draft (Anjali)
We collect our many voices to create and translate choreography, writings, and art across distant boundaries, overseas, here and there, everywhere that dance happens in the “liminal” space between Classical and Contemporary. Constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing, we grapple with South Asian aesthetics, in dialogue with each other and informed by the space where our lives and art intersect. Our process is shared between ourselves and amongst the public as it happens. We dare to enter into multi-media explorations as they interface with South Asian aesthetics and feminist politics in relation to race, gender, dance studies, and contemporary living. Our Dance Collective is on the move. Our travels take us around the world and into cyberspace, where we use the virtual world as our canvas and continue to forge community to create connections

Babli: Challenge , Refuse, Counteract:
Any Discrimination
Exoticism
Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Communalism
Class/Caste-ism
Aesthetic and other hegemonies
Senseless Market-politics

NO to orthodoxy
Yes to Equality
Yes to equal rights, equal access, equal chances
Yes to Diversity
Yes to inbetweenness
Yes to Sustainability
Yes to Openness
No to “centrisms”
Yes to continued learning
Yes to new perspectives

How does all the above manifest creatively, collaboratively, administratively in terms of our working processes?
What is our future vision and our politics, concerning our work

a) internally in the collective,
b) concerning our work locally, where members live
c) transnationally
d) our relationship to community



POST:
Shy:
Post is a tribute
a recognition
a nod
to the post modern in me
to the period after I first learned Bharata Natyam and modern dance simultaneously

Post as in after AND post as in choreographic tools to grapple and reformulate my chosen techniques.

Post as in Post colonial and the tools and approaches to grapple with my dance forms’ herstories, their legacies, their complex gender roles, and their contributions to nation-states.

Post as in a pole to ground myself locally into the earth and fly a flag with my chosen dance forms as a beacon to others who wish to engage in the critical and creative dialogue (not as a marker to exclude others or rally nationalist pride).

And from my outpost, I send messages through the cyber-post, decentralizing and multiplying, layering and creating meaning through art, dialogue, research, and becoming part of a movement.


Post (Anj)
Post is the invention and creativity that develops and takes flight from the roots,
Post happens after the solid foundation has been established
Post is the subversive
Post is engaging in the present informed by what has come before
Post followed by Natyam is the infinite possibilities that open up after years and years of training in a traditonal Indian dance form
Post is the ability to think outside the box
Post is the meeting of modernity and tradition
Post allows for creation across genres, traditions, and communities
Post is cool
Post is open to learning
Post is not afraid
Post is experimental
Post is anything is possible

4. EXAMPLE MANIFESTOS/ inspirations

- Cyberfeminism Manifesto/100 Anti-theses: http://www.functionfeminism.com/

- Yvonne Rainer's NO MANIFESTO

- Sheetal Gandhi's Manifesto (on her facebook)

Cyber Chat Series Idea: Choreographing Geographic Migration

To riff off an old idea of Sandra's, I'd like this Skype Call to use video to highlight our different geographic contexts.
Each of us should film our portion outside.  The camera-work should allow the viewer to see the environment in which the dancer is moving.  The call will be choreographed sequentially, with each choreographer adding in response to what the people before them have created.

Person 1 comes up with a sentence (in words) that conveys something they urgently would like to communicate to the rest of us.  She choreographs that sentence in movement which is also in relationship to the environment in which she films the dance. 

Person 2 then translates Person 1's choreography into her own body and her own environment.  She then creates a duet with Person 1's video.

Person 3 repeats Person 2's task, except that she creates a trio.

Person 4 repeats the same task, except that she creates a quartet.

Remember that pauses and stillness are useful and allowed.

Alternately, if we are allowed to leave the strict 4-square Skype Call format, we could choreograph more continuous dance phrases, giving the video editor the freedom to jump-cut between different bodies and locations while maintaining the same/similar phrase material.


Note: Not clear on the soundtrack, but it would be cool if it involved environmental sounds and/or different languages.

Cyber Chat Series, Anjali's idea

Thinking about how Post Natyam incorporates translation, I think we should make a Skype Call that reflects this process. We can play the "telephone" game via Skype by highlighting the process using material we have already made as Cynthia suggests: Wrist poem inspires Wrist video inspires Wrist on Widow's back and then we see what Sandra does with it. Or....we can choose one piece from Sunoh! and each translate it as we personally relate to it. For example, we can use "Ranri", etc
We could also do a full-body movement translation of our "original" skype call with the tat tat ta tuga soundscape. This could be nice to see us all dancing and responding while translating the original skype call to full body dance.

Cyber Chat Series, Babli's Suggestion

My suggestion for the Cyber Chat Series would be to find a way to perform the Manifesto we are just in the process of writing. I imagine that we play with timing and maybe phrases from the Manifesto-- but really try to highlight intention and multi-vocality.

As Anj had mentioned.. it should be short and concise
It should have speed and an appealing energy. Focus more directed to the "outside" the viewer-- but collectively.

In order to be more specific I feel like I need to know some of the material we will collect for the Manifesto.

Cyber Chat Series Assignment, August 2011

I am interested in reflecting the part of our long distance process where we re-use or re-appropriate each other's choreographic material/ideas/products in different ways. An example of something I think has been successfully re-used and transformed over time is Anj's ]wrist[ video.

I imagine that rather then being the four square right off, that it is an additive video, staring with one idea that someone communicates in a "video call", then the next person appears in the "video call" with the first and transforms or adds into the idea, and the next and so on. So it goes from 1 to 2 squares, then adds in 3 and ends up with 4 squares.

For example: if we used ]wrist[ it could start with Cyn somehow communicating her ]wrist[ poem to us, Anjali adding the video, Shy projecting it on her back, and then Babli would be challenged to come up with a new rendition of it....or maybe there's a group moment that develops out of it.

perhaps we can figure out an additive rhythm that expands itself just as our notion of the original idea expands, or we can use something that double and triples in speed to make things build and get more exciting as more of us add in like the rhythm I use in the most recent version of "I see, but..." Or maybe it is a changing sound scape as is necessary to represent each person's stage.

As a related structure, I could also see "throwing" an imaginary choreography idea from one person to the next, like the energy ball game in the theater world. In that case perhaps it's not additive but rather something like a gesture/or a tiny bit of Abhinaya gets tossed around like an idea does as it morphs or changes. This could look something like the theater game where one person does a gesture and a sound towards another person, the receiver does back the same one, and then creates a new one that's related but different, they direct the new one to someone else....Then we could create a scrolling series of skype windows...if everyone receives from the L and throws to the r, then as they scroll of the screen a new person scrolls on to catch it...or perhaps at some point two people catch it and morph it simultaneously, etc. So, rather then each of us creating a whole individual skype call that gets stitched together, we send in tiny little responses until the "game" is complete. These responses are then stitched together.

Perhaps theater game could really take into account the geographic differences as the same or similar material gets put into different locals, interacting with the environment. Like Cyn's Bitter Salt hand walking through sand, and someone else has the hand in prairie grass and someone else in the snow, etc.


Feedback questions:

1. The above is a bunch of brainstorming on my part. Is there any part of what I said that you find particularly interesting or that even conjured up an image in your mind's eye of what it might look like? If so, please point out the part and describe what you're excited about or what you visualize it to be....

2. If we did an idea like this would you be personally be interested in using pre-existing material like ]wrist[, or starting a new chain of material specifically for the skype call to see what happens? Would you be open to trying an adapted theater game as a long distance structure?

3. would you be interested in emphasizing our plurarily, difference and distance, or in somehow creating an "end product" that we all are a part of , or both? (so rather then just different responses to the same material, building material that uses multiple people at once)?

3. Does hearing my brainstorm create any new, but related ideas for you? If so please share...
Or does hearing my brainstorm create any questions that I, and the group should address if we choose to work on this idea? or any other comments....

Cyber Chat Series: Generating ideas

After looking at the many products that have come out of our long distance process, we've decided that one thing we would like to expand is our Cyber Chat videos.  We'd like to make a series of "SKYPE calls" in collaboration with Sangita Shresthova, our dance-media collaborator.  To facilitate this, here is the next step for our creative assignment:

Please come up with a proposal for a new collective SKYPE call choreography.  Your proposal should include both thematic and compositional element(s).  You might consider what has been covered thus far in Cyber Chat 1.0 and 2.0 both thematically (administrative meeting, sympathizing between friends about a common problem) and compositionally (a sequential compositional process vs. a highly pre-choreographed one, the use of spoken rhythms).  What elements about Post Natyam or our process have not been covered yet that you would like to emphasize?  Conversely, what elements would you like to keep constant or repeat with variation?  Keep in mind that we would like to create an arc/trajectory with the series.  You may also consult with Sangita, our multimedia choreographer extraodinaire, for ideas.

Please post your SKYPE proposal by August 15, 2011 on the blog.