This weekend (March 23rd-March 25th) the Emory Dance Program will present honors theses by seniors, Rosie Ditre, Cherry Fung, Clara Guyton, Julianna Joss, and Eliza Krakower! Theses projects include the explorations of dance on screen, political relationships, poetry, identity expression, and the intersections of dance genres.
The process of creating dance about identity began as a daunting and overwhelming task. Who am I, as a privileged, white-passing woman, to create art about one of the most complex, controversial topics of the human experience? How could I do this topic any justice? With so many people creating about this topic right now, how could I possibly add anything original or meaningful?
Check out one of our featured theses choreographers, Julianna Joss, as she shares insight on her concept and process!
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| Photography by: Erin Baker |
The Moving Identity: Explorations in the Body’s Capacity for Communication, Expression, and Understanding
By:
Julianna Joss
“It’s
not what I am, it’s who I am.” Back in
September 2016, during the first official rehearsal of this thesis concert
process, I asked my dancers to talk about their identities. One of my dancers, Alfredo, responded with
these simple, yet powerful words.
The process of creating dance about identity began as a daunting and overwhelming task. Who am I, as a privileged, white-passing woman, to create art about one of the most complex, controversial topics of the human experience? How could I do this topic any justice? With so many people creating about this topic right now, how could I possibly add anything original or meaningful?
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| Photography by: Jake Rosmarin |
But with
this one sentence about the who
rather than the what, I let go. This process would be about my dancers’
stories and my story. This discussion
about identity would not about categorizing, labeling, and drawing lines in the
sand. Rather, it is deeply personal and
unique to each individual, the culmination of experiences, relationships,
histories, and values, and I would find my humble voice in this conversation by
honoring that and simply that. I conducted
my research on movement and identity in two separate branches: a four-part
group piece exploring individual identity, relationships between identities,
and group identity, in addition to a solo I created based on my personal
identity.
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| Photography by: Jake Rosmarin |
The process
of working with my five wildly talented, bold, and intelligent dancers, Ruchi,
Hannah, Sara, Ben, and Alfredo, was highly collaborative. While this may be
“my” thesis, I firmly believe that the group piece, To Be Seen, belongs to all of us equitably. My method is I would give my dancers a prompt
or an idea to work with and they would create movement, by themselves, in
duets, or in larger groups. “Create four
movements that suggest ‘affirmation,’ such as ‘following’ or ‘noticing’
actions.” “Find a moment of protest
within your solo movement.” Then I would
massage and finesse the material usually by asking dancers to indulge or expand
upon certain ideas or clarify intentions.
Organically, our process yielded dozens of snippets of movement moments
and it was my job to look at this material and find the connections, themes,
and patterns. And the mystery of the
creative process somehow revealed itself.
In the final weeks of my rehearsal process, I started to understand how
I could tell this story – the story of five humans in four, interconnected
parts.
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| Photography by: Erin Baker |
The most
challenging part of my thesis process was creating my solo, The Space Between. Ironically, in dealing with the complexity of
myself, the best tactic was simplicity.
I used all my choreographic tools, clearly, but directly – proximity,
repetition, focus, gesture, dynamic, and use of space. However, within this functional framework, I
have found the emotion, feeling, and uniquely personal nature of self. I discovered a woman who exposes, who
reveals, who touches, but also a woman who wrestles, who fights, and who
struggles.
The words
that come to mind as I close my reflection on movement and identity are witness and nuance.
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| Photography by: Jake Rosmarin |
Witness.
We are who we are because of how we relate to one other; how we see one another
and bear witness to each other’s lives.
Nuance. We are complex, the space we individually
occupy between all our identities is what makes us, uniquely us.
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