In my view, the body is cosmic technology living in flesh and bones. It’s an expression of its celestial, earthly and biological environment. In this video, I worked with dancers from Axis Dance Company, Janpi Star and Bradford Chin, in creating a virtual duet based off the question “What are 10 things you cannot live without?”, inspired by Grandmother Mona Polacca, a Hopi Elder’s teachings. The title “Oraçao” is portuguese for prayer.
Stephanie – Oraçao
Descriptions
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Stephanie
Three dancers are grooving and dancing freely in three separate screens to Brazilian music. The mood is lively and bright. There are two male embodied dancers and one female embodied dancer. One dancer is dancing in a wheelchair and the other two are dancing upright. Two dancers are in their homes, one in their bedroom, one in their living room and one outside in daylight. One dancers leaves the screen and the other two continue to groove to the rhythmic and percussive music. Their movements range from high, middle and low levels, shaking their hips, shoulders and torso and swinging their arms to the rhythm. Dancers hug themselves and lightly tap their skin on their arms and hands, they also sway both arms up and sensually drape them down their upper bodies lightly touching their skin on the way down. Dancers clap, spin and undulate their shoulders and spine. The mood transitions when both dancers bring both their hands close to the screen and one dancer recites a prayer in Spanish. The music fades. While the dancer is reciting the prayer, they move their arms and shoulders sensually and they drape their arms around themselves to finish in stillness. The other dancer starts to move and shift objects in the space and sweeps the floor, while their prayer is playing as a recording over the movement. They create an “altar” in the space by bringing a plant, candle, and glass of water to frame the screen. They light a candle. Slow music starts and both dancers move gracefully and intentionally. The dancer on the left moves occasionally as if to “respond” to the other dancers movements with sudden arm reaches. The dancer on the right screen moves through their movement “prayer” going upside down with one leg reaching up, leg balances and extensions, then slows down to lay on the ground and reach for the water in the cup. They put their fingers in the cup to sprinkle water onto their face then sits up in a cross- legged position, then to stillness. The other dancer then spins around in their wheelchair while rotating their head and undulating their spine to start their movement “prayer”. They move up and away from their chair to a quick freeze, up against a wall. They slowly come down in front of their chair and move to the side and create a balancing pose while looking up and at the same time, the other dancer also does the same with their upper body. The dancer on the left then spins their chair with one arm while on the ground and at the same time the other dancer reaches into the screen as if to touch or reach for the dancer in the other screen. The dancer on the left then brings their wheelchair over their head, then back down in front of them and disappears from the screen only to return and get back to a seated position on their wheelchair. They bring out a picture frame and place it on the ground to the left and then they bring a wooden whale close to the screen while the other dancer reaches to the screen again. They are slowly building their altar and showing their sacred objects close to the screen. The last object is a small round container of teal glitter that is then placed on the ground at the altar. The dancer slowly moves off of their chair to a kneeling position in front of the altar and sways both their arms in front of them.
Stephanie’s piece (first minutes), makes me think of the body as music and musicality: rhythm, sinewy shoulders, skin, sensation. As bodies together, they are different, but tied by the music, by a set of activities. uniquely self, but connected, even though they are not sharing the same space.
Stephanie,
What I get from your description is that this is not a video of a performance, but a dance video meant to be experienced on a screen, and I admire the ways you make that work. At first, like Vic, I got the idea that the music was linking the three dancers; while they were each in their own frames, they were still dancing together. I also like the moment where one dancer moves out of the frame and wonder if it looks like they’re moving into someone else’s frame? But the moment that really got me was when you “break the fourth wall” and the dancers’ hands reach toward the viewer, as if to reach right through the screen. And then they assemble objects around the screen. This feels inclusive, but also an invitation to take up a shared responsibility. The viewer is no longer just some disembodied pair of eyes out there watching this; they are a part of something. I assume this is happening while the dancer is speaking the prayer, which is aurally very moving. The dancer’s voice has such a stirring quality while not at all overly emotional.
I am so happy to see this again. I watched the AXIS showing and felt like there wasn’t enough time to engage. Oddly, I think my first response has to do with camera angles. It teaches me so much about the body itself. Just changing our regular perspectives I think allows a different kind of recognition of how bodies move. Watching Bradford from this perspective which, of course is highlighted by the framing and the view into the room, I felt myself watching the distinction between limb and the way the full body is leveraged. I suppose, this is a tradition in conventional dance technique, but the viewpoint Altered what I knew about this traditional movement. All of a sudden, the sidedness of our bodies became differently clear. The illusory nature of weight in the body suddenly felt incredibly compelling to me.As I was watching, I noticed the difference between the way Bradford uses the distinction of a limb vs the central core and Janpi. For Bradford, I found myself asking why the question of weight, initiation, and the body went together in this particular work. Why was this so important to me as an aspect of prayer? For Janpi, I found myself interested in the questioning around a center. I don’t quite know how I ended up here – I think it possibly started watching the shoulder work. I have a deep reaction to the question of embodiment when it comes to wheelchair use; So I was curious to see what would happen here and to understand how Janpi thought through their particular configurations. I’d love to hear more about how the dancers themselves wrestle with the notion of embodiment across distance. What are the reflections that remain with you about the use of distance and perspective?
This was a very engaging description. I read the description before viewing the video, not so much to check in a supposedly accuracy, but rather to determine for myself whether I could imagine the narrative to be a dance. And I could.
The complementarity between one dancer dancing on legs and one dancer and dancing on wheels is interesting.
Love the idea of cosmic technology and the container being our body. In the sample “woman” is pronounced as its ancestral understanding – giver, provider of life (this context) but stilted and glitched herself. We don’t feel her release as much as the ones she’s invited. YET, is her capacity large enough not to need to be as present as her guests? Facilitate. Who invites whom? Can that shift. Literal absence, in the way of dropping video chat, is still not “cosmic” absence. I loved the glitch as it also communicates, literally and figuratively, ease of relay due to a host of securities/assurances like housing, finances, time to participate. But then again, could our assumptions lead us astray?
This was very sensual. I could almost feel the hands of the dancers reaching for me.
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