The end product of this study was a comment on the magnitude of the difference of equality you have with the person sitting "Six Feet to the Right" of you. Amanda sat at the top of the bench giving her more room between her and the floor. The closest to heaven. The audience can see she is a white female in America. While women in America still have issues with equality (especially in the work place), it would not be bad to be a white girl in the States. Shannon sat in the middle of the bench slouched against the wall using no muscle whatsoever to stay exactly where she is. She represents the middle class pretty girl. The mid-class girl-next door can walk out in public with her head held high and yet she has done nothing to be so proud. She sits effortlessly on her chair to receive the men, money, and comfort that come to her, often in that order. She does not worry about being hated for her skin color, sexual orientation, upbringing...etc. She is at the top of the middle class food chain. I represent myself....and every other so called "minority" that has been labeled and tagged. I sit on the edge of my seat. Stable in my stillness and ready to get up and march at any second; ready to stand up for not only the LGBT community, but for everyone who has been given a name for which they are punished even slightly. Equality cannot be only for two or three types of people it has to be for everyone. All people should have a spot on the bench and every person should have respect for the person sitting Six Feet to the Right.
My process for this study was simple and similar to how I come up with movement for everything. The big difference here was that I decided to put the movement first without having a clear choice in concept. I put myself in my dancer's position and waited for the first impulse. When the impulse takes me the next step flows from it and becomes the second step. This continues in a fluid way yielding a brief but solid outline for what could be this dance. Once I had the skeleton I asked Amanda to learn the movement and show me. Seeing her body doing my movement made me take certain things other directions. I wanted to make Amanda look good and yet stay true to the original impulse. So we went back and forth. I put myself in the situation, then placed Amanda in it to repeat what I felt would be the next steps. In this pattern I got about 45 seconds of choreography done. I decided to break from the movement and try to find the music and text that would inspire meaningful changes and an ending to make the dance whole.
I found it difficult to select music for this piece because I like almost all minimalist music. I loved Steve Reich's marimba pieces, and I loved Brian Eno's ambient music and so it became a battle between these two composers. I initially chose Brien Eno's "Music for Airports"
This song fit the quality of my movement and could be easily manipulated by whatever text I chose afterward.
The text was even more difficult but for a very different reason. I did want to use spoken word poetry but it was important to me that it did not sound like verse or song. I feel like "sing-song" poetry can get a bit cliche and make a choreographer seem like he/she is trying too hard to be an artist. So I started with a recommendation from a friend. Buddy Wakefield is an AMAZING spoken word poet who has an emotionally evocative piece called "Hurling Crow Birds and Mocking Bars" that is about forgiveness. Forgiveness is a word that resonates deep inside of me and this poem literally put me in tears. Instantly I said yes to this poem and began to try to find a section of it to use, but as I listened I noticed that it just did not make sense unless it was a whole.
So the search reluctantly began again. I thought about forgiveness and what it meant to me personally. I started thinking about what grudges I was holding onto. What was I angry about? Equality. From the beginning of my adult life as an "out-gay" man I have been perceived as different and sometimes lesser than others. There were these expectations then put on me especially as a dancer to be overtly feminine and submissive. I vigorously beg the question, Am I not a man because I choose to love another man? Why is it that in my creation something was perceived to go wrong? No nothing is wrong with me, I just like guys. And so it became incredibly clear to me that I need to address equality in the context that fits me best. I listened to speakers at rallies and marches to finally discover Staceyann Chin. She is a beautiful woman with this gorgeous afro hair that shakes when she talks because she means business. After listening to her public speeches I stumbled across her piece on Equality and our March.
She has this fire inside of her that spoke to me. I knew no matter what section I chose, her message would be easily perceived. The problem was now with the music. Music for Airports just does NOT have the drive that Staceyann possesses. So I went back to Steve Reich and discovered his Clapping Music from 1972. This song behind the text was absolutely perfect for my piece which had just now become about equality. With the addition of the music came the clear dynamics of the movement, and it just made so much sense to have all three of us on the bench at the same time which gave birth to the title "Six Feet to the Right".
I decided to have my audience standing on the opposite bench simply because of the angle. I believe a dance should be aesthetically striking no matter what the concept, and the upward angle showed more of the movement's dimensions.
I was really inspired by the section on "Improvisation and Exploration" in the Dance Composition text. I feel very comfortable in this way of creating because there is so much freedom given as to what can happen and why it is happening. "It is difficult to say exactly when the process of exploration becomes improvisation because exploration of an idea or range of movements is often effected through improvisation to examine the potential, to try out and feel practically, what is right." (Page 80). I have been using this process in each study without knowing it. It is perfect for me because I like to jump into the studio and create on impulse. In this way I feel that I am always being true to myself even as I change day to day. I come in to the studio with a blank slate and through the cocktail of exploration and improvisation, the dance flows forth in stages. First it is a skeleton, second it is a shadow, third it becomes meaty, and in time it develops this meaningful wholeness that is set, and yet has room to grow, breath, and expand to become whatever is true for the current day.
"Interrelationships" discussed on page 106 in Dance Composition directly describes the kind of relationship I wanted to be held by this trio. There is no way for there to be a relationship between the dancers in a direct way as only one dancer is moving at one time. I used intense focus and proximity as a way of making Amanda and Shannon address each other and then Me. Interrelationships are described as, "alternative chance relationships between the number of dancers as solos, duos, trios, and so on." So by placing the dancers in a row, I created these interrelationships. Amanda slid slowly down into the pigeon lunge as she gazed forward at Shannon, and then Shannon did the same to me. Amanda slid slowly down the bench touching her head to Shannon's leg as Shannon did the same to me. I feel that these interactions between us created the sense of community that is conducive to my concept of equality.
