As part of our research together we watched the following TED talks:
Actions are illegal, never people: Jose Antonio Vargas at TEDxMidAtlantic
Beautiful Horror: Artists and Frontiers: Roxana Velásquez at TEDxMonumento258
Changing the conversation on immigration: Janet Jarman at TEDxSanMigueldeAllende
Three things to know about the US-Mexico border: Dr James Gerber at TEDxTijuana
Actions are illegal, never people: Jose Antonio Vargas at TEDxMidAtlantic
Beautiful Horror: Artists and Frontiers: Roxana Velásquez at TEDxMonumento258
Changing the conversation on immigration: Janet Jarman at TEDxSanMigueldeAllende
Three things to know about the US-Mexico border: Dr James Gerber at TEDxTijuana
|
|
|
|
After watching these videos, we would spend time free writing and creating movement explorations. Our goal was not to represent these ideas in the body; this was not an exercise in translation. Our intention was "to be at once external and internal - both open to the world and intensely grounded in an awareness of one's ongoing experience" (260). What these speakers had to say shifted our understanding of both ourselves and the world around us. The process of making this dance was a way of relating the internal and the external. We were creating a space to inhabit and negotiate the blurring of these terrains. Ann Cooper Albright writes that improvisation is "a willingness to explore the realm of possibility, not in order to find the correct solution, but simply to find out" (259). I would argue that the same holds true for our dance making. In this dance we are not providing commentary on the current border crisis. In one semester it is not possible to comprehend the multifaceted concept of walls and borders. But rather, this dance stems from a desire to find out more, a beginning in a life-long journey to understand. Quotes from: Ann Cooper Albright, "Dwelling in Possibility" in Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader |
|