dance as sacred

Sheena Johnson, Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang

For me, dancing is both a sacred and spiritual act. I was reminded of that as I sat and listened to the recently selected Performing Diaspora (PD) artists discuss there work during their orientation meeting here at CounterPULSE (CP) a few weeks ago (I am intern at CP for the summer).  As I sat there I was overcome with an immense feeling of transcendence. As each person passionately described the motivations behind and the visions for their new works I was briefly transported into their worlds. PD artist Opal Palmer Adisa vividly described the role of storytelling in healing and discussed her plans to travel back to Jamaica to do research for her work. As she discussed her work I remember imagining myself sitting outside under a tree like an excited child ready to here this groit speak. Yannis Adoniou’s, another PD artist, excited re-telling of his clubbing days in Greece also resonated with me. My imagination directly sent me to a loud dark warehouse. Bodies merged. The beats demanding a melding of mind/bodies/spirits into a large beautiful sea of pulsating rhythm.

Both Opal and Yannis reminded me about how our bodies hold so much history, known and unknown.  The dancing body is scared and spiritual, and must be honored as so. For me, viewing dance from the lens of embodied histories becomes a powerful tool to unlock imagination, remember our-stories and envision new futures.

As a current graduate student in dance I often forget the sacred and spiritual nature of dance. In my experience the emphasis of dance in the academy is intellectual, which is important, but as I listened to the PD artist (all of whom are masters of their disciplines & forms) I was inspired and encouraged to embrace dance from a more integrated perspective. As a dance artist, my movement is rooted in Pan-African, House and Modern dance forms, and I struggle to find spaces where my work is understood or valued. The PD artist are on the margins of their art forms and while they are honoring their traditional art forms they are also creating new meanings and new visions not only for their disciplines but for the world of professional dance. I have a long way to go in my training as a dancer, but being a part of supporting PD gives me hope that there are space being created to consciously produce work that truly reflects the diversity and complexity of dance and performing artists out there.

If you are interested in innovation and pluralism in dance then being apart of PD is a must!