...at once an advocacy and a gesture towards strengthening scholarly communities and broadening interaction between dance, drama, theatre, performance studies and beyond.
A two-day symposium. January 22-23, 2016, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto.
"Practices of representation always implicate the positions from which we speak or write – the positions of enunciation. What recent theories of enunciation suggest is that, though we speak, so to say ‘in our own name’, of ourselves and from our own experience, nevertheless who speaks, and the subject who is spoken of, are never identical, never exactly in the same place. Identity is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think. Perhaps instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact, which the new cultural practices represent, we should think, instead, of identity as a ‘production’, which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation. This view problematises the very authority and authenticity to which the term, ‘cultural identity’, lays claim".
Hall S. in Rutherford, J (222:1990).
Stuart Hall was a Jamaican-born cultural theorist and sociologist and one of the founders of Cultural Studies and the "New Left Review" in Britain. He left a lasting international legacy on discourses on culture, race, identity and media that is particularly resonant at this moment in time.
John Akomfrah is a Ghanaian-born British writer, director and filmmaker whose body of work speaks to many of the themes that Stuart addressed.
Dr. Daniel McNeil, Professor of History, Migration and Diaspora Studies at Carleton University, will introduce John Akomfrah’s 2013 film The Stuart Hall Project and take part in a Q&A with artists, activists and academics inspired by Hall's commitment to creative, explorative and provocative intellectual work. Professor McNeil will also engage with SFU faculty and graduate students with regards to The Unfinished Conversation, a three-screen installation directed by Akomfrah, and the multiple ways in which Hall has inspired intellectuals inside and outside of academia to do some fresh thinking about time, space and belonging.
FREE EVENTS:
October 14, 12:15-2:00pm Buchanan Penthouse (B501) University of British Columbia, Point Grey Campus Hosted by Dr. Handel Wright and Dr. Alejandra Bronfman Seminar by Dr. Daniel McNeil and discussion with grad students and faculty Lunch served
October 14, 6:00-9:00pm SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Studio Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Hosted by Dr. Laura Marks and Dr. Henry Daniel Seminar by Dr. Daniel McNeil and discussion with grad students and faculty
October 15 5:30pm SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Public screening of John Akomfrah’s The Stuart Hall Project
7:00-10:00pm SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Panel roundtable discussion
Panel Chair: Dr. Handel Wright - Professor and Director, Centre for Culture, Identity & Education, UBC
Respondents: Dr. Daniel McNeil - Professor of History, Migration and Diaspora Studies, Carleton University Dr. Laura Marks - Dena Wosk University Professor, Visual and Cultural Studies, SFU/SCA Dr. David Chariandy - Associate Professor of English, SFU Dr. Adel Iskandar - Assistant Professor of Global Communication, SFU Dr. Alessandra Santos - Assistant Professor of Ibero-American Literatures and Cultures, UBC
Reception to follow
These events are organized by Dr. Henry Daniel, Professor of Dance and Performance Studies at SFU, and Dr. Alejandra Bronfman, Associate Professor of History at UBC, with financial support from the School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU, the Dean’s Office in the Faculty of Communication, Art, and Technology, Institute for Performance Studies, Department of English, School of Communication, Department of History, Institute for the Humanities, School for International Studies, Centre for Imaginative Ethnography, Centre for Policy Studies on Culture & Communication, and the Faculty of Arts at UBC.
Granada Artists-in-Residence (Spring 2014)
Choreographer and Media Artist Henry Daniel premiered Isabella's Dream from his Project Barca series at the University of California Davis. Learn more about the Granada Artist in Residence program or visit Henry Daniel's faculty profile.
July 23th (Tuesday) & 24th (Wednesday) at 9:30 pm
At Espai 30 - Nau Ivanow- Address: C/ Honduras, 28-30. Metro: la Sagrera, Barcelona.
The dancers in this work, who all live in Barcelona, offer their personal narratives to question and provoke issues of identity. Using the historic events of 1492 as a reference point, their performance explores what happens when the human urge to ‘adventure’ takes hold, when the curiosity and excitement of discovery turns to ‘colonization’, and/or occupation of territory; the physical, psychological, and emotional territory of self and other.
Barca: el otro lado is part of an international performance project involving dancers, musicians, and media artists in Canada and Catalonia. The title deliberately uses the city of Barcelona as a vehicle, a barca, for new cross-Atlantic voyages of discovery and understanding, connecting to Vancouver, Canada, at the edge of the Pacific. Going west to find east/going east to find west.
Reservations:
Daisy Thompson, MFA Researcher - Project Barca.
Coming from a working class background in Britain, I have an interest in the embodied experiences of the working, middle and upper class social identity categories, and how this class system of power operates on the body and consequently, how the body performs this system of power. The readings from Project Barca thus far, drawn from Performance Studies and Intersectionality, have been extremely informative in opening up my ‘thinking’ about my own ‘doing’, regarding the many identities, spaces and practices that I embody: white; female; dancer; performance maker; student; teacher and working class, amongst many more.
Witnessing Henry’s studio based research based on the implications of Christopher Columbus’s 1492 journey, and in particular on his incorporation of the dancer’s personal histories in the work, I am encouraged to excavate the archives of my own body. Furthermore, researching Intersectionality theory ‘‘A framework of analysis…which treats social positions as relational, and makes visible the multiple positioning that constitutes everyday life and the power relations that are central to it” Dhamoon, R (2011), has further encouraged me to consider my position in society, how I am perceived by others and consequently, to examine the intersections of identities that I hold.
Recognizing that I may be perceived as holding a position of privilege being white, I was cautious about my own approach to intersectionality [as to whether I could or should be delving in to intersectionality theory, regarding the analyzing of the intersections of my body and identities of female and working class]. For example, I simply cannot ignore the historic roots and reasons why this framework of analysis was invented in the first place, and that the implementation of such an analysis for my own excavation, could (and maybe already has) be seen as another form of white privilege. However, at present, I have come to the conclusion that it is important for me and others like me - white people, to have a more coherent and differently informed understanding of the experiences of others, who hold multiple identities that are discriminated against. All of this research will be part of my final thesis for my MFA studies.
Throughout this summer, as an interim project, and to expand my interest in alternative modes of education, I will embark on practical and theoretical research, towards the creation of a practical workshop, which will aim to facilitate expanded understandings of Intersectionality through dance and performance. This research will be conducted under the umbrella of Project Barca, and supervised by Dr. Rita Kaur Dharmoon (collaborator on Project Barca). I was inspired and encouraged to pursue this research by Dr. Dharmoon after participating in a task that she led during the first workshop and audition process for project Barca. All participants were gathered in a line facing the same direction, in front of a designated space. She asked a series of identity related questions concerning the social context of Vancouver and to how we felt we were being perceived in this context. We were to answer yes by stepping forward, no by stepping backwards and to remain stationary if if we were unsure.
This exercise was extremely enlightening!
Although I considered myself to be open minded and aware of the discrimination that others were receiving day to day, I realized through this exercise that I hadn’t quite thought about my own position in society – that of being white…and highly privileged! To elaborate on this point, it made me realize just how much I take for granted being in this position in society, and how much I do not take into account the experiences of others with perhaps lesser privileges…it is easy for me to forget that the struggle for equality is still very present amongst many members of society.
In ‘Considerations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality’ (2011), Dr. Dharmoon refers to Gordon Jang’s matrix of meaning making (2010), she states:
"The idea of a matrix of meaning-making aims to foreground an expanded Foucauldian understanding of power so as to capture the ways in which processes of differentiation and systems of domination interrelate...
While it may be not be possible to develop a diagram of a matrix of meaning-making on paper or in text form because it entails movement among multiple interactions and across time, dimensions, and levels, figure 8, provides some sense of what this might look like"
(pg 238)
.
Inspired by both the visual representation of Jang, and by Dr. Dharmoon’s interpretation of this, I felt that dance could contribute towards the making of a 3-dimensional model, hence
my proposal to create a process-based practical workshop.
The research towards the creation of this educational model will be practice based (movement orientated), but also draw on aspects of performance studies and intersectionality. I believe that by drawing on notions of ‘performance’ such as: stage performance; performance of power and the performance of identity, interesting connections could be made towards a more embodied understanding of ideas/issues within the theory and practice of intersectionality. Vice versa, I also believe that Intersectionality
can be a useful tool for looking at/examining dance and performance...more on this after the initial period of research.
While documenting the Haikai rehearsal process, I found myself fascinated by the gamelon instruments. Below are a few stills from the footage I captured of them, as well as some stills from the Haikai performance.
Oftentimes in a dance piece one is overwhelmed by music, video, and other effects. However, I found that the Haikai composition was very minimalistic. In addition, the calm colors of Remy's 'map media' complimented (and did not overwhelm) the piece. As such, I found the dancers' movements to have more power. The juxtaposition of quiet and sound gave the piece a sort of meditative quality.
It is interesting to go back and edit the footage from Haikai. Being able to see the dancers in close up reiterates the intensity that they brought to the performance. I am currently editing the video footage from Haikai and the Here Be Dragons Preview, as well as logging all footage from the rehearsal process.
I come from a world of city lights, high-rises, and the pig bellies served on green plates. There were eight flats on each floor and we lived on the 27th of 40 floors in a complex of nine buildings. Within two blocks, there are 3 complexes by the same developers. The sky is a tiny slither of blue inserted between buildings.
It was September 1990.
I come from a mass exodus of the inevitable. They keep dumping more earth into the sea, narrowing the deep and prosperous Victoria Harbour. We had no way to know whether our city of dreams, tourists, and trade will continue to flow or halt like the streets in Beijing.
It was May 1995.
I come from a townhouse in Markham, Ontario. I went to a gifted elementary school but I was not in the gifted program. I was placed there not because of who I am, but simply due to where I lived. I went to an arts high school but I was not in the arts program. I was placed there not because of who I am, but simply due to where I lived.
It was June 2004.
I come from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, a tri city that does not celebrate its industrious third in its name. While some deny living in Kitchener, others embrace its association to labour and suffers. I moved 11 times over the 7 years I lived there.
It was August 2011
I arrived in Vancouver to pursue further education. I live on a hill beside a quaint little yellow house with green siding and a nice garden. “Where are you from?”, new faces ask. There isn’t a quick answer to this question, and no matter what I decide to say, I know that I will always be caught somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between here and home.
It is May 2012.
