Witnessing hip 2002
By Thea Nerissa Barnes
'What is black dance' arguments of the 80's and continued through the 90's have added to the cauldron of thought but have they really benefited dance makers and assisted the presentation of the dance it supposedly discussed? Questions like ‘where is the audience’ are still asked and yet dance makers who fit the expectations of moneychangers measure up, spin off renditions of their practice and continue with performances and education programs. Those not so endowed proliferate still in varied circumstances in the regions of Britain but only just. Even with years of discussion these practices feel a need to continually define self, to name what it is he or she does and assist, even insist that the context identify and recognise the complexity and integrity of his or her work. Perhaps a person who feels alienated or her selected cultural expressions ignored seeks to proclaim her identity and her aesthetic preferences because there is a real need to increase integrity and substantiate credibility. There is a real need to set an example of consolidated entrepreneurial strategies that coordinate and subvert a divisive and fragmented context. There is a real need to demonstrate expertise in selecting and producing dance and illustrating audience numbers that make moneychangers take notice. There is a real need to illustrate varied aesthetics that populate the world and impact the black and white dance making in Britain. Hip is Brenda Edwards’ response to these needs.
I saw Hip: 1 + 1 Wednesday 27 November and Hip: 12 x 1 on Saturday 30 November. These evenings spotlighted eclectic African, Caribbean and black British dance. When one expects dance of this calibre one has to have a panoramic view both visually as well as aesthetically or you will miss the nuances, miss visual manifestations of varied cultural practice and signification. Sitting in the back to the left of centre so I could have my panoramic view of the stage and a soft light to write my notes, the Robin Howard theatre did have a noticeable electric buzz. The gathering was like a city meeting of dance makers and aficionados gathered in this corner of the African Diaspora to witness, acknowledge, and respect the dance work that all its members do. Choreographers, professional dancers, scholars, managers, students, friends, movers and shakers were present. These Hip performances illustrated a diversity of singular approaches to the composition of dance. I witnessed the telling of experience as only these dance artist could do. What choices are there and the guidance behind decisions to share the result of time spent examining self and the circumstance a person finds her or him self in? Each solo, some choreographed by the dancers themselves, found its source in lived experience that was then visualised through movement. Hip: 1 + 1 and Hip: 12 x 1 presented 15 solos by artists who each in her or his own way encapsulate a phenomenal amount of embodied knowledge. Two from abroad and twelve from Britain presented a synthesis and manipulation of movement nuances learned in the Diaspora. Individualised authentic/traditional, contemporary dance and classical ballet vocabularies offered altered significances. The use of African/South African, Caribbean, and streetdance lexicons of moves and moods illustrated the breath of movement expression used to achieve singular modes of art practice. Hip illustrated how a person takes embodied knowledge and weld it to exemplify and personify her or his life; illustrate how “I” have lived, what “I” have seen and how “I” have dealt with the joy, the teachings, the pain, tolerance, my satisfaction or diss-ing, my fight to be all that “I” am, all that “I” can be.
A conversation with Edwards illustrated what “we” have been through. Edwards’s vision for Hip offers a way forward. The dance revealed diversified autobiographical statements that interpreted inspirational passages or portrayed real-life angst. Offering a way forward, each effort is testimony of how to satisfy needs. Witnessing Tippa, Julie Dossavi, Namron, Francis Angoli, Melanie Teall, Alan Miller, Diane Mitchell, Yvette Campbell, Stuart Arnold, Sheron Wray, Andile Sotiya, Noel Wallace, Jane Sekonya, Benji Reed and Brenda Edwards negotiate self and context, curve, flex, and jump with spoken voice or music reveals time spent chipping, augmenting and refining to make a vision come true.
Thea Nerissa Barnes is a choreographer and writer. She danced with the Martha Graham company and was artistic director of Pheonix.