New York Performing Arts Library
Reflecting on Martha Graham's American document, I began to analyze both the intentions of this work and the outcomes. There is always risk in creating political art because it will be subjected to further scrutiny. Still, as a brown person of indigenous descent, my art will always be witnessed as political. I cannot make art outside of my body, which was born into colonized lands from systematically abused families. I do not possess the luxury of abstraction. This is a luxury Martha had but chose to reject, thus creating revolutionary work for the time and, at the same time,without intending to her work, was used in many ways to justify American Imperialism. My inspirations for this solo come as rejection that my art will be a commodity for political agendas; it is radical because it highlights the indigenous Nahuatl movement while embracing all of my bodily histories. What training in modern dance has done to my body, and what have Eurocentric techniques done to what we view as worthy? I open the door to new ways of thinking, and in the process, I am both honoring my displaced ancestors and creating new paths. To speak my own movement language is to remove myself from the dichotomy that you can only become the oppressor or the oppressed. Every time we dance this way, we can free the body from the daily limitations inflicted upon us and creatively look towards a future where all bodies are ungovernable. I was invited on by Michael Byrne during his beautifully presented research "Unboxing Graham: Movement and Monumentality", at the January 2024 NYPAL Dance Symposium Focusing on Martha Graham.
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