Bridging the Poetic and the Practical
the process of translating, transitioning and transmitting
My friends Katherine Semchuk, Rakeem Hardy, and I have been in dialogue over this last year asking questions about collective practice and community in between our projects and travels. Though all 3 of us have been #booked #blessed #busy, we’re still operating on tight margins and thus, questioning the sustainability of our trajectories. #artistlife — so they say. But does it have to be this way? With similarities in migration patterns, points of landings, and our actual dancing, two questions that have reappeared in our conversations: “what do we desire?” and “where to begin?”
The title of this letter was a phrase shared on Oct 24th, our first studio practice together as a collective, if I may. We gathered for the evolution of our verbal conversations into the language of dance and bodies (FINALLY!!!)
We invited David Norsworthy to join us in the space and our practice was something along the lines of: naming what we might already be doing, the things that seem to be resonating, and what we are craving. “What do we desire?” and “where to begin?” Let these 2 questions take the lead. David is particularly gifted and practiced in listening, synthesizing, translating and articulating: “bridging the practical and the poetic.” This is where he finds things most interesting.
For David, the poetic included our emotions, feelings, thoughts, spirit. The practical could be logistics, pragmatics, and in my translation, the quantifiable. David brought us his seeded idea of “self-generating scores.”
2 simple directives:
1. “everything you see, you do”
2. with precision and specificity.
Face to face, side by side, we mirrored each other. Or so we tried…
The poetic: “audiencing each other,” feeling of embodying someone else, “when life is emerging,” laughter and tears.
The practical: 4 walls, 2 eyes on each head. 4 people, left eyebrow 1mm higher than the right, tear drop resting on the corner where the upper lip meets the right cheek.
Yes. I’ve been circling around something of this sorts for awhile. I haven’t figured out how to isolate my left eyebrow upwards, and my facial commentary about this has shifted me to new places.
Here are some moments of bridging the practical and poetic for me over the last two months:
Jean Lumb Foundation Award’s Ceremony - Toronto:
This October, I had the immense honour of emceeing at this year’s 27th annual Jean Lumb Awards. I was the recipient of the Chung-Kotcheff Arts Award back in Grade 12.
Very practically, this foundation bridges the financial needs of students to their dreams. Poetically, this is done through community and gathering. As a Chinese woman, I walk (dance) in the path her and her family have trail blazed for me and many others in this city. It is of great honour to be woven into this threading, and absolutely wild to have had Omni News covering the event. My grandparents had this channel on all the time the few months they visited. I’m chuckling that my outfit 8 years later is… strikingly familiar. I think it’s less so “some things don’t change,” and more so coming home to a simple place.
“Myokine” Restaging - Quebec City:
October into November, I spent 2 weeks setting an excerpt of “Myokine” on the first year students at L’Ecole de Danse de Quebec. I studied my colleagues closely on various pieces of footage and marvelled at their choices. Through looking for their -isms in my own body and discerning what language(s) to use transmit the information to the students, the next generation, I experienced again, the intimacy of sharing experience through movement. Seeded in me was this quote from a recent feature of Mel Robbin on Time Magazine:
“My role… is really translating, clarifying, distilling, making it entertaining, making somebody that is steeped in their research relatable and human, so that somebody listening to them doesn’t feel less than or dumb.” - Mel Robbins
Each restaging processes asks what is bound within time and what is timeless. What is being transmitted from the past to now, from one group to the next? What is important to carry forward to the future?
Let’s clap it. Does this make sense? Sing the rhythm. Do you hear the skip… ? right - there! Try leading with the pinky toe, Stand in a different place. Shall we try switching roles? Water break // Find a new partner. 3 more times ~ Would the video be helpful? Let’s try it, together. Time for a run. W O W.
The role of restager asked me what the first principles of the piece were—are, and what bridges were necessary to name and demonstrate. The opportunity to share revealed what I didn’t realize I knew, and also what I did not know. This is its own kind of clarity.
/ reach with the right / turn your head and use your eyes to see what’s happening /
It showed me which “simple” things were actually more nuanced, and when certain “complex” things, could be made quite simple. Observing, naming, sorting and ordering, organizing, multiple processes were happening! Lived experience and preparation proved to be helpful. The beginning started much before.
Cinars Biennale 2024 - Montreal:
This was a full week of dance showcases with esteemed companies and presenters from all over the world, and I did not perform in a single one of them. I travelled to Montreal after Quebec City to take time to immerse myself as a viewer and spectator. Without the pressure and focus that accompanies full immersive participation as performer, I found myself enjoying my experience of witnessing much more. The highlight of this trip was the convergence of my communities: Toronto, London, and the SURPRISE of Vancouver, all in Montreal. Hello, I’ve heard so much about you.
2 of my dearest friends, Katherine Semchuk and Liam Francis (please take a look at Liam’s glorious new website), met for the first time in person here in Montreal. This semi-planned encounter happened at a shared showing of Citadel & Compagnie and Nova Dance1, 2 communities I engage with in Toronto. Shared stories and video calls are great privileges of 21st century living. Simultaneously, they are also illusions of some sorts and cannot meet the magnitude of in person meeting. Hello, IT’S REALLY YOU!
Liam and I sharing with Katherine the arm phrase we generated with Jill Johnson in LA. Katherine capturing part of this process:
There is something I deeply love woven into all of this. Also a sense of being deeply loved. Where I’m looking for clarity is… exactly what that is. David’s improvised score comes to mind again: more specificity, and maybe zoom out to see what else is happening. The pursuit of his task reveals a myth of perfection and layers of perception. The work is sometimes deceptively simple. Do what exactly as you see, and with precision. I’m seeing and I know I am not fully mirroring… Yet, this is the essence of the score. The impossible task of doing it perfectly, the fuel that keeps it going. Even with my fixations, it is simple. It asks me to see. So I see. And with precision, to the best of my ability. And thus, the work is done. This is it. Bridging the poetic and the practical.
The intro to the Lord’s prayer continues to surface in my mind these days:
“Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.”
This last part. On earth, as it is in heaven. It prompts a bridging between the two.
As I continue this practice of reflection, connection and circulation, I am in awe of the abundance in transmissions that happen. Plenty of moments of communion where I think, surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. What’s become increasingly apparent is a knowing of needing a deeper kind of resting. This too is a will of the Creator’s, yet what drives this fear of settling? I’m unsure of what this means so maybe, this is the next direction of bridging: a form of small(er) moving.
To shorten my current 4 hour/day commute from Richmond Hill to Toronto I’ve been doing the last 3 years when I’m in town, I’m relieved to be subletting downtown for the next 3 months. Despite the cost of living in this city, various people in my arts community have made this possible through reciprocal exchange. Bridges provide a way. Bridges can bring relief. And bridging is a gradual act that happens in the now, in the present.
In these darker winter days, I think about travelling sound and light. Waves crossing at all times, regardless of whether I can can see or tune into their happenings. I think of rainbows, rainbows as bridges, the promise of a rainbow, rainbows where interruption as refraction shows the beauty and layered magnificence of all that’s happening, and the ends of rainbows where there are hands that hold the supposed pots of gold. The present is presence. I’m ready for a refresh this Advent season.
Below are my December happenings. If you are around for any of these, I would love to see you. For those reading this from further away, until our next meeting, may the stars show new pictures in tonight’s moonless sky, and the sound of breath reach you in this winter seasons of dark nights.
Performance: COEXISTDANCE #107: Dec 7th - 8pm at CCDT!
An evening of improvisation. 4 musicians, 4 dancers.
1 musician paired with 1 dancer, for 8 sets total.
Click on the hyperlink above for my performer profile! There’s a fun shadow dance improvisation in there that I had fun filming.
Classes: Int/Adv Contemporary and Improvisation Classes
I’ll be subbing for Natasha Poon Woo at The Fifth Dance on these dates below:
Dec 11th: 10:30-12pm // Dec 13th: 12:30-2pm // Dec 18th: 10:30-12pm
Use code: DROPINPRO for discounted rate :)
Workshop: Hand to Hand
More info on workshop specifics and sign up link here!
This publication is supported by readers and Nova Dance! I was on tour with the company in October and did a write up you can check out here: Svāhā! On the Land - Travel Journal: Tour to St. John’s, NL