transition|Tim Francis feedback

Attending this conference, I had little idea about Dance Heritage, yet I wanted to go, if only for the experience; I went with one question on my mind, as a young dancer what heritage am I inheriting?

The conference was a lot smaller than I actually thought, with about forty to fifty people in attendance, yet this proved to be a positive aspect, creating a fairly intimate feeling, and leading to a real openness in everyone I spoke to across the two days. All the talks were clear and well explained, displaying each speaker and their points of view with the integrity it deserved. There were many highlights throughout the two days, and I’m sure everyone who attended benefited greatly from the experience; these included a sensational display of disabled dance, and a spontaneous two-step demonstration by Olu Taiwo displaying the heritage behind a simple step, and how it has been passed through different cultures.

Day One

The sessions opened up on Friday, looking into dance heritage, alive or dead? by Naseem Khan. Interesting I thought, as to me I had always thought heritage to be a part of the past, rather than something that affected the way we live our lives in the present. Nassem challenged my view on this, and I began to see that heritage wasn’t so much generational, as unique to each generation. Naseem went on to explain that heritage was something we each carry in our memories, illustrating how one place can have many heritages, depending on the individual’s memory of the place, thus it becomes a place of shared heritage.

Whilst an introduction, it set up one of the key questions that was posed through the weekend, where do go from here? The weekend to me seemed to be a pit stop for many, giving us a chance to slow down and think a little. While dance is progressing continuously, in keeping with today’s contemporary society, it was recognised by many that although the future looks promising, the past is definitely worth remembering, if not honouring, after all is it not what has got us to where we are currently at? A concern that arose through this debate was when is modernising betrayal? As a contemporary dancer, this was not too important for me, yet for a dancer whose heritage is steeped in traditional dance forms, for example Kathak, I could see this was a valid point, although not something I truly grasped for myself. I could however understand that to progress, we need to be grounded, understanding what is ahead and behind us, and taking a post-modern viewpoint, embrace and utilise both culture and contemporary society.

One of the stand out moments of the conference was watching a variety of dances. Whilst traditional dances appealed to me, a display of disabled dancing held me captivated for the duration of the performance, it opened my eyes, making me see how a person who was wheelchair bound, could still dance in their own way, and it could be something both beautiful and shocking. I feel some of the ideas from this piece will influence the way I create work in future. One of the important parts of the conference for me was talking to various artists and seeing how their heritage had influenced them. I saw that whilst I couldn’t change the heritage I had inherited, both generationaly, and individually, I could affect the future in such a way to create a more positive future, both for myself, and for my generation.

Judy Ling Wong’s seminar provided a different view of Heritage, and talked about how we can constructively shape a positive future, thus creating a positive Heritage. This I felt was important and necessary. An important quote that hit home for me was
“Who we are and what we can achieve depends on how we see ourselves against the enormous pressure of how others see us”
This I would like to add to, it also depends on the people that are around us, either helping us to reach our dreams and goals, or trying to pull us further away.

The day ended with a group Chinese banquet instead of the planned Indian, I take my hat off to the person responsible for this impromptu rescue, well done! The meal was fantastic and provided a further chance to converse with different people and relax for the evening, before a trip to see the British premier of Bahok, by The Akram Khan Company, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and are memories I shall treasure.

Day two

Day two opened with a ‘Wake up call’ by Olu, involving African rhythm and movement, this was followed briefly by a prayer and greeting from Bisakha, if you weren’t awake, relaxed, and ready for the day ahead afterward, you would simply never be ready!

The second day offered more opportunity for people to discuss the topics of the conference, through various open debates, and despite constant effort from the technicians, the day was dominated by constant minor technical glitches, slightly annoying, but comical nevertheless. I forget at which point in the discussions this was mentioned, Judy Ling Wong contributed an important detail about the culture of art in China that I thought was important about Heritage, We all contribute to it. Art in China is integrated, not exclusive. A painting is often not done solely by one person, but contributed to by many, making the painting ‘perfect’ in the eyes of many, rather than according solely to one persons point of view. This I would like to suggest is like our heritage we didn’t create our heritage individually, yet it was created by us as a people, and as individuals those around us impacted us most often for the better. This is our heritage, living in us.

Ranjit Sondhi contributed a seminar to the day that was both informal and informative, talking about how Heritage is passed down through the generations, he expanded on the theme of identity, using the illustration of (I think) an Asian schoolgirl in a Multicultural school, showing how subconsciously we go through different levels of our personality, often without consciously recognising this.

One of the most interesting talks of the day came from dance journalist, Donald Hutera. Hearing his opinion on the heritage of others who have impacted him, and whose work he has reviewed was very interesting, and the video of the Cloud gate provided interest, and stimulated my curiosity to find out more about them. His talk acted as an insight into the life of a varied and interesting person; it is inspiring to see how far he has gone with what he started with.

If there was one part of the conference I did not understand, it was the talk on Gene Heritage, I just couldn’t place how this fitted with the other seminars, it seemed slightly out of context, and I felt I lacked the appropriate scientific background to grasp what he was trying to say, but this may have just been me.

Following lunch, we went straight into a youth dance performance that was fun too watch, and you could see the joy in the children, who performed beautifully. It was inspiring to a dance created in a short space of time for children that showcased a celebration of dance, that is carried throughout a dancers life, truly a joy to watch.

Afterwards, we went back to the conference room for a thoughtful summing up, and final discussion. This was again led by François Matarasso, and was very similar to the one the day before, a humble insight and collection of thoughts from someone with a wealth of experience and intellect.

The day ended with an enjoyable English folk dance session with Joy and Eric, again there was a fantastic sense of togetherness, and it brought a warm end to a fantastic conference, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone I had the pleasure of talking to, my congratulations are extended to Bisakha and the team at Chaturangan, thanks again for a fantastic opportunity to meet so many interesting people!

Tim Francis, student of dance, Edghill College