Assessment 2: Major Project
Through the Looking-Glass (2015)
When I first started planning for this assessment, I knew that I wanted to do a dance and that I wanted to continue along the path of identity. So, I started to look at choreographed performances that explore notion of the search of identity and also rebellion through dance. My initial idea for this assessment, was to do a dance that challenged and rebelled against the overall power and control that we face everyday, whilst search for our identity that gets consumed by this power. However, I thought that this idea was a little too broad and mundane. So, while I was mindlessly scrolling through tumblr, as usual, I came across a lot of posts regarding anxiety and depression. As I have battled against depression and is still a fighter against anxiety, I thought that this would be a good topic to base my dance off of.
There are a lot of different awareness campaigns and works that attempt to capture anxiety and depression. However, some of them just don’t succeed and some of them are so powerful and effective that they can thoroughly get the message across to the public. After looking at a numerous number of anxiety posters and statements where people are arguing the fact that it’s not “just in our heads” and that we “need to just get over it”, I decided to look at the notion of searching for ones identity whilst being consumed by anxiety. This concept still relates to the rebellion concept as is uses a contemporary form of art to portray to the public what it’s like to have anxiety at it’s fullest capacity and how difficult it is to fight it. I do not aim for this work to be preachy or an awareness campaign exactly, but I just want the work to be noticed as a contemporary work, which give people the space for contemplation on judgement against people with mental disorders.
I first came up with the idea to do a dance when I was look at one of my favourite dance crews, the Jabbawockeez. The Jabbawockeez are a dance crew, who themselves revolutionised the world of dance with their expressionless white masks, gloves and incredible dance moves. They use the mask and glove motif in honour and tribute to the 1970’s San Francisco strutting crew, Medea Sirkas. They adopted this motif because when dancing, it takes the focus away from the person and puts the attention back on the music and movement. The Jabbawockeez originated their crew name from a nonsense poem that was written by Lewis Carroll called “Jabberwocky”. The Jabbawockeez, use of masks and covering their whole body inspired me for my work, as I have referenced this in my piece, excluding the gloves. I have referenced this because, like the Jabbawockeez, I aim to take the focus away from the person and instead concentrate on the music and lyrics. In my performance, I am wearing all white, as the body is still pure, and my mask is black because anxiety is a mental illness that corrupts the mind, however still has physical effects on the body. The poem Jabberwocky is from Lewis Carroll’s novel Through the Looking-Glass, which is what inspired me for the name of this piece.
Whilst, I was choreographing my dance, I was inspired to do more research into the perspectives of other people regarding the notion of anxiety. I came across two artists in particular who I found quite striking: Katie Crawford and Adrian Scheigl. They have both managed to very effectively capture what it is like to have anxiety through photography. One thing that I found quite interesting and captivating in both works, it that there was alway another presence, shadow or dark figure in at least one image and majority of the time, it was themselves. I decided to contextualise this in my work and have myself as a puppeteer in black and white, controlling myself, just as anxiety controls us.
One last work that really helped me with my work was a piece by Harry Shum Jr. called If you are in a shell… This work was an awareness piece about shyness, which Shum performed regarding his own personal experience. In this performance, he challenges the ordinary by performing hip hop moves to a contemporary song and voice over. Apart from the fact that I am a hip hop dancer, this is what inspired me to dance to contemporary music. I chose Hayen Calnin’s Summer because of the lyrics: “Don’t you worry now, it’s all about to change.”
In conclusion, my work concerns the issue of being consumed, fighting and overcoming the constraints of anxiety.
Holmes, L. (2015, May 14). These Photos Nail What It Feels Like To Have An Anxiety Disorder. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
If you are in a shell... (2013, December 26). Retrieved September 13, 2015.
JABBAWOCKEEZ. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2015.
Jabbawockeez. (2015, September 5). Retrieved September 13, 2015.
Jabberwocky. (2015, July 13). Retrieved September 13, 2015.
