To Dance Another’s Story
Dancers from Barking Legs Theater's Collaborative Roots created a work together with artists from Carolyn Dorfman Dance.
Welcome!
You’re reading the first issue of DanceChatt, a publication dedicated to dance writing centered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here you'll find criticism, essays, interviews, poems, stories, and reviews. Our first issue contains a reflection by Jessi Faircloth on a powerful collaboration in which dancers tell each others’ stories through movement.
Thanks go to Ann Law of Barking Legs Theater, who encouraged me to take dance criticism seriously, to Cody Maxwell, who got me thinking about creating a home for long-form Chattanooga writing, to and to all the humans I’ve had the privilege of dancing with.
To Dance Another’s Story
By Jessi Faircloth
Photos by Tanè Hopper
Dancing Dialogues premiered on May 9 at Barking Legs Theater. Carolyn Dorfman Dance and Barking Legs’ Collaborative Roots shared the stage in their vulnerability of life stories. There commenced a melding of worlds: New York City’s contemporary based movement and Chattanooga, Tennessee’s exploratory improv. Yet with the acknowledgement of their differences, Dancing Dialogues was a space to relish the connection of humanness. In Carolyn Dorfman’s words, this dance collaboration expressed “what it means to persevere for the things we love.” It was a celebration of adversity by engaging the depth of human experience. Ann Law, the director of Barking Legs Theater, invited dancers to “share experiences, have meaningful conversations around issues and current events that are concerning them, and create a dance that reflects their conversation.”
This is a part of A Dance for Hope and the Legacy project that the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company has been building all across the country to bring awareness to antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia, and to build community across intersections.
The intimate theater setting of Barking Legs created little distance between the performers and the audience. Warm stage lighting elicited a calm and safe feeling within audience members. Rhythms of humming, of shrieking, of pounding feet and hands on the stage left vibratory marks in conjunction with forms of bodies twisting and turning. Whenever dancers vocalize, it is like breaking the fourth wall in acting. It softens the distance between movers and audience members to share in the delight of togetherness.
Two uniquely individual artists told each other’s stories aloud while the other dancer expressed their own story through dance. The story of Monica Ellison, a Collaborative Roots dancer, was told through Dominique Dobransky, a Carolyn Dorfman company member, about her experience having a son on the autism spectrum. Dominique described Monica’s son as talented and creative yet aging into a young man into a world that may not understand him. Monica moved with her story being told by another and her movement melted and molded the complex experience filled with ups and downs, joy and despair. Monica then told Dominique’s story about her passion and love for movement in a world and educational system that doesn’t always value artists. Between pairs telling and moving with each other’s stories, dancers filled the stage with movement and words describing their actions such as “I hold,” “I fall,” “I trust.”
Beth Markham Herring told Khalid Dunton’s story about the exhaustion of being a full-time professional dancer. Khalid shared Beth’s story about how people treat her due to her height. Hannah Gross shared Kyle Dagnan’s story about being diagnosed and having ADHD. On stage while Kyle was moving to her words, Hannah said that Kyle experiences “exhaustion from the moment he is awake, to sleeping, and of every thought that comes and goes in his head. Kyle has been fighting this his whole life and only recently did he find out why.” Kyle then described Hannah’s struggles with anxiety in new places. In that moment it was as if they shared a brain and a body, both communicating the same story in different ways.
Jarred Bosch told Novek’s story of being a Black male dancer and the ostracism he experienced while growing up. Novek then shared Jarred’s story of being a quiet kid not because he did not have something to say but because he only knew how to express himself through movement. Novek shared “as a child, Jarred struggled with opening up and communicating with others not because he didn't want to, he just experienced so much at a young age, torment, bullying, loss.” Jarred bounded across the floor and contorted his body to reveal this pain.
Eight worlds collided together in what Dominique called “rushed intimacy” as these movers had only met each other a few hours before the show. The audience had a tactile feeling of this rawness. These dancers trusted each other to express their pain and resilience and to tell their story. However, it was shocking to discover that these artists had only met each other the day of the performance. Their openness with each other in sharing their deepest insecurities or struggles was that of friends that had known each other for years. Dancers not only have a body that moves, they have a story and a voice.
This artistic process invites the question, how do we as humans build empathy? Carolyn Dorfman emphasized that we build empathy by “telling each other’s stories.” In a brief interview after the show, Carolyn Dorfman said that in order to “abolish the other” we must find the “common humanness.” Carolyn is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and has focused her life’s work on building empathy and acceptance through movement and education in a response to hate, discrimination, and prejudice in our society. She noted that the Holocaust was “once thought of as a historical concept but is at our door steps every day in terms of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, the sense of otherness.” Carolyn seeks to “connect the company to build community across intersections to create a world we all want to live in.” Dancing Dialogues reminded Carolyn Dorfman of one of her favorite quotes by Wallace Stegner, “There is a sense in which we are all each other’s consequences.”
Through this intense vulnerability, it was important to understand how the movers felt while having their story told in front of strangers by people they had just met. Kyle Dagnan, a Collaborative Roots dancer, said that this process was a “good experience” and that all of the dancers were “open to trying new things.” Khalid Dunton, a Carolyn Dorfman company member, responded that he was “a little nervous” but that the collaboration “felt natural, comfortable, and safe.” Hannah Gross, a Carolyn Dorfman company member, noted that before performing, a “grounding ritual” was practiced which centered the dancers to connect and trust each other. Novek with Collaborative Roots said that “Dancing Dialogues was truly the most different, diverse project I have ever been a part of.”
A member of the audience shared that this performance “fed her soul.” Dancing Dialogues exemplifies the importance of involving relationships within dance making. The work began with a conversation between eight dancers with different backgrounds, hardships, and joys. The conversation did not stop there. The audience left feeling compelled to share their stories and listen with empathy to people sharing their truth. Through inviting the audience into their story, a community was built. It is evident that creating safe spaces to share artists’ stories is healing for individual artists, spaces, and communities as a whole.
About the Author
Jessi Faircloth is a social worker, dancer, artist, and writer from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She primarily writes poetry and lives for the collaboration between different modalities of art. Her personal and professional work centers around social justice and advocating for people who have Severe and Persistent Mental Illness as well as the queer community.
Join the Chatt
I hope you enjoyed this dance essay. Next week, we’ll hear from choreographer Melissa Moore about her creative process.
Join the conversation! If you’re interested in writing for DanceChatt, send a pitch email to jennelisewebster@gmail.com.
Until then, keep dancing!
— Jenn