Michael Walling
PANEL 1
10:30 - 12:00 (GMT+1)
The Mouth of the Gods - Indigenous dance in London
BIOGRAPHY
Michael Walling is Artistic Director of Border Crossings (www.bordercrossings.org.uk), for whom productions include: The Great Experiment, Remembrances (with AVA Dance), This Flesh is Mine, Consumed, The Orientations Trilogy. Other directing: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (USA), Macbeth (Mauritius), The Tempest (India), The Ring at the Coliseum and the Barbican (ENO). He won awards for Two Gentlemen of Verona (USA) and Paul & Virginie (Mauritius). Michael has published extensively on theatre and interculturalism, including a series of pieces for New Theatre Quarterly.. Michael is also director of the Origins Festival of First Nations, and Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College.
ABSTRACT
Border Crossings has been presenting Indigenous dance within the framework of the ORIGINS Festival in London since 2009. Our new project, THE MOUTH OF THE GODS, is leading us down new pathways, as we collaborate directly with Indigenous artists from Latin America, most of whom already live in London, to create a performance based on music created in the region during the 18th century, and centring on the opera St Francisco Xavier, which was written by an anonymous Indigenous composer in the Chiquitano language.
Research on original performance practices suggests that performance of this kind was characterised by the continuous use of dance. For our production, Quechua choreographer Jessica Luong is creating new dance inspired by Indigenous traditions and styles. The process has begun through a series of workshops with dancers from London’s Latin American communities, exploring their relationship to dance, culture and Indigenous identities.
The question of decolonisation has been central to the evolving work:
What does it mean to perform Indigenous dance in a city that was itself a colonial centre?
How does the hybrid nature of the Indigenous and baroque music affect the performing body?
Is it possible to be true to Indigenous traditions in the cultural context of this contemporary performance?
In this session, choreographer Jessica Luong and director Michael Walling will share some video footage from these early workshops, and offer thoughts on the context in relation to decolonisation. We are keen to hear feedback from our peers at this stage of the process.