December 20, 2007

Excerpt from 'Fresh Water'

I played the full 9 minute track for fellow Republic resident Attillah Springer, and got a "Big Chune!" response (a sign of MAJOR appreciation).  Here is a 90 second excerpt of the sound for 'Fresh Water'. It includes "My Fadda Seh" by Gyptian, "Jah No Dead" by Burning Spear (who actually sang the original version of "My Fadda Seh") and "Trinidad Bird" by Takagi Masakatsu,  You'll have to make the 2008 premiere or upcoming May preview at BRIC to see how recording artists like Nina Simone, Mighty Dougla, and Errol Dunkley fit into the work!

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December 12, 2007

For the Hard Days

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December 5, 2007

Continuity and Callaloo

The most difficult thing to negotiate in the creation of 'Fresh Water' is its breadth and scope. 

But it is the depth of breadth and scope that is fundamental to the spirit of Fresh Water; for the work to be imbued with movement that is as mysterious, physically vital and conceptually sensual, as unique to Trinidad & Tobago as callaloo. I have opened myself (and the work) to the infinite individual, creative and artistic possibilities of this continuum - evolving in the rootedness of Africa, current of India, legacy of the Carib and Arawak, and influence of South America, North America, and Europe. It has been 20 years since I've lived in Trinidad (and my first return since my father's passing), so 'Fresh Water' is also deeply steeped in personal memories. It is a dance between Memory and Reality. About family, legacy and continuity; tradition and heritage; about the fragility of life and....the fragility of culture.

how the work has developed so far

I first began thinking about 'Fresh Water' at the end of 2004 and showed an excerpt at Chicago's Links Hall shortly after. It was a simple, light-spirited 5-minute solo that included Caribbean children's songs like "Brown Girl in The Ring" and "Sandy Girl". I'd also used "Shango" (from Alan Lomax's Caribbean Voyage sampler collection), music by Laventille Riddim Section and a mix of popular songs.

At this point, 'Fresh Water' was mostly inspired by my childhood memories. This version of the work later became the school version performed as part of the Company's arts education program.  (During a 2006 arts ed program in Western NY, I was glad to meet a few teachers who had been using "Brown Girl in the Ring" in their classrooms but hadn't known where it came from. There was an immediate connection to the work for their young students.)  Nonetheless, I had to put 'Fresh Water' to rest for a while in order to choreograph another work, but knew the feedback would be helpful in developing the work later on. 

Fifteen months later, I was able to again focus on 'Fresh Water'. By this time, I had moved to Curepe - the Eastern Trinidad village I grew up in. Now, my Trinidad experience was a juxtaposition of memory and reality; of then and now. Of the strong presence of my father in my memory combined with the reality that he is no longer living on earth. And the experience of being with people who, after many years of separation don't really know me, but could recount hours and hours of stories about my family history. (Never mind the intermittent twisted story where someone tried to "stew the peas a different color" or rewrite history.)  And, of the sweet memory of being a little girl in Trinidad and the fact that I am now a "big woman" with real responsibilities and a sometimes bitter real world awareness.

In July 2006, during a short visit to New York, I received a call from Trinidadian multimedia artist, Elspeth Duncan saying that she'd had a dream that she took as an affirmation to collaborate on the work. In October 2006, I performed a 14-minute version of Fresh Water as part of GALVANIZE - a series of arts programmes aimed at offering a collaborative, investigative platform for the development of contemporary Caribbean art. Headed by artist Mario Lewis and supported by Caribbean Contemporary Arts, the Galvanize platform presented new work by visual, performing, and literary artists, and provoked critical discussion of art practice and reception in the contemporary Caribbean.

"Fresh Water" was still a solo work, but this time Elspeth's video was integrated into it. And now, the sounds became oceanic. The waves of Las Cuevas (captured 6 months earlier as I lay on the beach for my birthday) opened the work, to be followed by journal entries, folk stories, and a poem. Three drummers from San Fernando's Nantambu Drummers (who played for Miriam Makeba at Emancipation Day celebrations 2 months earlier) beat out Bob Marley's Rastaman Chant. At one point, I laid flat out on the floor for three minutes. I would not, could not, did not move.  One of the drummers, Fela (my uncle and who along with my father was among the first Nantambu Durmmers), began to sob. In between, sang Jimmy Ciff and Ella Andall - whose singing finally brought water to my eyes. Like mas, it was cathartic. And like mas, I'm only to perform it once.
 


this is what I'm working on now

'Fresh Water' is constantly renewing, reincarnating, refreshing. I continue to create solo versions of this work and will also explore a group version in the next few months. On 31 May 2008, 'Fresh Water' will be part of Choreographic Sketches: Series II Informal Showing, at Brooklyn Information & Culture (BRIC) Studio in Fort Greene. The work will then have its New York premiere during the Roots & Wings Movement! Fifth Anniversary in October 2008. Meanwhile, continue to join me as I create this important new work...

JoAnna Norris is the curator of Choreographic Sketches. She can be contacted at joanna.h.norris@gmail.com.  BRIC Studio is located at 647 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, NY. Tel: 718 855-7882  Email bricstudio@briconline.org.

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