10. Personal Development

I am now coming to the end of my choreographic process, as the final few weeks approach I have around 1.5/2 minutes left to finalise in my piece. This is providing a challenge for me as I was the ending of my solo to still be relevant and not rushed. Finding a way for me to finish my solo in which rounds up all the research, thoughts, and ideas which I have portrayed throughout the piece is quite difficult as I don’t want it to be cliché or cringey. To assist me through the final part of my process, I used advice from Kate Flatt’s book ‘Choreography; creating and developing dance for performance’(2019). Questions such as ‘what is the last thing you want the audience to hear, see or sense?” and “how bold or gentle do you want the last image or movement to be?” (Flatt, 2019, p.158)

Another challenge I am facing at the end of this process is giving my piece a title. My initial thoughts were to name it ‘Ain’t I a Woman’, the same as the speech which was used as my stimulus. However, upon further reflection, a cleverly thought-out name would add intrigue and interest from the audience and make my piece more recognisable. Ensuring my title does my piece justice is very important to me as it shows and develops important themes such ad discrimination, injustice, racism and hate crimes. Due to this, the title needs deep consideration to make sure the title is sensitive to the themes and actions.

I have conducted deep research into Sojourner Truth, the creator of ‘Ain’t I a woman’ (1851) which allowed me to identify areas for further research to inform me for my choreography. I chose to research into the context behind the speech, what situations/ reasons took place leading up to the speech. I chose initially to focus on how women were treated in the 1800s which allowed to realise the extent of injustice and limits which women were faced with. This informed the first section of my choreography which represents the history and context behind the speech. I have used gestures such as cleaning, praying, hands tied together/shackled and being trapped to show that women were housewives, confined between four walls, without any freedom of speech. The shackled hands/prayer gesture (shown above) are a direct reference to the slave trade and abolition movement which Sojourner Truth was a part of.

Balkansky, A. (2019)

Balkansky, A. (2019)

Additionally, I researched other Women’s Rights Conventions, finding the Seneca Falls Convention (1848). From this, I was able to find new articles which demonstrated the attitudes towards women’s rights at that time. This informed me that women faced ridicule, hate and their thoughts and feelings were dismissed as being silly or crazy, radical ideas. From this, I was able to create section 2, using words which I extracted from new articles and feelings of frustration, anger, and resilience. Section 2 starts with words of hope and freedom, using movements which travel and are bouncier, a contrast compared to the limitation and isolation of section 1. It also features motifs which gesture to people joining together to become a group, referencing the women’s suffrage movement being created. As this is a solo, trying to portray a group of people was a challenge however I have attempted to overcome this through large, expansive movements and gestures such as hand-holding and beckoning movements, to make this clear to the audience

Black Lives Matter Protest (Leal-Olivas, 2020)

Everard Family via BBC News, 2021

I also researched women’s rights and black rights in the 21^st century. While there have been changes since the 19^thcentury, many things are still a concern to society. Women’s rights are still largely not taken seriously, for example, Sarah Everard’s murder in 2021and The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after multiple murders through police brutality in America. By acknowledging and referencing this in my piece, I aim for the audience to either resonate with these topics or bring awareness to issues and crimes which still happen in our lifetime.

Incorporating research around wider themes from the initial stimulus has given me a further understanding of historical and modern injustices and how they have been dealt with. This has adapted my choreographic process as I feel a duty to demonstrate thoughts, feelings and ill-treatment which has been faced for generations while needing the correct knowledge to my politically and socially correct about the topics. While my choreography is not being performed to a large audience, this is an important factor to consider for the future when creating works.

 

 

Reference list

Balkansky, A. (2019). American Women’s Declaration of Independence: Newspaper coverage, 1848 | Headlines and Heroes. [online] Library of Congress. Available at: https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/07/american-womens-declaration-newspaper-coverage-1848/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2021].‌ 

de la Torre-Pérez, L., Oliver-Parra, A., Torres, X. and Bertran, M.J. (2022). How do we measure gender discrimination? Proposing a construct of gender discrimination through a systematic scoping review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(1).

Flatt, K. (2019). Choreography : creating and developing dance for performance. Ramsbury, Marlborough: The Crowood Press.

Truth, S. (1851). Speech Entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth Delivered at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. [online] Available at: https://thehermitage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sojourner-Truth_Aint-I-a-Woman_1851.pdf [Accessed 19 Oct. 2021].‌ 

Bibliography

Black Lives Matter (2013). About Black Lives Matter. [online] Black Lives Matter. Available at: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2022].

Cohen, C. (2022). As Downing Street partied, Sarah Everard died because of lockdown laws. [online] www.standard.co.uk. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/downing-street-party-lockdown-rules-sarah-everard-b976077.html [Accessed 28 Jan. 2022].‌

Everard family (2021). Sarah Everard. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58746108 [Accessed 31 Jan. 2022].

Halsall, P. (2019). Internet History Sourcebooks. [online] Fordham.edu. Available at: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp.

Leal-Olivas, D. (2020). Black Lives Matter Protests London 2020. WBUR. Available at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/22/mapping-black-lives-matter-protests [Accessed 26 Jan. 2022].

McCoy, H. (2020). Black Lives Matter, and Yes, You are Racist: The Parallelism of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 37(5), pp.463–475.

Shane, C. (2018). Why the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 Is Still Relevant to Women Today. [online] CoveyClub. Available at: https://www.coveyclub.com/blog_posts/seneca-falls-convention-feminism/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2021].‌ 

Today in Focus, (2021). [Podcast] The Guardian. 16 Mar. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/mar/16/how-sarah-everards-killing-has-reignited-the-debate-around-womens-safety [Accessed 28 Jan. 2022].

Unicef (2022). Gender Action Plan, 2022-2025. [online] www.unicef.org. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/gender-equality/gender-action-plan-2022-2025 [Accessed 28 Jan. 2022].