For those of you who have been reading this blog on a consistent basis, you know much about my latest dance work, "Words Apart," a piece which embodies the stories of women from around my area. You will also remember that one of the stories in particular, I have spent extra time on, as I have also created a documentary film called, "Art for the Living," which is about art, grief and where they intersect.
This weekend, Mackenzie and I have been in Fayetteville performing and giving workshops with a ballet school here. I am disappointed to say that after one performance of the piece, "Words Apart," we have been asked to cut the third section, about Jan, her daughter and their experience of losing their husband/father to cancer. It has been brought to my attention that one of the parents watching the performance was deeply affected by that section, and spoke to the studio owner about it. Apparently, she is experiencing something similar to Jan, and thought it in bad taste to present dance on the topic of death.
Though I sympathize with her and her situation, since when is it up to one audience member to dictate what is seen on stage? Have people forgotten what art is about? Since when is it expected that art elicit only certain kinds of emotions and not others? Part of me is taking the situation quite personally, as the making of this piece was a humbling, arduous experience. I took care with the charge I was given to represent these women with respect, honesty and integrity. And each of the women represented in the piece have given me their personal permission to present their stories, have seen the piece, and all enthusiastically approve of the work that has been done. In Jan's case more specifically, she wanted to share her story as a celebration of her husband's life. Her sharing was therapeutic to her, and her sharing has been helpful to others. By taking her section out of the piece, it is my feeling that her story has been trivialized, as an impersonal exploitation of someone's grief for my own personal satisfaction in creating. Another part of me is wondering what people expect to see when they go to an artistic presentation? If not work that makes one think or feel, then what?
As an artist, I feel that it is of importance to maintain the integrity of one's work. If work is presented in a piece-meal fashion, the audience does not get the full scope of the work being presented and the artist does not get to complete their own emotional/artistic journey with the piece, which makes it difficult to engage fully with the work. When an artist is not fully engaged with the journey/trajectory of a work, the performance can become less powerful, less poignant, less energetic, and many more less-adjectives. I think audiences need to remember that when viewing a work with ten, twenty, one hundred other people in the room, there will be ten, twenty, one hundred reactions to the piece. What might be a difficult experience for one person might be therapeutic for another. What might be in bad taste to one person might be insightful to another. When dealing with art, how one views it has all to do with their perception, environment and life experience.
The only other thing that really set me off in this situation was that it has been explained to me that since we are near a military base, I should be more sensitive to those experiencing impending death. "The people here think differently about death than other audiences." I have to disagree! In the military it is one's CHOICE to be a part of an organization that frequently advocates for unnatural deaths! And since when do we decide it is bad form to present an unavoidable fact of life in our art?
I truly hope in my heart that whatever the woman who I mentioned above (but have not met) is going through is something she can emerge from with peace, understanding and closure, and best-case scenario, a happy ending. However, I still feel that a work of art, if done in earnest, should have the right to be presented by its artist in its entirety,maintaining its integrity.
Thoughts, Please!
~Cara
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This is well and sensitively written, Cara. Had it been me I'd be more blunt. This is censorship of the worst kind. The woman was free to dislike your work, to complain or write negatively about it, but to be given the power to prevent others, who may have interpreted differently or more in the manner you intended it, is simply unfair. In newspapering we have long known that we cannot write stories for the victims, survivors and people who suffer from the effects of news. They are hurt and personally involved. Stories -- and your dance -- are for a wider community. I agree that military families are more aware of the possibility of death and more thoughtful about what it means and that makes them perhaps a better audience for your work.
ReplyDeleteReally, I think this is a terrible thing that you've been ordered to cut your work by a timid arts organization that ought to advocate for free and full artistic expression. I hope the local newspaper is writing about this --talking to all the sides. Have you alerted them?
It seems to me that we live in a culture so afraid of living that we breed unnatural fears of death, the dying process and other forms of letting go -- "press release" as one of my special groups calls it. Culturally, western society is one of few groups still so obsessed with creating a context of death that removes it from the life process and life cycle. Art is about embracing life. Death and Life are Yin and Yang. Not evil. Not to be feared, but both to be lovingly embraced as part of our beautiful and fragile Humanity. That is art.
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