Swivel:Hinge:Return

Swivel:Hinge:Return
March 1, 2, & 3, 2018
8PM
CounterPulse, SF

Dear Bay Area AFO fam & community,
​
Over the past four months, I’ve had the honor of working with the Bay Area dance company, Wax Poet(s). The culmination of our work will premiere March 1st at CounterPulse in San Francisco, CA. This process has been one of unpacking and examining the role of the performing body in times of resistance.

“Resistance” has become a trending topic amongst mainstream consciousness since #45’s election. But what does it actually mean to resist - and resist physically through art? One thing became glaringly clear to us through this process - we were/are not here for performative resistance.

The rehearsal process has revealed for some, including me, that our mere existence is a form of resistance.

As a queer, mixed, big bodied dance artist, I still have yet to encounter another dancer with whom I can fully identify with. I have seen fragments of my experience reflected back, but never wholly. Some people get uncomfortable seeing bodies like mine embodied and pleasure-full, because it forces them to confront their their own internalized norms of Eurocentric, white-supremacist, and patriarchal aesthetics. This internalized aesthetic is real and dictates which bodies deserve to be seen, celebrated, and included in the canon of art and performance dance.

This is the first time in my dancing life that I’ve felt all my parts be seen and celebrated. Being the person on the promotional material was a new experience for me and honestly uncomfortable at first. Growing up, being one of the tallest and biggest, I was always put in the back, which supported a narrative I built about not being worthy of visibility. I thought the only way to participate was to blend in. Over time, I moved past this uncomfortability and began a practice of letting myself been seen.

Every time I move my body in my freedom, taking up space in places I am not “supposed” to be, I become more grounded in my own existence. To share my art unapologetically in my body - to fill and expand in every crevice of my intersectional being - is to become real. My existence acknowledged and my power a bit revealed.​

With love,
​Aiano Nakagawa

For ticket information please visit: https://www.counterpulse.org/event/swivelhingereturn/​