Final Reflection by Diego

Reflections 1/23/11

It’s been 5 months since Lynda, Raquel, and myself traveled to the Yucatan and visited the ancient Mayan sites of Tulum, Cobá, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Palenque and explored the cities and towns of Tulum, Merida and Puerto Progreso, and Villahermosa. My stated purpose for going was to soak in the imagery and grandeur of the Mayan architecture and immerse myself in Mexican culture and have the experience inform the new work I would create for the Winter Dance Concert. Another, more personal, reason for going was to have the chance to connect and explore the Mexican-part of my Mexican-American heritage.
Five months later the obvious questions are: how has the experience manifested itself today? What were the benefits of going with two colleagues whose disciplines and mediums differed from my own? How did viewing the sites with my colleagues alter my own perception? How will the experience manifest in the new work I am just now beginning to create? How did the trip change me?
Starting with the creation of the new dance first, I made a short draft of two of the planned sections and presented it at the Dance in De Mille concert in December. This helped me figure out what might and might not work for the piece as whole. Since the beginning of this new term, I have had a week and half of rehearsals and have completed three out of a planned 5.5 sections (I say 5.5 because I envision the final, “.5” section to be more of a short “epilogue” lasting no longer than a minute).
I rarely know what a new dance is going to be about. I have found that it is best to allow a project to reveal itself to me. When I have entered into a project certain of what it will be about, I am invariably met with frustration because the piece begins to demand ideas and steps that veer from what I had planned. It has always been the case that these new ideas are better than what I had planned and when I have resisted the impulse to follow these new ideas, the piece has suffered for it. So now I trust that the preparation I do prior to the start of rehearsals will inform the work on the sub-conscious level in unexpected ways and present my voice in a more organic and authentic manner.
What this work is revealing to me is that at its core is an exploration of the notion of “hybridity”. Two of the songs used in the score are by the Mexican- American band, Los Lobos, whose music contains a variety of elements from the Mexican and American origins of the band members. Contemporary composer Eric Schwartz, a Jewish-American from New York, has composed the other parts of the score in collaboration with musician and improvisor John Wilson. The choreography comes from me, a Chicano, a Mexican-American hybrid. I am creating a vocabulary that is synthesizing images gathered from my trip and transposing this vocabulary onto my students who are of diverse backgrounds, mostly White and African-American. Further, these images were gathered and viewed alongside colleagues who were very different from myself. The way I viewed the archeological sites was inherently different from the way I would have viewed them if I were by myself. Can I describe the differences? No. I only know that my experience was affected and altered because of their presence.
The trip has had a lasting effect on me, and yet, I am unable to describe the effect. The new dance is not about the Maya. It is not a recreation of the fantastic images and mythos of the Maya. Does it contain references to what I saw? Yes. There is the idea of a lost voice from the past. There are references to the Temple of a Thousand Warriors at Chichen Itza. There are steps created out of student improvisations on the rules of the Meso-American ball game. There are references to the crazy traffic of Merida and Villahermosa. Yes, there are specific inspirations for the dance, some of which just came out of my subconscious and didn’t reveal themselves until I stepped back to look at what I’ve created thus far.
So the work is proceeding and one of the reasons for the trip, inspiring a new work, has been fulfilled. The other reason, exploring the Mexican side of my heritage also has been fulfilled. My interest in that part of my heritage has been renewed, I have continued my studies of Spanish, and the fact has been asserted that despite my tenuous connection to the culture there, I am not a part of it.
My last word is this. The Yucatan is a magical place and my short immersion has had a lasting imprint on me that will continue to inform my life and made me want to immerse myself again. I will go back sooner than later. Diego