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See, Think, Wonder | A Small Place Part 1
Connect, Extend, Challenge | Artist Statement
"In dance we learned native movements and social dances from the Caribbean to better understand the culture of the natives before colonization. We utilized one of these dances (The Gwoka) to display what early life was for the natives in our overall creation. The Gwoka is a four part, social dance originated from the Guadeloupe Islands. This dance is preformed in a circle where dancers fluctuate in and out with many different movements. The overall creation we made was a dance. We separated our dance into six parts, the intro, the four different parts of the book, and the outro. The intro was a whole group dance of the Gwoka. We used this dance to show a form of unity among everyone in the room and that we were living happily in a large group. Everyone in the dance wore lappas to signify that we are natives. The group ran through The Gwoka two times. The first time was everyone dancing together and the second time had a gradual exit of people off stage one by one leaving at the end just two dancers (AJ and I) Using the two dancers left we segue into the first part. The four parts are small group dances displaying the different themes of each of the four sections in the book. The first small group dance (part one) is performed by AJ, Alex, and I. In the dance we start off with just AJ and I performing the Gwoka, still wearing lappas. Alex enters stage without a lappas on as for he plays a tourist. AJ and I run through the Gwoka one and a half times through, simultaneously Alex performs similar movements with us. During the first two pars of The Gwoka Alex circles around us admiring the stage and the scenery oblivious to our existence, the last two parts Alex mimics AJ and I's movements attempting to dance with us, once Alex has learned our movements he begins to perform a remix rendition of The Gwoka entitled Bad Gwoka, he does this for the first two parts of the second run through of The Gwoka and at the third part he does a spin movement that knocks down AJ and I. As we fall AJ's lappas falls off and once I hit the floor I take mine off. This is to represent the loss of our culture due to the invasion of non-natives. Alex maintains a high level as AJ and I kneel on the floor. We all do the same arm movement showing that we're all living repetitive lives and we're upsetted by it although Alex then takes the lappas from AJ and I and uses them as beach attire to show that he is able to escape from his repetitive life meanwhile AJ and I go on to work our jobs still upset at the lack of escape we have. This transitions into the second part which goes on into the third and fourth and we are left with the outro which is a whole group dance to present the mess that was left of Antigua after everything that happened. Everybody dances excerpts from their small group pieces all at the same time." |
éPortfolio Submission FormCourse DescriptionA Small Place is an interdisciplinary course inspired by the controversial nonfiction novel, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, about Antigua—the lasting effects of British colonialism, criticism of the tourist industry and corruption of Antiguan government. Throughout this course, Étudians will research and analyze a wide variety of multimedia texts about Antigua, Sheboygan, and Native American history in Wisconsin; focused on the themes of tourist and native, colonialism and gentrification, and the cultural importance of movement.
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