Thanks to all those who came to this crucial conversation!
Condensed Takeaways from
Talk.Dance.Cake.
on January 19, 2020
There is a deep hunger for dance-focused gathering space that is rooted outside of patriarchal and white supremacist norms.
There is a potent desire among women/queer/nonbinary/trans dancers to learn more about contact improvisation, and to practice it.
There are namable patterns of harm that occur for women/queer/nonbinary/trans dancers entering traditional jam spaces. These patterns are gender based, predatory, and repeated over and over across geographies, cities, countries.
There is frustration with the expectation that women/queer/nonbinary/trans dancers take on the bracing and defensive listening that we have to do, in order to fend off unwanted touch or attention in jam spaces.
There are women/queer/nonbinary/trans dancers who are seasoned dancers and want to be a bridge to younger dancers in this long term moment of cultural shift in jam space.
Shifting power dynamics in the practice of contact improvisation is a long term game. Change is happening, but it is slow and incremental.
There is a strong call out to cisgendered men to meet among themselves, and create their own change pathways. We ask our feminist allies who live in male bodies to take on this work, and to lead those who are resistant to change.
There is a call for an intersectional analysis of race and gender power dynamics within CI, and for deepening dialogues about the lineage of CI as it relates to these dynamics.
There is a call to look at who is missing in the dance form, and think about who has left, whose voice is silent, who cannot access the space and who no longer wants to dance.
There is appreciation for upsidedown cake, hot tea, cream frosting, gluten free cupcakes, grapes and strawberries as we engage these difficult conversations.
