2023 Dance For Diversity Program Information
MESSAGE FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of Dance For Diversity,
It is an honor to welcome you to the inaugural season of the 2023 Dance For Diversity Film Series! This year marks a significant moment in the Milwaukee and Fox Valley Dance Communities, and I am truly grateful to be sharing this special project with you.
As the award-winning short dance film, Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter, is the inspiration for Dance For Diversity, I am creating a permanent space for underrepresented Artists to not only share their personal stories of identity, but to also connect with other Artists who share similar stories and life experiences on a deeper cellular level. For BIPOC Artists, there is this sense of urgency to fight for ourselves to be seen and prove that we are enough. My vision is to create a permanent platform for Dancers of Color to exist in the fullness of their true identities through their embodied stories on screen while being seen for who they are and no longer feeling the need to hide. This project shines a light and gives voice to the Choreographers of Color to let their identities and stories come to the forefront so they have agency to bring their full humanity to the table.
To belong is to be visible and being who we are is enough.
I would like to thank my collaborative partners, Danceworks, Inc., WoLF Studios, MARN ART + CULTURE HUB, and Nō Studios. I am forever grateful for your contributions to my embodied vision of this project, and DFD would not be the profound project that it has become today without your guidance and support. I also extend my sincere gratitude to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the United Performing Arts Fund, and our 2023 season sponsors for their valuable investment to further support this project. Thank you to Margaret Sunghe Paek and Mauriah Donegan Kraker, Visiting Assistant Professors of Dance in the Dance and Theatre Departments at Lawrence University, for your partnership and support of DFD.
To the DFD Artists, Cuauhtli Ramírez Castro, Yukina Sato, Mansee Singhi, DeMar Walker, Tate Bunker, Samer Ghani, Amanda Hoover, and Rachel Malehorn, I deeply thank you for sharing your powerful story of identity, your inspiring artistry and creative vision, and your unapologetic, beautiful selves in this project. There are not enough words on this page for me to express how appreciative I am that you have trusted me to be a part of your journey. You have made such an impact on my life and on the lives of others who know you and your story. I am eternally grateful for our community and the special bonds that we have formed to create our own sense of belonging with one another.
Lastly, I would like to dedicate Dance For Diversity to my daughter, Alina Jee, who is and will always be a part of me and my adoption story. We share an unbreakable bond, one that is uniquely ours, as Korean Americans.
Sincerely,
Elisabeth Roskopf | Lee Jee Yeong
Founder and Creative Director of Dance For Diversity
(Photo by Josh Finck)
Boondh
Music: Voiceover: Mansee Singhi, Coke Studio (Kinare)
Choreography and Performance: Mansee Singhi
Direction, Cinematography, and Editing: Amanda Hoover
Mansee’s Solo Film Statement:
“We live in an era and environment where diversity and inclusion are key ingredients to society’s success. Boondh showcases an individual’s feelings and emotions through the journey of identification, adaptation and acceptance. A depiction of life that showcases that when human life emerges it represents a river meeting the ocean. There is that fear and discomfort of how we will fit in or adapt in this big world of diversity. There are questions of whether the world will accept us. Through self-belief, reflection and openness, we work hard to accept and people around us also work hard to welcome. This work brings an absolute freshness in movements and Indian dance aesthetics. It is an attempt to fuse my strength of Indian classical with Contemporary tracing its roots to the traditional style. Boondh is not only my journey but also a process of identification, adaptation and acceptance in this diverse world filled with many narratives.”
(Photo by Christal Wagner)
Té de Pasiflora
Music: “Paricutín” by Mercedes Nasta
Direction, Choreography, and Performance: Cuauhtli Ramírez Castro
Cinematography and Editing: Tate Bunker
Cuauhtli’s Solo Film Statement of Té de Pasiflora
“My work was inspired by the deity Xochipilli from Aztec mythology. The “little flower prince” was the god of beauty, love, art, dance, song, flowers, sacred plants, as well as gay men and male sex workers. In the process for this solo I explored the intersections of my journey as a queer person and as an immigrant. The distance that once felt like freedom to exist in new ways, is the same that feeds the urge to reconnect with home. Xochipilli simply felt like the perfect concept that allowed me to bridge these ideas, by harmonizing my past within my present.”
(Photo by Ellen Suhr)
(Re)prize
Music: “Haiti” by Cheap Limousine
Choreography and Performance: DeMar Walker
Direction, Cinematography, and Editing: Samer Ghani
Production Assistant: Breanna Taylor
DeMar’s Solo Film Statement:
“This work is inspired by my childhood and early teen years when I used to get really excited about listening to music and emulate the dance videos on BET and MTV. It is a ritual that has sustained me throughout my adult life. Using the city of Milwaukee as my inspiration, I place myself at the Washington Park Bandshell to examine what it means to “make home” through the art of dance and performance. My reclamation of that space as a Black Milwaukeean/Midwesterner speaks to constant feelings of belonging, validation, and the willingness to be seen. I believe this demands a lot of repetition, rhythm, and improvisation which are dominant themes of Black social dance and music forms. It is through this embodied practice that I deepen my understanding of physical, spiritual, and socio-political life.”
(Photo by Christal Wagner)
藍 AI (Indigo)
Music: Michael Wall
Direction, Choreography, and Performance: Yukina Sato
Cinematography and Editing: Rachel Malehorn
Lighting: Colin Gawronski
Yukina’s Solo Film Statement:
“My solo emerged from the concept of “Fish out of the water,” a metaphor for the state of someone living outside of their own mother’s culture. As I grew up 20 years in Japan and moved to the U.S. in 2016, I have been on a journey to understand the unconscious habits and way of knowing through the body. In this film, we explored, embodied, and visualized the process of adapting, changing, learning, and transforming myself into a living experience in a different country that is far away from my mother country.”
For More Information on Each of the 2023 Dance for Diversity Awardees, click below…
Elisabeth Roskopf 이지영 