On Faith and Dance, by Aynsley Vandenbroucke

Overwhelmed by possibility, I begin this personal writing task with an impersonal (and overused) technique, the New World Dictionary definition:

Faith (n)
1. Unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence
2. Unquestioning belief in God, religious tenets etc
3. A religion or a system of religious beliefs
4. Anything believed
5. Complete trust, confidence, or reliance
6. Allegiance to some person or thing; loyalty

I will look at the relationship between New World's definition and my own experience as a practicing (sometimes more fully than others) Zen Buddhist and choreographer. These are beginning thoughts, full of contradiction and sure to change.

1. "Unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence"
I grew up in an agnostic/atheist household. We were encouraged to ask questions of everything. The dinner table was full of warm debate. Looking for science and proof, my eventually-to-become-physicist brother did gravity experiments (don't ask) on my cat.

I responded immediately to Zen Buddhism because the teachers encouraged, in fact required, me to ask questions of myself and of them. They emphasized Zen as a practice that needs to be experienced for oneself, not read about or believed. Through Zen and choreographic practice, I question and explore life's mysteries. I find deeper ways to engage with the world.

Zen teachers talk about three important aspects of practice: "Great Faith, Great Doubt, and Great Determination." I continue to learn what these are but the acknowledged/seeming contradiction helps me trust the practice. It's like a checks-and-balances system: faith balanced by a healthy dose of cynicism and human effort.

My choreographic practice thrives with these aspects. I leap into a new project, performance, rehearsal room with faith that something can come of nothing. I doubt that it will work, that a particular section is right, that all of the elements will come together. This inspires me to work harder. Like a character in a Beckett play, I go on despite the doubt. With determination (or pig-headedness) I continue to rehearse and to dig deeper into mystery after mystery.

2. "Unquestioning belief in God, religious tenets, etc"
See response to #1

3. "A religion or a system of religious beliefs"
Zen Buddhism is a practice, but it is also a religion. I think of religion as a structure within which people come together to look at the biggest and most mysterious aspects of life: birth, sickness, pain, joy, death.

Religious structure includes ritual; in Zen these rituals include bowing, chanting, even particular, and choreographed, ways of eating. I love ritual. My first bow at a Zen monastery felt like the easing of a deep body-ache. I had been instinctively, unknowingly making dances with bowing movements, so I was delighted to find them within a formal religious practice. It was profoundly satisfying to bow among seventy other people, in unison.

While others scoff at the perceived lack of control (and perhaps necessity of faith) involved with ritual, I revel in it. It is dance. Daily dance class, yoga, mediation, bowing. Performance. These are rituals that invite us into our bodies, into communal spaces and experiences that are a little bigger and more connected than our sometimes solitary thoughts and lives.

4. "Anything believed"
I believe in the power of art to bring communities together and profoundly enrich the lives of individuals. Sometimes I need to cry because I believe this so strongly and find myself in a conversation with someone else who does not.

These are my beliefs, but there is also quite a bit of proof and evidence that these beliefs are true. Economies grow, we learn new perspectives, people from many backgrounds share space and time because of art.

5. "Complete trust, confidence, or reliance"
Rehearsal, and creation, is built on trust. I need to trust myself, my collaborators, our process. This is not easy. There are many obstacles to confidence. I stare at wonderful, open faces in rehearsal and I am terrified. Sometimes I doubt it all. And yet I step forward, again and again. In creating, and specifically in dancing, we strengthen our capacity for trust. We learn how much our feet and breath and core can support.

6. "Allegiance to some person or thing; loyalty"
Making dance teaches me to commit. I am "faithful". I take a step forward. I set a schedule. I mail a press release. I connect deeply with a performer.

I learn not only to question, but also to listen to other people and the world.


Aynsley Vandenbroucke is a choregrapher and Laban Movement Analyst who divides her time between New York City and the Catskill Mountains. Information on her company can be found at http://www.movementgroup.org. She writes on dance at http://www.reflectionsondance.com.

Foundations update #1

Thurs, Dec. 11:  Last night was our final rehearsal at Brooklyn Arts Exchange before our first works-in-progress showing of Foundations at Dance New Amsterdam on Saturday.  Since we began rehearsal 6 or 8 weeks ago, this process has been unique, and last night's rehearsal reminded me how excited I feel about the journey this process will take us on the next 3-4 months.

As any choreographer knows, it's a curious thing to come into a process with a blank slate, and set out to create something from nothing.  I don't know how the pieces are meant to fit together, or the shape of the overall arc.  I'm writing a story, and although I have a vague idea about the themes inside the plot, I have yet to discover who the characters are, their relationships to one another, nor can I say I really even know how the story ends.

The choreographic process for Foundations is unique because I've been employing the choreographic tools I learned at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange this summer, which in essence put the dancers themselves in the role of "movement generators."  We've created movement from images in a newspaper story of the Wall Arch collapse in Arches National Park last summer, we've written about the "foundations" we each stand on, edited them into three "I Stand On..." spoken phrases from which we've generated short, medium and long movement descriptions. We created several "Add-On" phrases.  We've talked about why our foundations matter, editing those ideas to their essence through "Walking and Talking," and gathered "Spontaneous Gestures" that emerged from the discussion that followed.  I've discovered the value of the "Scripting" tool as a way to flesh out precious nuggets of movement material.  ( I appreciate that certain tools lend towards finding the essence of an idea, and other tools lend to fleshing out that essential quality).

In my role as a director, I continue to find the arc inside all this information.  How does a newspaper story about a falling arch relate to the very human experience of belief and faith?  What does the audience need to be safely guided along this journey?  How will the dancers transition between their performance of the representational elements of the movement, to the human elements of their movement?  How do music and text contribute?  It's thrilling to me!

And even more thrilling is that, after our final run last night, I feel we have a very poignant and powerful segment to share on Saturday!   Come see what we've been working on, and be ready to share your feedback afterwards....

Dance New Amsterdam Works-in-Progress

280 Broadway, 2nd floor (enter on Chambers)

5:30pm   suggested ticket price - $10

Discussing "Faith"

FAITH:  

*What is it?  

*How does it relate to the creative process?  

*How does it shape the creating, viewing, or performing of contemporary dance?  

This first month of Dance and Faith, I'd like to talk about the concept of faith.  We all know what "Dance" is, but may not be so clear about what is meant by "Faith."  Faith gets a bad rap doesn't it?  I mean, it's often used in negative contexts, generally equated to "blind faith," conjuring images of people, arms outstretched but blindfolds securely fastened, following a fanatic yet charismatic leader towards a rocky precipice.  

I'm interested in expanding this limiting notion of faith, understanding how various religious traditions define faith, and then asking how we, as believing dance artists, transfer that definition and experience of faith into our art.  

A diverse group of choreographers, scholars and religious leaders will be contributing their thoughts on this topic this month, and I'm excited to introduce these talented and articulate individuals and their work to readers of this blog.  I'm also very excited to expand my own understanding of this important concept through dialoguing with a diverse religious dancing community.  

I hope the conversation over the course of the next few weeks will be generative for each of us individually and collectively as a believing, hopeful dance community.  Please share your thoughts, feelings and experiences, even if they are brief or only roughly sketched out in your mind or on paper.  Let's get the conversation rolling!

  

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I'll begin by sharing some of my thoughts:

First, my religious tradition defines faith as "hoping for things which are not seen which are true."  Within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "faith" is, well, a Big Deal.  It's taught as the "first principle and ordinance of the gospel," meaning the most basic principle upon which all spiritual knowledge and progression is based.  As a Latter-day Saint, I think about the principle of faith a lot, because it's so basic, yet so elusive.  I can't wrap my fist around it and say, "a-ha!  THIS is what it is!"  

The best description of faith within LDS scripture, in my opinion, is in Alma, chapter 32 of the Book of Mormon.  Some highlights:

verse 21: "if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" 

verse 26: (faith) "is not a perfect knowledge of things" 

verses 28-35 - comparing faith to a seed which is planted, nurtured and cultivated, then judged according to the fruit it bears

...and from the New Testament:

Hebrews 11:1 - "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

James 2:17 (suggesting an active component to the principle of faith): "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

Faith is active - it is the act of believing, rather than simply a passive state of believing.  

Paralleling James 2:17 is my favorite description of faith, again from Alma 32: 27 (all of the fantastic action verbs are highlighted) - "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

So, faith definitely has an embodied component.  It doesn't exist outside and separate from the physical body.  It is rooted in my works, in my action, in my doing.  As a dancer, that is really cool to me!   I begin to think of how my daily actions in the studio, in technique class, in a rehearsal, require faith....  Beginning ANY creative process is an act of faith:  we ACT on what we cannot see, but we know is out there somewhere, and we work with that END in mind:  we prepare for rehearsal, we experiment, we move forward, with hope, to find rehearsal space, book a theater, market, and fundraise.   

I believe that making the choice to see through the eyes of faith adds richness, dimension and purpose to our lives.

I choreographed a solo, Expansive to My View, in 2007 that explored this idea of "active" faith.  The repetitive gestures reflect the work involved in cultivating faith, the struggle and stick-to-it-iveness, and the way in which the choice to practice faith enriches my life.  It was a wonderful opportunity to structure my feelings about faith into movement.  I also wanted to give specific attention to the use of focus (a blank postmodern gaze certainly wouldn't be very effective in challenging the notion of "blind faith" now, would it?)  You're welcome to watch Expansive to My View