EWA: Finding My Beauty
Sharing the story of a young woman finding her beauty in the crossroads of rhythm, movement and presence, Heather draws from knowledge in academic literature, sacred and social dances from Brazil, Cuba and Guinea and her own experience to create and share an interpretation of beauty that goes beyond mind and appearances and into one that honors divine energy and considers beauty a creative process of balance and union.
This work was presented as a performance piece at the Aotearoa Cuban Festival in March 2016 and delivered as a community dance workshop in Auckland, Hamilton, and Dunedin.
Finally, I would like to thank the Igbo women from who the Udu originates. The earthly clay is fashioned into a vessel that carries both water to where its needed and the gift of sound and percussive beats.
I would like to acknowledge the awa (river) at my father's former home in Awakere; Te Awa o Waikato, and the lake of Te Rotorua for the insight these "water vessels" gave me to be embodied in this dance.
Many thanks to my Cuban Dance teacher Greydis Montero Liranza for overseeing the development of this work, providing insight and correction, and for the creation of the platform of its first performance (Aotearoa Cuban Festival); and my former West African Dance teacher and research mentor, Ojeya Cruz Banks, for her instruction in the dance of Sorsornet, and guiding me to the scholarship of Thomas DeFrantz, which inspired this exploration on the negotiation of beauty; and Omófolábò Àjàyí's articulation of the body as both the instrument of dance and an index of social values - one of which is iwa l'ewa, or character, inner self, essential nature of beauty and the aesthetic form that constitutes the essence of the individual being.
I would like to credit Grupo Abbilona for "Ochun Endulza La Vida," which was used as the opening salutation to Ochun, Yoruba deity of fresh water, beauty, and love; Eugene Skeef for his udu recording fusioning Rumba Yambu and Ochun, which was used in the middle section of the audio; and the women of Cantos del Baobab for "Sorsornet" (Album: Nimba), which was used in the third and final section of the audio.
Thank you David Rowe for your donation of photographic images both in studio and during a later, smaller, performance of this piece.
