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 Archives: Yokohama Dance Collection Paper - Jose Jay B. Cruz

My adventure in the 2007 Yokohama Dance Collection was a strange mix of accomplishment and a confounding sensation of failure. Together with this, was a rush of a hundred of different questions in relation to my location as an artist in the more global scale of
Contemporary Dance. Also, in conjunction with that question of location is an inquiry into my identity of being a Filipino competing side by side with other dancers in an Asian country and several individuals - Japanese and mostly Europeans who make up the jury.

Prior to the competition, my personal conviction has been to create works that will speak highly of my truth. Reacting against the cultural set-up of a collective, I have taken the notion that “the personal is political” frees the artist from a cultural imposition of which work is relevant or not. I was convinced that in this new perspective, artists from different parts of the globe can already engage themselves in a much leveled playing field.

But where does one anchor one’s self as an artist? My continued exposure to the world of contemporary dance has inversely increased the gap I have with my own community and the audience. One of course, has to consider that the issue of having the “audience” has been an elusive factor that has burdened the theater and the dance in the Philippines and maybe the world for so long now.

But this dilemma is always mistakenly described as an artist’ inability to communicate with its audience, failing to consider a plethora of other factors like the no cost accesibilty of T.V., the exposure and thereby the standard of aesthetics it sets, the high regard for its entertainment and
spectacle as opposed to other means of expression. In the end an artist is trapped in an existential drama lost between making sense of one’s self in between the pull of making itself relevant in one’s own community or in a bigger global community. Is there a way of being in both at the same time in the same amount of significance?

The Yokohama Competition has shown me one essential insight. I have come to a point where I think that every work of art should have the whole world as its audience. One should not get stuck in an eternal navel gazing without necessarily translocating oneself to a bigger community. But one should not get lost in a bigger community either. It should be an eternal shift of going within and without and back again, aware of the truth, context and dynamics of both as an eternal dance. As it is said – local and global. To what extent? that again is another point of departure?

The best thing about the Yokohama competition is a dialogue that the participants were able to have with members of the jury after the awarding night. It is a unique component that gives a participant an idea of how their work is seen. It is a crucial information that propels one to move
forward as an artist, understanding the bearing one has in the coordinates of contemporary dance.

The reception to my piece which is inspired by the poetry of a Spanish poet Jaime Gil De Biedma while found powerful by most of the Japanese critic was thought of being “European” as an inference in its failure of being awarded. The piece must have been a sort of a déjà vu trip to most of the European members of the jury (most of them directors of dance schools in France, England etc.) The images and representation the piece utilized while universal and powerful are also too familiar (as thought of) having been used by prominent choreographers from Europe like Pina Bausch as an example.

I was initially struck by this notion in shock for a while. I am a big fan of Pina Bausch thru my theater reading and also thru another respected teacher but how could I possibly have known that the images (long table for seduction, drinking glasses with water as foreplay and a metaphor for a mating ritual to name a few) were already images that other european choreographers have already been exhausted? I occasionally have been branded so many times of being avant garde here in my country which I would usually shun respectfully though, thinking that it will always be relative based on your geographical location.

The perception that contemporary dance is Eurocentric has become a real question for me now. I used to think that it is not important as long as I am able to create dances that mean a lot to me. But the more i get exposed to the global community of contemporary dance, the more persistent the perception becomes to me.

In my first Dance Conference in Singapore, a dance critic argued that globalization is nothing new in dance. Ruth St. Denis and other choreographers of her period were appropriating style and influences from the East and they were, through time, became significant figure in the history of modern dance. Could it be that the issue of globalization only becomes an issue of concern when a Filipino becomes a player in the same situation?

The experience has found me struggling in the midst of Post Colonial theorizing. How does one art transcend itself in the global arena outside the claws of post colonial perception? How does one defy one’s cultural experience being an artist from a former colony of 3 countries – Spain, Japan and America. How does one emerge at the center of Contemporary Art and emerge unscathed by the split – authentic vs. exotic.

I realized that I will never be free from the post colonial perspective until I face the challenge head on and address the problem, not by eradicating the notion but by exposing the dynamics of that perspective. As one respected teacher would ask me: re-territorialize or de-territorialize? One, I think, has to accept the reality and the inevitability of a cultural hegemony. One has to be able to understand that dynamics with eyes wide open and work its way out into that maze of complexity.

There seems to be several points of attack but where to start and which direction should be prioritized is also a much bigger challenge and question. And I would like to make a public call to young and emerging contemporary dance artists to also take this challenge. It is an exciting period of independence and I think that the contemporary dancer is the new man of the Theater.

First, the need for new representation. As we watch dance performances, we get accustomed to usual representations which become codes and symbols that become in due time a basic component. Unconsciously, we appropriate and re-appropriate the same codes and symbols and also get stuck in the same mold. It is about time to question, investigate and challenge these codes to allow a blooming of new codes and symbols that can become small windows to our own peculiar reality as a culture. As my company prepares for a major show in CCP, we found a new representation in an alley of second hand tv shops near the port area.

Also, i.e. the duet has been for decades a dance between a man and a woman that symbolically entails and exposes, the dynamics of the power relations between the gender. How can one challenge that traditional notion and be able to explore new territories?

Second, from the utilization and appropriation of “images” to issues of its contemporariness, from process of creation to movement style or influence, and also themes and issues are all very complex points to ponder. But this is absolutely the time to ponder, to challenge, to explore and expand.

Third, there must be a way of seeing and claiming, by symbolically identifying my body as a Filipino, in a point of transition from traditional to contemporary, bringing its past and present in a dizzying period of its search for identity and future. A meeting point that exposes and claims its confusion.

Last, Isolation is dangerous!

The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the understanding of identities, as people construct roles for themselves in relation to an 'other' as part of a fluid process of action-reaction that is not
necessarily related with subjugation or stigmatization - Emmanuel Levinas.

In the end the Yokohama Competition is not about winning…but the experience of being able to reach a crucial period, a junction, a crossroad, a cliff, a brief encounter with death. That opportunity is a gift…that ushers and enforces one to see himself in a new light, a new clearing, a new potential for growth.

My brief encounter with death turned out to be a gold mine to pursue new territories. A new lease in life! And I am reminded of a short blissful moment in the studio of Japan’s most revered butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno. In his studio I found my bearing again sans the anxiety of the competition. The generosity of Yoshito Ohno, his son, was an unbearable connection to the biggest wisdom about life – Death. I was filled, several times, in front of him with an uncontrollable urge to weep.

In the company of Jaime Gil de Biedma, Jean Genet and now, Kazuo Ohno, I have found kinship. In front of death we are all just helpless creature who are trying to make sense of our own existence. Our Art was our salvation until Death embraces us for good.

- Jose Jay B. Cruz


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Archives: In Search of a New Paradigm - Jose Jay B Cruz

In search of a new Paradigm
Thoughts about the round table discussion
Making Cities More Human
Instituto Cervantes Manila
July 31 2007

I am writing to express why I think conferences like “Making Cities More Human" an important achievement and why events like these have to be commended in the hope that cultural institutions like Instituto Cervantes, in the hands of directors with vision, pursue activities that fills up the gap in creating a real valuable cultural cooperation between countries of colonial relationship just like the Philippines and Spain.

I am writing to exercise my option to care about things that are important. I am writing having understood after the discussion that there are big questions but the answers are initiated by caring about small things. If one cannot work from top to bottom one has the option to work from bottom to the top. I am writing because I want to salvage the last remaining bits of idealism in me that the two senior spanish gentlemen have not lost as shown in their work.

Manuel Delgado Ruiz’s radical ideas about issues regarding cultural heritage is a goldmine that supplies the necessary shifts in paradigm needed to view big questions of the 21st century. It is a helpful perspective regarding conflict management in urban settings vis a vis issues in space and territory. In his view, I have come to realize that even cultural heritage is a continuing negotiation between people from different sectors occupying the same space and/or reality. That in our streets are found the most obvious path in understanding the cultural psyche and that instead of walking past through it annoyed and dismissive, one can spend a little more time in seeking why it is such.

Senior Ruiz’s idea that “prostitutes” can be considered a cultural heritage because through them we find a glimpse of a living culture is a radical shift in paradigm in understanding the length and breadth of the concept of heritage and patrimony. Cultural heritage is not just the conservation of historical landmarks. Misled cultural preservation could be just sentimentalism harking about things that have come and gone. Coming and going is a perennial reality of life. There is nothing we could do about it. But the definition of a cultural heritage that will empower the lives of the next generation and ensure a much better life is on a daily basis negotiated in the street of Manila. We are all living cultural heritage in action. It is not just some old hispanic building that is iconic of a period in history.

As an artist struggling within the post colonial discourse, it is important that I see myself as a living agent of cultural heritage. Because in this new perspective I have freed myself from the guilt ridden authentic versus exotic construct. In this new view, every individuals reality and voice partakes of the many voices that defines a culture. A culture is the summation of all these.

But, in this new view too, an artist has to be aware of other voices that he may not be listening to. It is not a singular voice. It is also the voice of the workers, the scavenging communities in payatas, the street vendors that clog the major thouroughfares in Manila, the jeepney drivers who romps the street unmindful of road lanes and designated stops, the afternoon crying faces in the T.V show Wowowee, the baduy movies in Pinoy Box Office. They are all part of a cultural heritage that we don’t want to dismiss lest we keep ourselves divided and left in the middle of that dichotomy, puzzled and clueless.

The street as a living space seems to be a very simple idea. But in further examination one can extract from it valuable insights in understanding something more profound. The interaction that transpires in our street whether in harmony or in opposition creates the cultural identity. The social issues that springs and evolves therein create a national identity. It’s funny that we have been searching for that identity when the answer was just right in front of us. It is funny that a simple perspective presented to us opened a big window to that perennial question.

The same perspective, if given much thought and seriousness could fill the gap between art and entertainment. Public spaces can be seriously seen as an alternative venue to expand the awareness of a population whose limited exposure to TV needed a more diverse exposure into the Arts.

Given this perspective it becomes relevant that a continued dialogue between individuals, sectors and cultures become the paramount call for action. Heightened interaction, inclusion. In other words increased social capital - a core concept in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a person's location in a structure of relationships.

Andres Perea Ortega’s new model is a utopian society in the form of la Ciudad Administrativa Multi- Funcional de Corea. From the realm of ideas brought to us by Ruiz, Ortega in turn brought us to the realm of reality. A city in peripheral – ring type structure that ambitiously claims its design is an unwritten book that will allow its citizen to write their own history.

I can’t help but be awed by the guts of this architect to herald a city with no spaces of representation, no historical building, no iconic landmark. It is a true revolution in idea which invites a monumental debate. In this construct, it aspires to dissolve the division of a public and private sector where respect and integration of citizens are addressed. It aspires for harmony between nature and building. It is genius and willful in finding an architectural solution in the increasing aggression of urban living in the 21st century. It is mind blowing.

With these new perspectives we are given a living example of individuals who embrace reality and pursue alternatives of seeing the world to find a process that allows a change. It is important that we meet people like these as a living testament that idealism itself takes on a different meaning. It is not keeping grimly and determined with your idea of what life should be but in accepting how life is as you experience it and shifting your perspective to attain maybe, a more appropriate ideals. I have understood that to teach people to think differently is probably not to dump ideas as much as you can but to find an infrastructure that can allow that change. It’s a healthier way to see the world. A kinder way.

As an artist born in a country of a colonial history, the bulk of my work is to find a new perspective to see my world and discover an infrastructure that could work for me. Then I can also spell what kind of a cultural cooperation is good for me. What kind of a paradigm in terms of cultural exchange I should aspire for. It should be a paradigm that allows a mutual discovery of unforeseen possibilities. A paradigm that will entail an infrastructure wherein I can increase not only interaction but also negotiation to empower myself. Then in return I can go back to them and present my discovery in the form of a new shift in perspective. In that case they are also learning from me.

- Jose Jay B Cruz


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