the Myanmar Project
By Lucinda Coleman, June 2013
When you see glass panes, do you look through the transparent plane or do you see yourself reflected in the glass?
* Yangon, Myanmar: abandoned glass factory
The concept:
The idea of glass being both a front for reflection and engagement with what lies beyond offers a beautiful metaphor for the front along which we, as individuals engage in conversation with each other. What do you wish to say and when you do articulate your ideas, how do I meet with you on this borderline of shared dialogue?
Remnant Dance’s existing partnership with MyKids acts as a catalyst for conversations across spheres of practice. As artists, we find ourselves exploring movement ideas along our ever-changing frontal and dorsal planes of action through collective dance-making practices. Through shared story-telling with our MyKids partners, we find ourselves drawn to the frontlines of the Burmese experience of life in Yangon, Myanmar.
We consider the Burmese children living in an orphanage in Yangon, as though looking through a glass plane. They seem far away; there are smudges on the glass.
The closer I look, the more I see through and the less I see of me. I move closer.
What would happen if we shattered the glass plane? How would we navigate the fragmented glass pieces? What would happen should we dance in the debris, speaking our movement language as the children speak theirs?
At the intersection of different fronts; the face-to-face encounter between ‘your’ ideas and mine, there is the possibility for unexpected encounters in the shared dialogue. What if we could share the story of the dialogue that emerges in the glass debris?
What if we filmed the exploration of the fronts and backs of the danced conversation?
How we hope to move from the conceptual to the practical:
Remnant Dance artists intend to make a site-specific dance film within the Myanmar community that the charity organisation, MyKids supports.
This film will be made through a process that encourages interconnection and celebrates interdependence in making dance committed to social justice and community. Inspired by the Glass Palace Chronicle; an old Burmese historical work commissioned by King Bagyidaw in 1829, the work will be filmed in an abandoned glass factory, using panes of glass as a metaphor for the face to face encounters; where interconnection facilitates a shared dialogue.
What might be seen reflected in planes of glass? How might our connection with the children invite reflection on their stories? What happens to communication on such a front when it is shattered?
Remnant Dance artists will begin developing movement phrases in the studio in 2013, in preparation for a location shoot in Yangon, Myanmar early in 2014.
The made work later hopes to invite a broader engagement, perhaps even from a global audience and a responsive interpretation of that which is the residual remnants of dance.