Dance Fragment

My dance not your business is a video showing an experimental dance navigating between decolonization, reterritorialization and rehumanisation. It was presented at the NIAS-conference to experience and discuss the idea of beloning.

What does it mean to perform an art in a country where it did not originate from? Furthermore, what if that art is performed by 4th generation diaspora? And what if that diaspora is a mixed ‘race’ herself… teaching at a business school where dominant ideas like capitalism, rationality, individualism and neutrality are celebrated? Where the physical space that I am teaching is designed to reproduce these dominant ideas instead of changing them (although it’s in the slogan of the business school to ‘change the face of business’)? I address these questions in this experiment by exploring the social and physical space and decenter humans. In the field of business-economics humans are seen as rational consumers. By saying that someone is a consumer, that person is economized. By this economization, the human becomes a one-dimensional being. It is a paradoxical perspective that actually dehumanizes, while centralizing the human as a rational being. Not to forget that capitalism has its roots in slavery where black people were merely seen as cargo, meaning that the effect of this system still is dehumanisation in todays’ context. The experiment takes place in a business classroom. Here, I am telling marginalized stories by bringing in different kinds of objects and materials.

CREDITS

Choreography: Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen in collaboration with Patty Broese van Groenou

Sound: Tabla-machine

Made possible by: Haags Theaterhuis, PEPE, Theaterschool Rabarber, De Kunsthut, Gemeente Den Haag, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences

Short film | Decolonizing rituals

In short film UMAD (Hindi: emotional overflow) you witness the spiritual journey of decolonization for four artists with roots in Surinam, India, and the Netherlands. They negotiate with histories of forced labor migration and colonialism, the erasure of cultures they belong to, cultures they have come to belong to, and the oppressive systems which continue to exist today. All of them have been touched by the Dutch colonial project, but are shaped differently through their personal experiences in life through religion, gender, and sexuality, which becomes visible through their authentic visions on decolonization and healing. The short film is part of program including a writing ritual, group conversation on the concept of ancestry, spoken word and more.

Fazle Shairmahomed dances towards a state of trance inspired by Sufi dance rituals of Gnawa and Zar, and Afro-Surinamese Winti culture.

Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen confronts a history of exotification through Indian dances, henna art, and facial expressions.

Rubaina Bhikhie questions the relationship with her ancestors through spoken word, while claiming her space in history and time as a royalty in the city where she belongs.

Taskien Khudabux finds herself in the mother womb building a catharsis through her femininity, Islamic prayers, and the internal struggle for liberation.

CREDITS 
Artists: Fazle Shairmahomed (initiator), Taskien Khudabux, Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen, Rubaina Bhikhie
Film and edit: Tanja Busking
Sound: Marlon Penn
Research: Zuleika Sheik
Photography: Milan Tettero

Made possible by: crowdfunding whydonate, Masala Movement, theater De Vaillant, Gemeente Den Haag, Cultuurschakel, Fonds1818, Fonds voor Cultuurpartcipatie, Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds, VSB Fonds

Trailer

Impression of the full program and background story

Workshop

There are more forms of social life on earth than we are used to think. Therefore, this workshop decenters humans and gives the dupatta a central stage. What happens when we are asked to wear the dupatta? What do we imagine? And… what would happen if we decenter ourselves? This workshop creates transformative spaces to understand our transnational identities. To understand what the perceptions and images are that live within us and what kind of relations we have towards each other or other earthly beings . What can we unlearn or pursue further?

Made possible by:  Artistic Research Convergence (ARC) and Liquid Society

Dance theatre performance

This experimental piece with Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen and Ferdy Karto is about the meaning of courage and passion. Like the vein of a leaf, like a vein through the body…Nerve, the courage you need to follow your passion in todays’ context. It is a search towards a new body language with influences from Flamenco, Kathak and Modern dance.

CREDITS

Choreography Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen and Ferdy Karto in collaboration with Patty Broese van Groenou and Leo Spreksel

Light Design Albert Tulling

Soundscape Peter Lemmens

Click here for full video (password required, contact Anima)