|
Dancing in the street Tai Jimenez, here in Honolulu to perform in Ballet Hawaii's weekend production of "Nutcracker," makes it a point to take dance to the subways and streets of New York.
Tai Jimenez, in town for the
'Nutcracker,' bravely stretches
the conventions of balletBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comShe spent two months last summer dancing at random points in the NYC subway while a videographer friend recorded her performances and the reactions of the people she encountered.
"What's killing dance is that we're expecting people to come to us and not going to them," she said. "I really wanted to challenge the boundaries of where we think it's appropriate to perform, and I wanted to suggest that any place can be uplifted by art.
|
"I was also dealing with the idea that I have this ability, and there are so many people I can't reach because they can't afford it or they don't know about it, or it has this stigma of being elite."However, Jimenez wasn't doing "Swan Lake"-style arabesques and pirouettes in tights and tutu.
"It was more modern, and dealing with improvisation. I've been developing my own language of improvisation, so it wasn't like some girl in her point shoes sort of twittering around. It was very subtle. Some people were open to it, some people thought I was crazy, and some people thought I was stoned.
"It raised a lot of questions for me artistically, such as the whole idea of the institutionalization of the arts. For many people the arts are really inaccessible because it's very expensive (to see), and many dance companies end up having to cater to the needs or the ideas of the people who are funding it. A lot of people are left out."
Jimenez and her videographer put together a short film documenting her performances. They're now waiting for word regarding grants and other funding for their work. She hopes to expand the project to include musicians and to also take the project to other cities.
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall Ballet Hawaii's "Nutcracker"
When: 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow, and 2 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $35 to $55; $10 discounts for students, seniors and military
Call: 526-4400
"It started out just from this really whimsical idea I had. I focused mainly on the subways but also started to do street performing. It's really rare for someone to be doing concert-level dance out in the street, but it was very much about bringing art to people who would not necessarily see it, and for me it also raised a lot of questions about just being a woman who feels comfortable with her body. For some people that was just a very challenging thing, and they wouldn't allow themselves to watch. Other people would come to me and ask questions."
Beyond incorporating the ballet training she received at the School of American Ballet and the LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts in improvisational pieces in the streets, Jimenez performed in the Broadway production of "On the Town," did "Letters from Cuba" at the Signature Theatre, appeared in an as-yet-unreleased feature film with Patrick Swayze, and has done a broad spectrum of television work.
She recently rejoined the Dance Theatre of Harlem as a principal dancer after four years off to explore new ideas in music.
"Having gotten to the point where I was a principal and I was dancing everything, I felt the need to develop my own voice as a dancer outside of the demands of a choreographer, and a yearning for something of a more personal expression."
Jimenez became one of the founders of an improv group -- three musicians and another dancer -- and began developing an "improvisational language" that has come to include elements of ballet, various styles of modern dance, and butoh.
"The work I'm doing in improvisation is often not recognizable as ballet except that I have a kind of line that I can't ever get away from, so it's in there, but it's influenced by a lot of other things. Even though I'm not trained as a butoh dancer, I will often approach my movement like a butoh dancer -- which is from a very internal place as opposed to a lot of Western concert dance."
Although few forms of dance would seem more dissimilar than ballet and butoh, Jimenez finds they connect well for her.
"I try to approach everything I do as a kind of improvisation, even if the movement has been pre-choreographed, to find places of spontaneity within it. When I go back to something that is choreographed, I feel a completely different type of freedom because I trust myself to react in the moment, and so all of those different areas feed each other creatively. Working with improvisation gives me more of a palette to work with."
And how about bringing her improv group out to the streets of Honolulu?
"If I had the opportunity to do my own work and bring my own group to Hawaii, everything else would have to work around it! I love the work that I'm doing at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, but I also need to start creating opportunities for my group as well. I would love to do something like that!"
Audiences may not know who to look for.
"We keep changing names. Right now we're calling (ourselves) You Are Madness, Diana, but that might change by next week. We can never all agree on a name."
This week, though, Jimenez is focused on ballet. She's dancing the Arabian in this year's edition of Ballet Hawaii's annual "Nutcracker" extravaganza with the Honolulu Symphony, along with local artists and American Ballet Theatre's Ashley Tuttle and John Selye.
"I wanted to do this 'Nutcracker' because I thought it would be good for me training-wise, and it's in Hawaii, and it's the part of the Arabian, which I've always loved."
Jimenez hopes to connect with some authentic hula while she's here, through Wednesday. All going well, we'll see her again on the streets of Honolulu sometime in 2002.
Click for online
calendars and events.
