Title: Shape Shifting Game
Choreography and Dance: Leonard Cruz Dance Theater Costume design: Detlef Thomas
Duration: 6 minutes and 18 seconds Film
Music and Visuals: Dana Lyn
At the moment my research and performance work is focused on the decolonization of dance/ performance. As a child I learned Filipino and Hawaiian folk dances and to this day I am very interested in my indigenous ancestry. After living in Germany for 25 years as a freelance choreographer and performer, it would be a wonderful opportunity to take part in Digital Worlds / Open Call. The platform to share my work, based on a style I created called “Contemporary Embodied Indigeneity”, integrates storytelling, indigenous dance forms and German dance theater.
Shape-Shifting Game is a work that allows the performer and the audience to experience transformation. This can be anything from experiencing the change from human body to animal, healing, empathy and a better understanding of the performer.
I was born in Pampanga, Philippines (a country colonized by many countries), grew up in San Antonio, Texas and have lived and worked in Bremen and Essen for 25 years; life wasn’t as easy as you think, because in my life there was a lot to unpack and learn anew. There were crises, sadness, hate, trauma and violence that I had to overcome internally, relationally and socially, both in the dance/performance world and as a person of color living and working in Germany. Shape-Shifting Game is a solo storytelling performance based on dance theater (my first contract in Germany was given by Pina Bausch) and focuses on five different birds and their relationship to my trials and tribulations, both spoken and spoken also be told in dance. Telling authentic stories about who I am in both speaking and dancing is a ritual I learned as a child. This ritual has stayed with me to this day, but I now share it from a contemporary perspective where I believe it can be healing, transformative and informative.
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