#115 My buttons Part 2

There are many issues of which I am passionate about – gender equality, racial equality – basically equal rights for everyone.  It is these issues that fuelled my passion for choreography – a venue for my activism.  Now what many people today do not realize is that I was chastised and penalized for mixing art with politics for many years.  You weren’t suppose to make political or social statements.

I started working with disabled artists about a decade ago.  It wasn’t a conscious choice – the opportunity presented itself – I was interested – so I pursued it.  I met a man named Fritz who was confined to a wheelchair.  Working with Fritz was the beginning of opening new doors for me.  It challenged my own perceptions.  The work that I created on Fritz was made to challenge other people’s perceptions.  I created a duet for Fritz and one of my able-bodied dancers Theresa – a duet created entirely on the floor using Fritz’s physical abilities as our source of movement vocabulary.  Midway through the creative process, Theresa and Fritz asked if we could create another section – one that used Fritz’s wheelchair.  Their intuition was perfect.  The final result was a duet that took place on the floor, a blackout and when the lights came back up on the stage, the audience saw Fritz and Theresa in his chair.  The audible gasp always filled me with delight as did the post-performance talk.  Most of the audience didn’t realize that Fritz was disabled until they saw the chair – which brings me to my point.  If you can see a person for what they truly are without getting distracted by physical impediments – then you’re on your way to a better society.  This production did not come off without hitches along the way.  The arts council and my peers questioned my motives.  They felt that I was using Fritz to further my own agenda.  They questioned my using Fritz in publicity for the performance.  I publicize every featured performer in my company – publicizing Fritz’s performance was the same.  It treated him as the equal that he is.  You can’t dodge issues just because some people want to see an ulterior motive in your actions.  Those that want to see the bad in you will find it.

Anyone who thinks that women hold an equal position in our society is an idiot – pure and simple.  Sure we have made advances but the fact that I have been paid less than a man doing the same job still speaks volumes.  When I go to a rent a space and the real estate agent or landlord talks to the men with me rather than to me – then there is still a problem.  I once decided to put some of these thoughts into a production that I was doing using actors and dancers.  One of the final lines for one of the actresses was “I believe in equal pay for men and women and I am willing to go along with men making more than women as long as we call it like it is.  Give me and my male co-worker the same pay and give his penis its bonus directly.”  I still chuckle over how many people in the audience would visibly cringe.  Probably because I used the word “penis”.

All of us judge others – it is human nature and almost impossible to avoid.  What I think is important to remember is that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.  No one is perfect and everyone has something that they are good at.  Sometimes it takes time to find, but it is there.  Fighting (and I don’t mean physical fighting which is just plain wrong) is not a bad thing if it leads to constructive discussion.  Fighting doesn’t mean that you have created enemies for life.  Almost everyone in my life is someone that I’ve had a pretty good fight with.  From those fights, I have learned what makes them strong, what makes them weak and what makes them human.  Everyone has fears and apprehensions about some other people in the world.  The key is not to embrace and feed that fear, but to meet that fear head on.  Learn about that culture.  Study their history, read the works of their writers, listen to their politicians and activists, study their religions.  Do all these things and I will guarantee that while you may not want to live like them, you will develop an understanding and respect for them.  I am a North American.  I live in a society that prides itself on multiculturalism and “melting pot” ethic.  I love those ideals and at the same time, I realize that we have not reached the ultimate goal of pure racial, gender and ethnic harmony.  I live in hope that we will someday reach that goal – which is why I fight.