documenting AbunDANCE @ Qarnival
documenting #qarnival and a demo of AbunDance #communityAbunDance #decolonizingdance #queeringdance #debrahmanizingdance
A segment from demo-ing AbunDance – a community meditation and song initiative rooted in movement experiments seeking to #decolonizeBuddhism #decolonizedance#debrahmanizedance
At the end you begin to hear a transition from “On whose shoulders do we rest” to another mantra “Honesty inside Art” relevant to that participant’s messaging for her community (co-organizer of event @anaisazul ????).
Video documentation of AbunDANCE
Visual aids recounting complex history and ideas during presentation
Acknowledging and exploring the components that go into complex legacies of oppression that might be embedded in our bodies through dance and song and figuring out ways to hold the complexity and apply it toward liberatory practices in ways that seek to reduce harmful appropriation and cooption >>
We acknowledge heritage Buddhist communities for holding down Buddha’s message and Dalit communities in particular the radicality of his message to eradicate caste specifically (silenced through cooption in many parts by Hindu hegemony); we honor the beauty of original chant music and experiment with messaging so we do not borrow from languages (such as Pali) that we do not understand; we acknowledge US complicity in resisting TIbet’s freedom movement (a nation we heavily borrow spiritual traditions from); we acknowledge the complex history of colonialism (both European and Hindu) in what we know as temple dance that ultimately was born as repressive economic sanction on women (compelled to live as courtesan/ sex workers) who were and remain low or out of caste; we acknowledge the more recent (continued and violent) history that allowed temple dance to be acceptable for upper caste people (like myself) to perform.
also we are #queeringdance because I’ll demo form but not gender when sharing the movements
#danceexperiments searching ways to bring out discussion and reduce harm though there’s always that risk mistakes will be made #ommanipadmehum #pali#beautifulharmonizing
If curious to join, pls DM me #communityAbunDANCE
very moved I had the opportunity to share and for the video documentation by @hoooten
