Global equity fellows explore creative approaches to critical conversations in Chile
As the executive director of DanceStream Projects, I am accustomed to speaking on behalf of our community and our team. For this blog, I am choosing to speak from my own experience, as it was deeply personal and helped me recognize the incredible value and importance of the work we do and the role dancers and artists play in nurturing, healing, cultivating belonging and holding space as we all grapple with conflict, challenge and change. Please enjoy this reflection from a recent convening with my Atlantic Fellow community in Chile.
“Feeling More than Thinking”
The week of November 11-15, 2024, global Atlantic Fellows and Atlantic Institute staff united in Santiago and Maipo Valley in Chile to explore the various ways creative approaches (dance, visual arts, music, theatre, poetry) can nurture and sustain effective navigation of critical conversations.
Atlantic Fellows are a diverse, international community of leaders who share a deep commitment to advancing fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies. Part of 7 equity-based global fellowships, the Atlantic Fellows community have the opportunity to collaborate to create convenings which engage around issues we feel are relevant in addressing systemic causes of inequity in our communities, and beyond. Through these convenings, we foster ways in which we can work across disciplines and borders to tackle some of today’s most pressing challenges and strengthen our network of equity-focused leadership initiatives to create a fairer world.
As members of a global community of diverse practitioners dedicated to advancing equity and collectively building a more just and fairer society, we often grapple with “critical conversations”. These courageous and sometimes uncomfortable conversations are the cornerstone of our collective work to learn and unlearn, improve our practice and increase our impact for equity.
For this convening, several of us fellows collaborated to identify creative tools from our respective practices we can share with our larger community to support navigating critical conversations. Co-creation was central as was the understanding that we experience the process over the outcome. In the end, 30 fellows and staff from around the globe connected together for this week. Some of the fellows offered creative practices ranging from the Theatre of the Oppressed, Drama Therapy, dance, group dance improvisation, visual art and storyhealing, whereas others brought their experience and dedication to cultivating and navigating through critical conversations.
I was privileged to hold the container and guide the group in one of the first activities on the first day. Understanding how often we are conditioned to lead with our work, almost to the point of it super-ceding our identity and individuality, I invited us to instead begin with movement. Each of the 30 persons who joined, shared their first expression to the rest of the group in sound and movement. What was beautiful, was witnessing how these gestural signatures re-surfaced at various points the rest of the week. I encourage you to also consider, what might happen if instead of leading with words, you chose to lead with movement together with those you are seeking to engage in conversation.
“Trust in the Process”
Asking anyone to offer themselves to be seen and witnessed is asking them to share a significant amount of vulnerability. This cannot and should never be taken for granted. I am truly grateful for the fellows, staff and invited guests who helped us intentionally create clear identifiers for individual and collective agreements on how we will hold space and offer support to ourselves and one another as we embarked on this journey.
From here, when we were offering invitations for the various creative activities and critical conversations, we could trust that we will be held and could show up in ways that we needed in order to be brave and to center care. I was reminded frequently over the week, that when the intentions set forth are clear, we can trust the process of the creative practice and the creative prowess of the individuals in the space to guide what needs to emerge. A perfect example of this was an activity I prepared for the group for the first day, in which I had wanted to create opportunities for us to reflect on our intentions for the week - what we were bringing with us and what we hoped to receive. I realized as we emerged into reflection on collaborating on and witnessing one another perform small dance stories we made in small groups of three, that we had inadvertently arrived at those intentions, but in a much more organic way. We allowed for these reflections to emerge following this shared co-creative experience of meeting one another in collaborative dance making, rather than leading with our logical minds. Sometimes, we just need to trust the process.
“Art is Healing”
One the third day of the convening, we relocated from bustling Santiago to a beautiful and idyllic eco-lodge and nature reserve called Cascada de las Animas in the Maipo Valley, where we finished the remainder of our convening. It was here that we “tipped out the building blocks” to explore all of the tools at our disposal in preparation for unpacking how we can apply them to address critical conversations.
As a practitioner of Mettler-based group dance improvisation, I offered an introductory and accessible workshop into dance as a source of individual and group expression. The workshop featured a series of short activities drawing from principles of group dance improvisation which can be applied within a variety of settings with diverse populations to heighten awareness of self in relationship to others and promote confidence in embodied expression. Together we cultivated the art of body movement to build creative community.
Over the course of the 60-minute workshop, we investigated the elemental principles of force, time and space as capsules that allow for embodied understanding. Progressing from individual to increasingly larger group dance activities, we explored ways of flexing the muscle of being in a group body, practicing seeing and listening, supporting and receiving. In particular, we explored using newspapers as a source of creative inspiration for group dance. At the end of the workshop we finished with a period of reflection and discussion, unpacking what we explored together and ideating ways the activities can be translated or adapted within participants’ respective practices.
What excites me now, as I remain connected with fellows who have returned to their respective nooks in this world (which suddenly feels so much smaller and more intimate and needing to be held and nurtured), is hearing how fellows are taking these explorations and making them their own in their respective practices. Sometimes the impact of dance on health is immediate. One fellow shared their frustration over lost luggage and how much having a chance to “flop” and release their body helped them find a space of calm that they didn’t realize they needed. Sometimes the impact of dance on health is more gradual. Another fellow applied some of the dance we had shared in their work with the disabled community in their country ahead of entering into critical conversations with the government. Apparently, per their report, the outcomes were the best they have experienced to date. However big the impact, it is clear that dance is healing. Emerging from this incredible week, I am even more convinced on the role we, as dancers and artists play in the larger fabric of life. I look forward to many more journeys and dance stories together.
This convening was supported by the Atlantic Institute. The Atlantic Institute seeks to amplify the influence and impact of the Atlantic Fellows and the Atlantic Fellows programs by supporting lifelong community among Atlantic Fellows, with access to resources and opportunities to connect, learn and work together. 