COVID times can be lonely. We also don’t have the spontaneous opportunities for the seeds of ideas to blossom through connections with colleagues, collaborators, and the like. At the same time, extra time with ourselves opens space for reflection -- on what we want, on what we don’t want, and considering both how we step forward -- can be more easy to come by for many of us. That’s another thing that can lead the seeds of ideas to blossom.
As such, lately I’ve been connecting with fellow creatives every so often to hear about what they’ve been up to, their ideas on making, and their journey to this point. Here’s the first of a series detailing those chats -- featuring DeAnna Pellecchia, Artistic Director of Boston-based KAIROS Dance Theater. Main themes that emerged were how everyone has a voice, and that having that voice heard through art and creative process holds immense value and importance.
DeAnna Pellecchia
Opening up space for various voices through the process
We began by talking about how Pellecchia approaches creative process. She described how it’s important for her as the space where collaborators join together. For example, she involves designers (for lighting, costuming, et cetera) and musicians quite early on in the process. Her dancers are her most important collaborators, she affirms -- and she’d paralyzed in the studio without their creative input.
Pellecchia also involves the wider public through the process with measures such as open rehearsals and workshops. KAIROS gets many of the stories they use, as well as feedback that helps shape the work, through this community involvement. This approach greatly differs from the conventional model wherein the main voice and the main story that feeds a particular work is the choreographer’s.
Opening space for the silenced
Later in the discussion, we discussed how Pellecchia worked with Medicine Wheel Productions in the 2000s. She learned from the director of the program, Michael Dowling, that if not given the chance to create, people will destroy. That’s why it’s so vital to give the underserved kids in South Boston with whom Medicine Wheel Productions works -- and everyone -- a chance to create, to have their voices and their stories heard.
That’s a deep and powerful idea, which brings the question -- in our own lives, what are we creating and what are we destroying? The former doesn’t need to look like a dance performance and the latter doesn’t need to look like inner-city violence. Pellecchia also underscored “how brilliant [these students were], how creative [they were], how engaged [they were] -- when you engage them.” She saw these students as having shut out many aspects of a system that had failed them -- in self-defense, it feels not too hard to see.
...if not given the chance to create, people will destroy.
Yet given the chance to have their stories heard, they were all ultimately on stage performing and sharing their stories -- after saying things like “Are you crazy? I’m not dancing!” when the program started. Pellecchia ultimately had to leave teaching in the program, because it was just such intense work. Yet she learned so much from it, she says -- “so much about how the world really is for so many people.” Art, and contexts where it is made, can open up that kind of understanding.
Having something to say
“Art is the threshold for something bigger, Michael [Dowling] taught me...good art makes you reflect and go deeper,” Pellecchia shares. Perhaps that’s a big part of its power, a power to create lasting change. “Art is a way that you can change the world....if I didn’t believe that, I don’t think I could get up in the world,” she adds. This is Pellecchia’s way of contributing to positive change in the world, she explains. Even in just the act of making people feel welcome, by welcoming people into the process or even in the final product, art can begin making change, she agrees.
She quotes Nina Simone, in wholehearted agreement -- ‘’it’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times.” Truly having something to say is vital, Pellecchia believes. In fact, she didn’t begin making dances until she felt like she truly had something valuable to say through dance, after she had been dancing professionally and watching several different choreographers work (and therein also had a more refined understanding of the tools for shaping what she had to stay in the form of dance). Pellecchia quotes Bebe Miller -- “You shouldn’t be making dances just to make dances, you should be making dances because you have something to say.” What she has to say is colored by what her collaborators have to say, is also clear.
"It's an artist's duty to reflect the times." -- Nina Simone
Even in her work as a personal trainer, she’s not interested in working with people who have more superficial goals for training, but instead chooses to work with those working towards more functional goals like neurorehabilitation. Someone experiencing Parkinson’s disease has something to say too, and engaging with the body can allow them to continue being heard more clearly -- science is even beginning to show, Pellecchia shares.
Kids in low-income communities have something to say as well, and it’s not good for anyone if they precluded from saying it. All involved with dancemaking -- from dancers to designers to audience members -- have something to say. In how she creates space for all of these voices, DeAnna Pellecchia walks the walk and talks the talk when it comes to the value of everyone’s voice. Because somewhere, at some point, in some context, everyone has something to say. We make the world a better place by passing the mic and then truly listening.
DeAnna full of joy!
This is an incredibly challenging time for artists and arts organizations. If you would like to learn more about KAIROS Dance Theater and donate, as you might be able, visit the company's website here.