As I was reading through Quinn Peterson’s “Choreographer Kyle Abraham Discusses “The Watershed” and “When The Wolves Came In” I was slightly bothered when Kyle Abraham said “And when you put that Black body on stage with any other dancer, the story shifts based on the history that whoever is watching it has already experienced. Whatever your experience is – if you’re seeing a Black body and a white body, a Black man and a Black woman, and Black man and a white man – all of those things have their own kind of politic to them.” I agree with Abraham in that your interpretation of a scene can shift based on a person’s history but disagree with the idea that each race, when seen by an audience, has a “politic” to them. It might be because I my peers and I were born in a time where we can be separated from segregation by more than one generation, but I feel that we as a society have moved on from racial stereotypes as serious ideas, only using them for off-color comedy. Because Abraham is older than my classmates and I, his parents, or even he could have experienced racial injustice himself. This is where I believe the disparity in our interpretations of a scene lies. When I see two men on stage, one black and one white, I don’t immediately associate this with this nation’s past racial injustices, which is what I believe Abraham is trying to say. When I am trying to assess a scene, I look past the performers’ race and try to analyze things like the set, the tone of the music, their posture, and the clothing that they are wearing. This reminds me of my piece, “Is today’s society too sensitive when it comes to race.” from the 10/2 NY Times blog. In the blog post, I discussed how casting trends are leaning toward not casting a person of particular race, leaving the role open to actors of all races, even though having the character be a particular race would add to the impact of the story. I find it interesting that Abraham is sort-of doing the opposite here. Abraham is intentionally using actors of a particular race to try to convey a story. Another difference lies in that in Othello, the character Othello is usually casted as an actor with dark skin only because it makes him stand out from the other actors, where as in watching the video of the dance, the white male actor seems to be a racist man, possibly a past owner of slaves, so his race represents a stereotype. I’m not sure what to make of that.
I think the way Abraham uses race is really powerful. Today we try to ignore our problems most of the time and race is one of the problems we do not want to think about too much. Abraham points out that while racial relations are much better today than they were during the Civil Rights movement, there are still some things that need to be fixed.
I find your analysis of Abraham’s comments to be interesting. It seems unfair to assume that there is “already an inherent story that’s going to be told” when you put a black body on stage. That black body may have a million and one stories to be told, not just one that may be tied to past racial prejudices. That being said, I like that Abraham intentionally uses actors of a particular race to tell a story. He doesn’t shy away from race, he embraces race and the history and cultural background that comes from race. And being born in this generation, I can further accept and embrace all different cultures and ethnicities, without leaning on racial stereotypes to try and understand people who look different than me.
You point out a great argument to Kyle Abraham’s view. However I would say that I agree more with what Mr.Abraham has said. This is so because the knowledge and history that is taught to us about race and stereotypes creates a story in our heads. Although we may not agree with what we are taught, personally I use the knowledge I have to interpret something. In the case of race, if i look at a black person on stage, I would often associate what I have learned to create a picture or a story and why the director may of chose them to portray this role.
I agree with Kyle Abraham that seeing a white body and a black body give a political sense in itself. Although we are born in a time with a generation past segregation, race is still a big issue today. Whenever an event occurs that involves black or white people, there are always comments such as “it wouldn’t have occurred if the person was white” or “if this person was black they would’ve been treated differently”. We are also taught in school the history of enslavement and segregation of black people. With all these factors, it is hard to separate race and “political” sense. As we can see when we watched Spring Awakening and we wondered why the director chose a black actress to play Martha, the character who was sexually and physically abused by her parents.
It really is upsetting that race is still an issue in today’s times. Even though I also believe that our generation is moving further and further away from older stereotypes and from our history of segregation, it is important to note how the past affects our current society. It’s not something that we can simply forget. And that’s why I think we see it in modern entertainment and life.
Race is interesting. There’s a story associated with race, whether or not the story is relevant with modern social progress. Black people will always be associated with a history of slavery. It’s not fair to them when we have all moved past it. But maybe we haven’t moved past it if choreographers and directors use race to represent slavery and assume stereotypes. If we become “color-blind”, as your article suggests you are, we can see all people are capable of the same things and maybe art will assume more meaning than superficial relations of race and character.