Bisexual, black, woman ““ each classification fights to hold
her back.
But Taisha Paggett keeps walking, paving her own path. She has
somehow managed to put one foot in front of the other in a series
of steps that has enabled her to conquer the stage.
As a graduate student in the world arts and cultures graduate
dance program, Paggett has created her final project, titled
“how we get by.” The performance, consisting of four
contemporary dance pieces, is scheduled to be on stage at the
Glorya Kaufman Family Garden Theater tonight through Saturday.
Paggett grew up in Fresno and began her dance career as a
freshman at UC Santa Cruz, where she gained a foundation in modern
dance while pursuing a degree in art history. She has since refined
her technique through studies in yoga, contact improvisation and
alignment.
Before moving to Los Angeles, she lived and performed in New
York City, where she studied with Movement Research, a creative
residency for emerging choreographers.
In addition to being a minority in race and sexual orientation,
Paggett has encountered obstacles in the dance world because of her
age. The average MFA student hasn’t yet hit 30, Paggett is 29
years old.
But don’t think she’ll be watching from stage left
on opening night. The concert opens with her solo. Stripped of the
typical visual accoutrements of stage performance, the minimalist
scenery consists of a small square of artificial grass.
“(The choreography) manifests the psychological state of a
character incapable of moving off her land,” said Paggett
about her dance.
“My pieces usually deal with identity on a political or
personal level ““ how black bodies are portrayed on stage and
(reflecting) my experience as a queer woman. But (this
choreography) moves away from these identities to talk more about
an emotional place that applies to all,” she said.
Another piece tells the story of two female bodies making a
connection with one another. While the dance has a “queer
reading,” according to Paggett, and involves a physicality
verging on intimacy, she said she does not have the desire to make
any overt statements about sexual orientation.
A third piece comments on the trauma following the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks.
As a resident of New York City at the time of the incident,
Paggett regrets the rhetoric that immediately emerged encouraged
our country to move on without an interlude for grievance and
understanding.
“I have an interest in finding the way people deal with
situations. (These dances) explore how the nuances of our decisions
and the actions we take on a daily basis influence how we live in
this world,” she said.
Paggett’s work is essentially an interpretive throwback to
Marx ““ an issue of emancipation. “how we get by”
empowers individuals to carve spaces for themselves against
preordained social conditions.
The final dance grounds this message with a performance by
Rebecca Alson-Milkman, also a WAC graduate student. She traces the
periphery of the stage with her movement, reinforcing the physical
limits of her space. The individual teeters between reality and a
subliminal dream state, maniacally determined to free herself from
this confining track.
“She is in conflict with what she imagines herself to be
and what she encounters in reality. This is how she boxes herself
in,” said Alson-Milkman, describing her character’s
mentality.
Paggett thrives on an agenda of starting things anew and
creating fresh work.
“I want people to see dance differently and think about
their own conditions,” she said.
As the last graduate student to perform her final project,
Paggett brings the WAC Upstarts series full circle. With her
choreography well-versed in the power of language and the language
of power, Paggett bows out with a message for all.
“We all have it in us,” she said. “We all have
the agency to create our spaces.”