Nietzsche, Ho Chi Minh and Robert Frost ““ as different as
these individuals may appear, they each found a place on stage at
the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures’ second-annual
Festival of Works. Even then, they represented only a fraction of
the concepts that world arts and cultures students examined in
their original compositions of movement, visuals and the spoken
word from June 2 to June 4.
The WAC department originally conceived the Festival of Works
last year as a way of providing students with an opportunity to
present their personal art to an audience and, in the process,
showcase the diversity within the department. Indeed, diversity and
creativity were really the only visible links between each piece in
a show of remarkable versatility and honesty.
“It’s a non-intimidating place; it’s a place
that they’ve established as one where really honest work can
be shown,” said Sarita Moore, a fourth-year WAC student whose
work “Morphine” was performed at the festival.
“It’s one of the shows that I’ve been in at UCLA
where people really told true stories, and really shared parts of
themselves.”
Some of the students featured in the festival were presenting
their compositions publicly for the first time, while others viewed
the event as one of many additional opportunities to perform.
Regardless of their experience, most students relished the
opportunity to connect with an audience on a personal level.
“It’s just nice when people talk to you and tell you
how your work has affected them, to know that it reaches beyond
what it means to you,” said Tatiana Johnson, a third-year WAC
student who presented her text to movement piece, “Was It
You?”
For Moore, Johnson and second-year WAC student Jena McRae,
preparing their compositions for the festival became a healing
process that allowed them to relive old experiences and examine how
they had been affected by those events on an emotional level.
“My piece (“˜Scapula’) was so personal that it
became an enriching experience for me, maybe even more so than for
the audience, because it was a therapeutic process working on it
and performing it,” said McRae.
Unlike Johnson and McRae, who initially created their pieces as
assignments for their classes, fourth-year WAC student Nicole Smith
frequently comes up with some of her best performance ideas through
personal reflection and stimulation. If anything, Smith thinks her
assignments have challenged her to think creatively about how to
fulfill her projects’ criteria while still remaining true to
her unique vision.
“Art is infinite, and there are infinite
possibilities,” said Smith. “A lot of times that gets
lost when art is institutionalized. I find some of my peers get
stifled by the idea of assignment, but I’m going to create my
vision because I have to stay true. If it is true, it is
beautiful.”
Smith’s dance and spoken-word work “Corners to
Dissolve” was also featured at the American College Dance
Festival on April 8 as one of 10 works selected from about 40
possible adjudicated works from the southwest region.
WAC students say that they feel strongly supported by the
faculty of the department, as well as by each other.
“Any time that I get to create or show work with my peers,
I really value it, because I feel like we are the community,”
said Smith. “We’re so much more powerful as a
collective than by individually telling our own stories.”
Moore enjoys the experience of creating works with meaning and
substance and appreciates the support she receives from professors
throughout the creation process.
“WAC is really interested in making thinking artists and
people that make works of substance, not just simply for
entertainment value,” said Moore. “That’s
something we’re definitely challenged to do on a constant
basis.”
But the festival hardly marks the culmination of WAC
students’ works. Many plan on continuing to create and refine
their art as long as they can.
“I just want to dance, to create and be heard and keep on
doing it,” said Smith.