In the painting “The Treachery of Images,” which presents a pipe, but also says quite clearly, “This not a pipe,” Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte juxtaposed an ordinary object in an unusual context, giving new meaning to something familiar.
The latest work from the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures, “Not About Iraq,” which runs tonight and Saturday at the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater at UCLA, employs a similar technique. The creator, internationally acclaimed choreographer and WAC professor, Victoria Marks, maintains that the piece is not about Iraq. However she added, “And, of course, it is. We can’t help it.”
Inspired by Neil Greenberg’s “Not-About-AIDS-Dance,” which proposes that dance should be viewed as a representation of the surrounding world, Marks was moved to contrast her personal freedom against the global backdrop of war and deprivation.
“I feel like I have to somehow hold together these simultaneous truths. I get to go into the studio and make this pretty dance, while I appreciate that my privilege is part of a larger ecology of haves and have-nots and the violence that’s going on around me,” Marks said.
The questions the show inspires are aimed at engaging the audience with not only the visceral choreography, but also what Marks sees as a conflict between complacency and a civic responsibility to be a citizen of the world.
“There’s definitely a certain urgency to the work,” said Taisha Paggett, an MFA student in the WAC program. “It’s a piece that you take home with you, and it resonates and makes more sense over time.”
Marks has taught at WAC since 1995, when Angelia Leung, co-chair of the department, brought her onboard to help shape the dance curriculum.
“She’s an incredible artist and educator,” said Leung. “She really is a model for us in how you can be an incredible professional, and yet be able to use dance as a force for social change.”
Her fellow performers claim the strength of Marks’ choreography comes from the way in which she lulls the audience with moments of light-hearted wit and then follows with a ferocity that shakes viewers out of their complacency.
“It’s quite a challenge in working with metaphor,” said Leung. “She starts very beautifully, and then, by the end, you’re like, “˜What have I seen? Is this really beautiful, or is this really horrible?'”
Marks credits her dancers as collaborators in a project that started back in 2002. She first began to explore one of the pieces with Maria Gillespie, adjunct professor of dance at WAC and artistic director of Oni Dance who will also be appearing in the upcoming production. Marks later brought Paggett into the studio a few summers ago to develop the opening dance, also called “Not About Iraq.” Paggett says the production, which is at once joyful and full of despair, is sure to resonate with audiences well after the performance ends.
“After the show is over, I think someone goes home, and the next morning, they turn on the news, and they start to hear stories about what’s going on in the world,” said Paggett. “And then they start to question, “˜Is this really true?'”
Marks said that her goal with the dance was to learn how to engage people on both an emotional and a physical level. By posing important questions throughout the piece, Marks encourages active participation as the attendants must make up their own mind over a set of controversial issues.
“We do have the powers of interpretation,” said Marks. “As we make our way through the maze of information, somehow we really do know what this is, if we pay attention (and) if we don’t distract ourselves.”