Genna
Genna during a video call with Marie on May 15, 2023
(The following is a condensed version of my conversation with Genna.)
Marie: How did you and Benny come together?
Genna: Benny is pretty good at presenting himself online, so it didn’t take too long for me to see that he was becoming present in the Seattle community. I have ties in New York and lived there for six years, then moved here. I saw his audition post, and I also saw that he had a masterclass at the studio I teach at (Emerald Ballet Theatre), so I got to witness and observe him teaching. That was nice to see, so I decided to go to the audition. Then, he asked me to be a part of this process.
M: Have you participated in choreographic processes that included non-moving collaborators in the past?
G: I’ve collaborated with a lot of videographers. I find it really interesting and freeing to work with someone on that side of the screen. As dancers, we’re so used to setting work for a proscenium stage, or only seeing it from your standing-body perspective. Working with videographers, and learning that you can portray any kind of point of view that you want…there is a lot of possibility within that.
M: Inside Begin Again, are perceiving yourself as yourself, or are you building a separate character?
G: I think this work calls to me, the way Benny has been describing it, I feel very much like my individual self within the work so far. I don’t feel like I’ve been playing a character, which is more-so what I’m used to, embodying something else. And so, I feel like I’m kind of embodying my experience of the last couple of years, and taking that and putting that into movement.
M: How would you describe your level of agency within the total collaboration?
G: Because I’m dancing with other dancers with their own experiences, it feels like I think structuring the piece is about the collaboration with others versus making decisions on my own. But, I think, experiencing the movement is very much what I choose internally to experience. It’s definitely a challenge of having time not necessarily on our side for the creative process. I do feel like it is more being in tune with how it is coming together as a team versus my own choices being the forefront.
M: Do you have thoughts on the props? Do you have experience with props?
G: I find it very challenging, because, I think, of how Benny wants us to incorporate them. They’re very much their own animal, but very much our own thing to learn how to tame and control, and to, like, morph with. I’ve actually worked with a similar idea, but it was more about it being a prop and having very specific angles to hit with a large group of people. We definitely weren’t at all connected to the board. This is a very different experience than what I’ve done in the past. Because I think you also have to think about (how) it is an experience for an audience to look into, so sometimes what you’re feeling might not be what’s coming across, so I think there are a lot of components.
M: Are you choosing to actively engage with or integrate identity into your approach to Begin Again?
G: For some reason I have a feeling that once everything is set, as far as material, that it might come out stronger, how I put my own experience in the piece. But, I am finding it super challenging to pull out my own experience from the pandemic, because it was such a lonely time for me, and it’s hard to think of showing people that feeling, because that’s super uncomfortable and kind of sad. Even though I know that we all went through it in our own ways, it’s still an uncomfortable experience to relive and to pull from. I don’t feel like I’ve had a resolution from going into a more “pre-pandemic” phase, but I feel like I got punched in the face and I’m still trying to figure things out. It’s weird, because I still think I’m living the experience and trying to figure things out, which, I know we will always be feeling that way, but I feel a little behind in a resolution within my own personal life
M: Is the trauma and healing work that is happening inside the concepts informing Begin Again’s creation process personal to you?
G: I’m trying to go a more creative route within it (Begin Again) and try to look at my overall experience from a different perspective, or trying out different perspectives. I think it’s easy to live in the trauma of it all, but I’m definitely trying to sit with how it affected me and everyone in other ways. It’s also interesting being around people who are pondering the same questions. It’s also something I want to try and be more aware of, as the time comes near to the performance, of being able to let myself connect with the other dancers and other creators, because that’s a little difficult for me to do. It feels very vulnerable. I’m definitely reminding myself about that every time I’m coming in.
M: Are you finding in Begin Again opportunities for self-reinvention? Or, has there been any new beginning for you performatively?
G: Connection and having this awareness of really connecting through a real experience with other people will probably be a very different experience than I’ve ever had onstage or in a creative process, because of a lot of the work I’ve done being not that, or even close to that. I think that’s a huge thing in my personal life, of being able to ask for help, and being able to be vulnerable about my real feelings and thoughts, and I think that I’m bringing a piece of that into this process. As a result of that, it’s going to give a different feeling and I’m going to have a different outcome through this process.
- Marie