Deborah Hay's work at MoMA titled Blues

Recently, I danced in a work at Museum of Modern Art, by Deborah Hay titled Blues.  This work was in the mist of a larger concept conceived by Ralph Lemon, curated by MoMA. Ralph asked several choreographers to be involved in this project Jerome Bel, Sarah Michelson, Dean Moss and Deborah Hay.  The only thing that Ralph asked of the choreographers was to address the space that they were in, which was the beautiful MoMA's atrium also to include black music, whatever that meant for the choreographers. I was in Deborah Hay's work, and able to see Sarah's work, will briefly speak on that at the end of this note.  

Deborah's work was made over 8 months through long intensive emails and correspondence with 11 black performers (Blue Black) and 12 white women performers (Blue White).  Deborah had addressed the question that Ralph had put to her by making her own song, having spent time at MOMA with Ralph, noticing that he was the only black man in the museum walking around looking at work she wanted to address that as well. Deborah gave a intense series of things to be practiced until we met 4 days before the performance.  I will give you two of her many ideas so that you have an idea of what we were working with.  !.What if everywhere I am, weaving is 2.What if every cell of my body sees, as my eyes do?  With this we would go into our lives and take the questions and practice.  This was such a gift for me, i was given another way of looking at movement and given beautiful thoughtful emails about her way of working and it has deeply changed how i see and move and wish to move. Many times I admit I was left wondering "what the hell is going on?" ,but then i would just trust that i was trying to practiced the question in my moving life. I would always go back to the questions plus the physical part of the work if i was confused. The Blue Whites were given another task of practicing "quietude" .  Some reading this might at this point notice the two separate groups and the names of those groups and that we have two different practices.  This is when I would grab hold of task at hand as an artist. I believe that it is my duty as a artist living in this world to "hold a mirror" up to itself to show the world what it is, what we do. no Judgement, .  This is how i choose to work in my practice of Deborah Hay's Blues.

Something else that you should know is that alot of the cast  members were emailing about the question of separate cast, different practices, basically asking whats going on? what is this? Whats Happening?  I choose to again see and look at the "TASK"  not what was going to be perceived  to understand that what we were doing was big and would  have people to engaged in conversation about race.  I am 39 years old,  black dancer that has lived in the USA, Canada also traveled alot to Europe with various dance companies.  The "RACE" issue in America seems to be a fixed subject woven into the fabric of who we were and what we are. Racism still exist.  It has changed it's way and is no longer "in your face and out in the open" but it is there.  I bring this up at this point because alot of people were busy with the conversation about why she choose to do this.  and if it was "RIGHT".   I feel as though Deborah showed the world as it is. It's quite tough to look at, it brings up many questions and concerns. This is the beautiful thing about ART it shows the world itself and asks the "hard" questions sometimes proposes answers but more often just asks.  My experiences, I visit MoMA quite often, this time I was given the opportunity to do what I love most, inside of that building, not hidden behind choreographed steps and costumes but to arrive and dance. I was able to let the audience deal with all that other stuff "black and white" ,"women and men" and why we were able to move and the white cast was not. why we wore colors and the white cast did not. so many questions were being tossed around.  Questions that can not possibly get answered there inside of MoMA  to say racism still exist yes people knowing or not put themselves and others inside of "boxes"

I was happy to be in that work and inside of the mind of Deborah Hay for so long, who by the way choose never to address any of these questions.  I believe she was caught in the task of the "practice" . I won't be so naive as to think that she never thought about the separation of cast and what that means, Im sure she must have, the job of an artist is to show the  world itself.  It was uncomfortable at times but she did exactly that.  There is racism and classism and sexism going on all the time.  This work was successful to me because it has gotten a lot of people talking about issues that make them uncomfortable.  

Sarah' s work was so different, the title was devotion study #3.  The space was wiped clean of people and chatter.  Two dancers one visible the whole time and one not visible until much later, then only for about 30 seconds.  Sarah choose to use beautiful soul music and she was the DJ. I was amazed that as I looked over at Sarah, she was singing the words to the song this was part of her . This music was her "devotion" and the dancer was doing something that i know about, repetition kept doing the same thing over and over and over again. "devotion" and as it went on it got more and more  intense, never dropping its clarity in the movement. Sarah used the museum guards in her work, they enter in the beginning running with the dancer and then held post as they normally do, but this time with the careful design of Sarah's eye. Sarah's work was so wonderful for me because I go quite often to the museum and I always notice the guards and who they are and how extremely quite they are.  "devotion"  which had a roaming light never to catch the dancer directly in the light but to just miss her. Everyone knows when you are doing your devotion whatever it is for you it is your alone time it is your personal "me" time and this light that was there and never settled on her for long was reminding me of "devotion" is  a private thang.  A beautiful work . simple and beautiful. I feel somewhere in the world Nicole, is probably still doing "devotion" somewhere that's how intense it was.  

Thanks, Ralph for another amazing opportunity.  

There will be at talk at St. Marks Church on Nov 10 from 1pm to 530pm talking about all the works shown at MoMA.  It's going to be a wonderful, engaging talk.  Please come. 

Malcolm Low

American Artist (b)1973