Excerpts from Margaret Jenkins' personal journal
during the MJDC's Asia tour of Other Suns with the
Guangdong Modern Dance Company (GMDC)
December 25, 2010 - January 9, 2011

Contents:

San Francisco to Guangzhou
Day 2: Guangzhou
Day 3: Guangzhou
Jan. 1st: Day Off in Guangzhou
Day Off in Guangzhou
Guangzhou to Shantou
Shantou University
First Performance, Shantou University
Last Performance, Song & Dance Theater, Guangzhou
Last Day on Tour

 
December 25, 2010 – Day 1, San Francisco to Guangzhou

After a 28-hour “day” of travel – the usual cancellations, misdirected directions, etc. – we arrived to the smiling face of our company manager. She is from Shanghai and has been our company manager, translator and all around wondrous leader since the 2009 residency in China. I have missed her so!

In the end, the trip to Guangzhou was hardly anything when you think of the nightmares being experienced by everyone in Europe due to weather interruptions.
December 26, 2010 – Day 2, Guangzhou

I had lunch with some of the GMDC administrative and artistic staff to talk about how things had gone in preparation for our arrival and how to direct rehearsal today. More interesting than those details, I was struck by how things politically and culturally feel like they have taken a step forward and backward—at the same time—from when we saw everyone last here in 2009. On the one hand there is a huge new performing arts center, which is bringing big extravaganzas to Guangzhou, like Irish step dance, but the Department of Cultural Affairs is rearing its control head more than ever and affecting who comes, what gets seen and what receives funds. It seemed to be easing the last time we were here—one could get on Facebook and look at YouTube and use Google search easily, but now there is no Facebook access, etc. So there is some frustration: new freedoms in some areas, and more control in others.

I just love being out of the country, in and on the streets of an “other sun.” On the one hand streets are more paved and the air is cleaner and the sun can be seen (less pollution), and on the other, there is a tightening of the reins. This is my fifth time here so all is familiar, which I love, yet strikingly other which is also fascinating.

Walking into the studio, being greeted by wondrous hugs and exclamations of “We miss you,” “I miss you,” “Long time since we can see you…” and then watching the MJDC and GMDC almost without any translation, start putting back together again the pieces of humpty dumpty (Other Suns) – this is all very moving. A quartet here, a trio there, a sextet or 15/tet – what’s the word for that? – was more than thrilling. After 40+ years of doing this thing called “making work,” these are, literally, the moments worth waiting for as one wades through the unremarkable hours of a day.

I was tired, of course, but I got very emotional thinking about how most of my days are spent negotiating and dialing for dollars, or keeping track of the untrackable details, like flights and press releases, meetings, grants, etc. There in front of me, around me in different groupings without encouragement or help, dance was happening in simple and complex ways with laughter and joy and the deep acknowledgement that this was not just another day. The privilege of it all was palpable!

The day continued until the MJDC, not having had more than a few hours of sleep, said “stop” and I, too, agreed, as our eyelids were glued open and were no longer seeing. A quick shop at Justco (the “Whole Foods” of Guangzhou) for my favorite noodles, relish and bok choy completed the day. Dinner was quickly boiled on the wonderfully fast hot plate. Now to prepare for tomorrow’s class, then collapse.

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December 27, 2010 – Day 3, Guangzhou

Woke to emails from our production manager who was stuck in Shanghai from a broken plane. She has such a great attitude, “Well, just didn’t expect the adventures to start so soon…”

I literally rolled out of bed, wondering where I was at about 5 am. Knowing it takes me about two hours to prepare class, another hour to teach it to my demonstrator, Steffany [Ferroni], and an hour to warm myself up, I best get ready. I am set to teach at 9am.

Class, from this lens in China, was a deeply uplifting hour – 20-plus people all skilled in different and curious ways, the fluidity always remarkable. The Chinese dancers - not all, but some - come from “song and dance” companies or military dance companies. They have spent a good part of their training becoming flexible – long and gorgeous – but a


[MJDC and GMDC in rehearsal in Guangzhou]
technique  class reveals their and everyone’s weaknesses as all technique classes do: standing on one leg NOT an easy task. The simplicity of what I teach is hard and basic and takes nuance and strength to accomplish, but as they try with their luscious extensions – legs that go in all directions without being encumbered – to engage, it is moving and very centering for me, a reminder about the ritual of class, an active form of meditation. And the bitter sweetness of it all is that I can no longer do most of the ritual, hence the need for Steffany; but as I demonstrate in my own way, I feel the body soaring and the heart pulsing and the memories are active and nag at longing.

We move right into rehearsal pushing forward with the replacements (there are two new dancers to integrate) - the translating of notes, bodies new to each other, finding their way, their voice - and finally their interpretation of the steps, their meaning, their raison d’être.

I never cease to be fascinated by what I see, what I missed the last time or how a new body doing it makes it new again. The lessons learned are just relentless in a good and uplifting way.

I cannot even find the words for how tired we are at this point. We are a version of ourselves, almost out of our bodies. It’s actually scary to push through; this is when injuries occur. But we carefully continue and oblige and do a quiet section of the work, which was completely unifying that late in the day.
Evening

When I got back to my hotel I could not get on the Internet via Google. At dinner, I asked my company manager if she was having trouble – I had wanted to read The Times, and was not able to. She said, “Oh, Google is in conflict with another big company who wants to have the market, so every so often, for days at a time, one can not get on the Internet through Google but only through the Chinese company.” A site only in Mandarin. Ah!

As the conversation unfolds, I mention to her that it is difficult to know how anyone is feeling about anything culturally or politically – and does she find this true herself about her friends in Shanghai; for instance, what is she feeling about the Nobel Peace Prize and the jailed dissident in Beijing. “We know very little about this; there is no publicity anywhere. I only heard a little about it the other day, so I have no opinion.”

She is a VERY VERY smart woman. I find her answers both compelling and unsettling.

So I tell her more about the jailed dissident and my sadness, just as a way of provoking a more in-depth conversation. “I just don’t have enough information.”

I continue very gently, but I don’t want to over pressure. We are in a working relationship, so I am careful. I am so intrigued by the appearance of avoidance without the actual feel of avoidance.

“But, perhaps you can see, why the dance in China is more often not about anything reflective or personal, safe somehow, about perpetuating the state of things as they exist or the state wants them to exist or be perceived. How are we, you and I, to encourage the arts to reflect the complexities of our cultures, for art to be more than just entertainment, careful, to provoke, if we don’t allow each other to ask the difficult questions about where we live, how we treat other people, what we care about and why?”

My company manager then tells me that as a child she asked questions all the time and was punished. Children are not to ask but to listen and respect.

“Did it stop you?” I asked. She laughed and said NO.

I think I share all this because somehow she is the metaphor of a culture at once bursting to grow and shift and encompass, which she is doing in Shanghai with her many pursuits, yet she keeps the lid on in more ways that one. Or perhaps she doesn’t and what she says, is truly what she knows.

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January 1, 2011 – Day Off, Guangzhou

A night of karaoke and some champagne with both companies can really make someone (moi) feel old, but a night’s sleep at the “right” hours finally transpired.

Days off are somehow the oddest on a trip like this. The company disburses in groups, some to Hong Kong, some to various parks, but after having been here many times, it becomes a daunting task about how to fill the hours, alone. I will admit to not being facile at this especially when no one speaks English. I went to Shamian Island, a historic port in the city. It used to be the place where all the adopted babies and their families would gather. The American Embassy has moved, so the island is even quieter. Dozens of brides wander the streets, only for it to be revealed they are all posing for wedding magazines.

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January 2, 2011 – Day Off, Guangzhou

Our company manager took some of us to the oldest dim sum restaurant in downtown, of which there are many in Guangzhou. One of my dancers called it a “hotel of dim sum,” floors and floors. We had a sumptuous meal and then roamed around the packed, newly painted buildings, built solely for the Olympic Games last May, and up and down the small alleys where the real life is lived. Then off to the Opera House, or the Grand Theater as it’s now called, for a special tour.

Tomorrow we start a week of teaching and performances—the reason for our visit, obviously, but we have needed this week to get our bearings, both physically and choreographically.

More as the days unfold.

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January 4, 2011 – Guangzhou to Shantou

Monday brought deep cold weather and there was no heat on the bus. We were told it would be about a five-hour ride, so we all settle in. We are headed Southeast toward the seaside to yet another “other sun” and a piece of time suspended.

There are bits of orange that emerge on the landscape of our drive, and as we get closer to Shantou, fields of lettuce and broccoli rise. A grey, grey day, but the moments of orange seemed to ask the day for forgiveness.

Shantou is famous for its woodcarvings, ceramics and Oolong tea. Scooters are everywhere (not allowed in Guangzhou), giving the city a very different feel. And the hotel has heat and a bed with a real mattress. Everyone is thrilled to be able to sleep on an actual bed and be warm.

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January 5, 2011 – Day 1, Shantou University

A day in the theater, a big auditorium on a lovely tree lined campus of about 20,000. Apparently it’s the most open-minded of the schools in terms of curriculum. And on the outskirts of the city is a museum about the Cultural Revolution.

The floor is cement, carpet on the cement, and marley (a black floor covering for dance) on the carpet. Not great and, in truth, a little dangerous, but everyone, once again, coped, their spirit and professionalism continually inspiring.

We are told that almost all of the 1,800 seats are sold.

Tomorrow – our first performance and a Q&A with the audience.

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[Jenkins directs the dancers in the theater]

[MJDC and GMDC performing Other Suns]		 January 6, 2011 – First performance, Shantou University

One of the dancers became very ill in the middle of the night. We spent the day replacing her; we don’t know yet how she is doing. Then another dancer in the middle of Other Suns III was hit by a flying leg … a black eye and broken tooth the result. This disquietingly fraught evening, though, was at once wondrous and sad. The absence of a dancer we love was at odds with the glory of the moments everyone experienced, in doing what we had come to do - the MJDC in China, to share Other Suns with our other “sun.”
It was amazing to experience 1800 people who had never seen modern dance before, rapt in their seats. More than 900 stayed for over an hour to ask wonderfully insightful questions, full of humor and curiosity, gratitude and awe. The Dean of the School said: “It was an honor to have you grace us with the first modern dance to come to China in this way. We have not seen dance like this before and we are humbled by its virtuosity and importance.”

One audience member asked us what the piece was about, saying he had never seen dance, and then proceeded to tell us eloquently about the work and what he saw, about things being built and then deconstructed. After each answer, the audience would applaud, and, of course, there was the translation of the question and the answer into both Mandarin and Cantonese, as the dancers from both companies hovered to hear what the others had said in their language.

No wonder the Q&A went on for over an hour. The audience would have stayed for longer if we had not had to stop. The last person asked each dancer to summarize their experience in one sentence. It was so touching to hear the Chinese dancers talk about how their lives have been changed, how they learned to pay attention, to be present, to trust, and how this was as close to learning to fly as they thought they might get.

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January 8, 2011 – Last performance, Song and Dance Theater, Guangzhou

As I write this, at 1:30 am, the two companies, the MJDC and Guangdong Modern Dance Company continue to toast, drink and eat, exchanging long hugs – holding on as long as possible to what will most likely be the last performance of Other Suns.

Another long day of spacing and technical rehearsal prior to the evening’s performance; one wonders when the adrenaline will kick in. The only downer of the day was the low temperature, especially inside. Small space heaters that don’t give off much and the lights of the stage just don’t seem to cut the cold; this degree of cold is unusual! (Guangzhou is not ever very cold; there are no boilers as there are in Beijing where it DOES get cold often).

It is quite the sight, seeing everyone rehearsing in hats and gloves and coats!

The best news is that everyone danced (no more replacements), the various dancers recovering from the illnesses and injuries of the last week – wills of iron once again taking over against many odds.

It was the best performance of Other Suns I I have seen it in a long time – there was a conciseness to their force and a power in their attention, clarity and wildness at the same time. The dancers struggled with the cold throughout, but knew it was going well. Perhaps the most poignant for me was Other Suns III, the final section of the trilogy featuring the two companies together. They were completely and deeply focused on one another, knowing that although there are always surprises during performance, they were creating a world of their own, one to share with one another and with the audience, a world that could only come from their time together over the years it took to complete this work.

The audience, which we are told was very good-sized for Guangzhou, felt very different from Shantou University…quieter, more reserved. It is odd how one can feel that during a performance. But I was delighted at the end, that the response was so vocal and supportive and that so many once again stayed for the Q&A. There were officials from the many consulates there and scattered expatriates who made a point of staying to talk about their reactions, some new to dance, others new to this kind of dance, still others who had seen a lot.

What a task for the translator in these situations: summarizing what I say into Mandarin and Cantonese, then summarizing what they say into English, trying to represent both worlds under this one “sun.”

The last person to speak at the Q&A, an experimental artist from NY who moved to Guangzhou three years ago, said we represented hope, hope for a better world and that he had nothing to ask, but only to say that this – Other Suns –is why one goes to the theater, why one makes work, why there truly is hope for humanity,” and that we should be touring the world
spreading the message. It was a lovely and touching way to end the Q&A; at these moments, I get why I do what I do. He said it so easily and with such heart!

At the dinner afterwards, there were many toasts from all involved – to what our being here had meant to them, and about their having come to the US for the four-week tour– how this had changed their lives and more than one spoke to my perseverance (appreciated). And there were tears as we said goodbye to Matthew [Holland], his last performance with the MJDC, and to these new friends who will remain forever far away and near!

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[Karen Cheung, Jenkins and Liu Qi during the Q&A]
January 9, 2011 – Last day on tour, Guangzhou

In conclusion

Last night, as the curtain was slowly raised and I was wrapped in sweaters and a thick warm coat, I told myself:

“Surrender Marg, you are not now or ever in control. Let the work unfold through the dancing, let those who what to watch and listen find their way, and those who are reluctant be surprised!”

As the Chinese poet Bei Dao (whose work had moved us and given us a place from which to launch when creating Other Suns) says:

Flocks of gulls perform mystical calculations
And so they did and we shall see how it all adds up along the way.

A day off in Guangzhou, then tomorrow, a day to return.

Marg

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