{"id":54,"date":"2012-01-18T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idiosyncrazy.org\/blog\/?p=54"},"modified":"2012-01-18T19:25:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T19:25:43","slug":"founding-idiosyncrazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idiosyncrazy.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/18\/founding-idiosyncrazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding idiosynCrazy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Founding idiosynCrazy<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Jumatatu Poe<\/p>\n

idiosynCrazy productions\u2019 Artistic Director, Jumatatu Poe, reflects on some of the impulses that drove him to found idiosynCrazy productions, and what keeps it feeling relevant for him. Take a look at some of the ideas at work, behind-the-scenes.<\/em><\/p>\n

*also, check out our One-Year Vlog Project<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

___________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

I am incredibly inspired and driven forward by an amazing workshop experience I had in New York during Winter MELT at Movement Research.\u00a0 The late afternoon workshops were led by dance artist Trajal Harrell, and were centered around choreographic and compositional choices, and what the social\/political\/economic inspirations for and impacts of these choices can be.\u00a0 In my estimations, we addressed being clear about the audiences for whom we were making work.\u00a0 We talked about the daunting challenge of addressing<\/em> complicated ideas\/themes\/images\/constructs\/concepts within a work, and the (necessary) distance between (artist) intention and (audience) interpretation.\u00a0 We talked about being clear, for ourselves, and making choices about how clear we wanted to be perceived by others.\u00a0 Lately, as I question the choreographic work that I make and<\/em> the (necessary) stakes of making that work for distribution within the world, these things were exactly where I needed to guide my thoughts.\u00a0 Thank you, to Trajal and other participants of the class, for facilitating this direction!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After the workshop, I consumed myself with ideas: about my choreographic work, about idiosynCrazy productions, about the way that I represent my body and allow\/invite bodies to be represented.\u00a0 About a lot of things.\u00a0 But, what I am most drawn to today is the idea of idiosynCrazy productions \u2013 the idea of it today, my original ideas of it, and our (the company\u2019s) ideas about what it could\/will be\u2026 and what will be the impact for\/on us.<\/p>\n

When I left grad school and entered, more steadily, into Philly\u2019s professional dance world, I knew that I wanted to make work: I wanted to be a choreographer\/director of dance work.\u00a0 And my desires were somewhat specific\u2026 I wanted to have a place to be able to explore really athletic (sometimes<\/em>), pop-culture-and-urban-lifestyle-influenced (whatever that means<\/em>), part narrative-abstract-experiential, messy (because, look at this city\u2026 it\u2019s unavoidable<\/em>), modular (being able to be performed in a vast variety of locations, in interaction with different folks<\/em>) dance work.\u00a0 I wanted to develop processes that would incorporate discussion of contemporary social phenomena.\u00a0 I wanted an environment supportive of folks from all backgrounds interested in partaking in this contemporary, experimental dance world (frequently stigmatized as a world exclusively dedicated to White cultural expression).\u00a0 And I felt like there were folks around me who wanted to do that, too, and that I really wanted to work with.<\/p>\n

Having a company namesake was not, and still is not, my interest.\u00a0 However, it seemed convenient to have some organizational body designed to produce the type of work that, then and now, I need<\/em> to be making, whether I am directing it or not.\u00a0 So, I founded idiosynCrazy productions\u2026\u00a0 Heh, that ellipsis seems appropriate.\u00a0 Hesitation about the unknown was a significant part of my first interactions with the idea <\/em>of idiosynCrazy productions.\u00a0 When I graduated from college, I was one of the founding members of Green Chair Dance Company, a collaborative dance company also based in Philadelphia.\u00a0 From then, I knew that the collaborative dance-making process (with multiple directors) was not for me.\u00a0 Not at that time.\u00a0 Since my last year in college, I had been dancing in Kariamu Welsh\u2019s company (Kariamu & Company: Traditions), and felt fairly certain that the company-namesake model was also not up my alley.\u00a0 But, I did<\/em> want to choreograph.\u00a0 And I also wanted to dance in works directed by others, who had interests in a similar world of ideas as mine.<\/p>\n

With idiosynCrazy productions, I always knew that I wanted to have multiple directors of the company.\u00a0 Growing up with parents who identified (especially in my youth) as socialist and Pan-Africanist, communal decision-making is a part of my developmental-DNA.\u00a0 I also knew very early that I wanted to build this company with Shannon and Shavon; I have immense respect for both of them as artists and as visionaries.\u00a0 Right now, the only choreographic work that idiosynCrazy productions has made was directed by either me or Shannon Murphy.\u00a0 We have discussed soon having other directorial voices enter into the mix, and I am excited about this.\u00a0 The traditional idea of the \u201cdance company\u201d is becoming largely outdated (especially in the contemporary, experimental dance field), but I am driven to keep working toward the future of idiosynCrazy productions \u2013 a future that faces today\u2019s national economy realistically\u2026 AND revolutionarily.\u00a0 There is a place for this work, particularly in conversation with Philadelphia\u2019s communities, and I am excited to help make more of it happen.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When I was 17, it occurred to me that I would always, with each new year, look back upon my past ages, tickled, while murmuring, \u201cWow, I really didn\u2019t know much back then.\u201d\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t serve me to presume that what I know right now<\/em> is \u201cmuch.\u201d\u00a0 Or that what I know ten years from now will be.\u00a0 I am looking forward to a time when my current artistic interests and desires are laid to rest, or mutated enough that their resemblance to the past seems coincidental.\u00a0 The works that I make now with idiosynCrazy productions will one day be less relevant for me, in my future present-tense.\u00a0 And, if I am paying attention to myself, I feel like this is the only<\/em> way (I say that now, so authoritatively\u2026 while not knowing much).\u00a0 For right now, though, I am happy to be making work within idiosynCrazy productions.\u00a0 The work feels like something that I need to be figuring out \u2013 and I still have so many<\/em> questions about it.\u00a0 Thank you, idiosynCrazy productions, for providing me the space to explore these things that feel so relevant.<\/p>\n

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Founding idiosynCrazy -Jumatatu Poe idiosynCrazy productions\u2019 Artistic Director, Jumatatu Poe, reflects on some of the impulses that drove him to found idiosynCrazy productions, and what keeps it feeling relevant for him. Take a look at some of the ideas at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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