Editorial
Grand re Union aims to create togetherness in spite of the postmodern fragmented subjectivities and socialities across various neofacist national contexts where white supremacy, homophobia/xenophobia, racial capitalism, environmental destruction, and generalized subjugating cultural norms violently damage individuals, communities, economies, and the planet. In this struggle Grand re Union addresses the shortcomings and opportunities of the contemporary dance field in proximity and opposition to these systems of domination.
I have a deep personal belief that dance and the somatic and collaborative practices in the dance field have the power to help us grow our capacity for connection, mutability, and fluidity and that this offsets an archeology of hierarchy, power, and control. I also believe that deep embodiment is inherently an antidote to alienation, a sense of supremacy over others and over nature. I am interested in both harmony and discord, our capacity to be balanced and be present within each – aspiring to demonstrate the embodiments, relations, and interplays that could compose new mythologies and methodologies of collectivity. Asking:
Can we write manifestos anymore? Can we be positional enough to say we want to change? Is it possible to act collectively? Can we be supple enough to form a we? The superimposing of each other’s ideas in an infinite menagerie of internet parcels forever downloadable. Can the splintered factions of attention and shredded geographies we’re left with be stitched together to create a whole? If you know there’s always more missing, always a shadow cast, can we ever be together?
Can we exist and not exist at once? Can we have everything and nothing in common? Can we just be and not be we?
Are we consuming more than we can consider? Living more than we can remember? Is there anyone in this ‘we’ with me? Are our mistakes now only that which we neglect to do? Are we inert? Is tension a static thing or a moving thing? What anchors the center of our universe?
What sets our rules of engagement? What meaning structures do we have to shelve our content? The future is the story we tell ourselves about our now. What are we building?
The March issue searches out the frameworks and practices that may compose these new mythologies and methodologies of collectivity, considering how to move towards more complicated and enduring connections and communities.
