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It’s not unusual for dancers to perform movement to scripted text, but “Towards Belonging” takes the rare step of allowing its multiethnic dancers to script and audio record their own journeys of finding space for themselves in White America.
Hearing the dancers speaking over video of themselves dancing provides a visceral connection between their words and the intense emotions their experience creates. In the case of “Towards Belonging,” director and choreographer Anjanette Maraya Ramey’s dance steps transmit frustration, fury, sadness, pain and gradually self-acceptance, love and the joy of community.
Produced by Maraya Performing Arts for La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival, “Towards Belonging” was filmed earlier this spring at Writerz Blok and in San Diego’s Diamond District. The dance was originally performed at the 2019 Trolley Dances in San Diego. Since then it has been developed into a multidiscipline piece with a cast and design team
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Revealing personal stories can connect people to a common humanity, and recognizing another’s point of view is critical to overcoming prejudice.
That’s why choreographer
Anjanette Maraya-Ramey, artistic director and founder of Maraya Performing Arts, created “Towards Belonging,” a film that in May celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“Towards Belonging” brings to life the experiences of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) community through dance, music, art and poetry. The voices of the dancers woven into the soundtrack express how it feels to be a non-White artist.
There are the recollections, for instance, of Japanese American dancer Hannah Pritchett.