In BOW’T TRAIL RETROSPEK, Rhodnie Désir dances the testimonials of the African diaspora
Travelling from Haiti to Brazil, the artist collects a diverse range of rhythmic language
Rhodnie Désir in BOW’T TRAIL RETROSPEK. Photo by Kevin Calixte.
Vancouver International Dance Festival and The Cultch present BOW’T TRAIL RETROSPEK at the Historic Theatre from March 23 to 26
TO CREATE HER PIECES, Montreal dance artist Rhodnie Désir goes through the same kind of rigorous ground work that a documentary filmmaker might.
She has based her BOW’T TRAIL RETROSPEK on nine years of researching and gathering testimonials—130 of them—from people in the African diaspora of North and South America, many of whom trace their ancestry back to slaves. She’s spent monthlong residencies in Haiti, where her own family roots are, Martinique, Brazil, New Orleans, and other key locales.
And though her work traverses into the anthropological, the social, and the archival, she feels strongly that it is choreography in the truest sense of the word.
“‘Choreo’ is the body and ‘graphy’ is the graphic,” she tells Stir over the phone from Place des Arts, where she’s creating a show. “Yes, I am using the same methodology as a documentarian—what I do is always based on the testimonials and real people I’ve met. But those words are directly transformed in my body. I’m embodying the essence of it.”
That essence is intense for the solo artist, whose movement suggests struggle as much as resilience. She’s channelling centuries of lived experience, as well as the rhythms that crossed the Atlantic with the deporting of Africans, bringing the past and present vividly together. (See the trailer below for an indication of how contemporary the result is.)
“BOW’T TRAIL is really a journey—physical and spiritual,” she says.
Video projections envelop her and two live musicians provide accompaniment in a performance that’s helped earned her the Grand Prix and the Envol Award of 2020’s Prix de la danse de Montréal.
In each country she visits, the artist, who trained and worked as a communications and marketing specialist, spends about 40 days in a community. She holds interviews, and does research before collaborating on a piece with the community and its musicians—a BOW’T TRAIL all its own, such as a BOW’T TRAIL BRAZIL.
“Each one of those pieces are seeds placed back in the ground,” she explains.
In BOW’T TRAIL RETROSPEK, “the territory in that is not physical territory—it’s my own body. My body becomes the map. I’m carrying all those messages. I still hear the testimonies.”
With the pandemic ending, Désir can resume her travels and research again—adding more to the messages she’s already mapped in her body.
“I’m very proud to show how rich and contemporary the ancestral cultures are,” she says, “and how plural and infinite the Afro cultures are.”
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