2050 reflection
Last Monday I was able to attend Planet Texas 2050 and got to see two performances and a film! All three were very fascinating, and I throughly enjoyed my time spent.
The first panel I attended was about environmental storytelling where I got to watch a dance film called Under Review: Katahdin which focused on connecting the audience to the state of the environment and the effect it has on us. It was absolutely gorgeous and quite traumatizing but I think thats a common theme in art. The dancing was really emotional and intimate, and even there there were no words spoken (except the song playing in the credits background) I could tell how much the actors cared for one another and the environment. After the screening we got to ask the director Kelly Ashton Todd questions about her film and the process of making it, where she expressed the importance of connecting with the audience on an emotional level was crucial for the scientific data on climate change actually resonate with people. She also discussed how she changed how she worked with people, saying that sitting down and listening to many different views helped her better connect people to her art rather than just telling people what she believed.
The next performance I got to see was Aqueous where we got to go down to the creek. I really enjoyed getting to move around the creek as the performance went on. It was sorta similar to the previous dance film I saw due to the performers slow, thoughtful, and graceful movements. With the creative reuse costume, all blue, sparkly, flowing, and bold, she reminded me of a water bird. Her playing with the water with her oar really did make me think of a grateful bird testing and savoring the water. the hand built canoe was very cute and simplistic, clearly showing its wooden origins and its connection to nature, and the live music was beautiful. It was like a metal violin confined with a steel pan, and it took me a while to realize it used water to create its ethereal tones. I think it was called a water phone. Everything about the performance showed the connection of water to us and what we could create, where we can use nature to improve our lives without taking away from it.
The final performance I was able to attend was Papakō: The Journey by the Indigenous Cultures Institute and Teatro Vivo. They start with the announcement that this film was made with young people in mind, and I realize now I don’t know what young people count as so I was thinking middle schoolers and high schoolers. The performance was easy to understand, used projection and pre existing video and sources well, emotional, and quite comedic, so I think it would be great for younger audiences! I really enjoyed the story about how they came to be, leaving the underworld to enjoy the world above, and how their bodies must be connected to the earth so they could continue their spiritual journey. They did start and end with prayer, turning around the room beating their drum and blowing a seashell horn, which was incredibly impactful and helps the audience see a little further into their culture. They also sang a song about and honoring their ancestors, and even got the audience to sing along at the end, bringing a sense of community and understanding. The end also emphasized the importance on climate activism, and how that even though it feels hopeless and nothing you do matters to the hundreds of thousands of suffering people, at least your efforts makes a difference to one persons life. I really appreciate that they actually showed us how the effects of protesting actually convinced museums to return the remains, and how indigenous people are viewed and treated negatively affects them and their connection to culture.
