In my recent scholarship I explore questions around the politics and aesthetics of Asian American passivity. I am now turning to this question in my creative work. This paper reflects upon a choreographic process I am currently undertaking. I am making a dance that responds to our present era of heightened anti-Asian violence via a paradoxical exploration of passivity. Of course, passivity is a well-worn Asian stereotype. My piece plays at multiple valences around this historically pejorative idea.
An Asian American femme dancer lies centerstage moving slowly, eyes shut. Other Asian American dancers stand above her, watching. Are these dancers surveilling? Are they protecting? Will they hurt or cradle the woman on the floor? I aim to engender an ambiguous visceral response from the audience. On one hand, I want to offer a glimpse of the profound fear of violence that Asian Americans experience. On the other, I hope to offer a performance of care and possibly of restoration. To move with eyes closed and to invite someone to witness you at close range is an act of profound vulnerability. The dancer submits herself to another person. This submission, I argue, is not a giving over of agency, but a willingness to be in relation. Through a choreographic study of submission, I problematize characterizations of Asian American passivity, not to assert the value of invulnerability, but to demonstrate an experience of self-possession through relational vulnerability.
This paper documents the challenges and the choreographic solutions I encounter through the dancemaking process.