Artist Spotlight: Lenora Lee Dance
Photo Credit: Hien Huynh
“We have to push the power of art as not only a creative, but a social practice, one that is involved in complex problem solving, community building, collaborative engagement, inspiration for next generations, a voice for the underrepresented, a powerful vehicle of connection and representation of diverse perspectives and processes.”
—— Lenora Lee
Pao Arts Center is thrilled to be working with Lenora Lee Dance as our 2021 Artist-In Residence. This year, working in collaboration with Boston-based dancers, community members, and Pao Arts Center, Lee will be working on multiple projects including Meditations on the Power of Community in response to the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s current exhibition Shen-Wein: Painting in Motion, and Convergent Waves a full length piece supported by NEA and NEFA.
On May 6, Meditations on the Power of Community will debut, with an opening screening and panel on Tuesday, May 11 at 6:00 pm.
Lenora shares a glimpse of the creative process, working with Boston-based dancers, and in response to the work at the Gardner Museum’s Hostetter Gallery:
“I asked the dancers to consider spending time with Shen Wei's paintings and the descriptions of his work, prior to filming their sections, and allowing their responses to his work feed and inspire their movement during the filming.
In the screen capture, Naoko Brown is performing one of Flora Hyoin Kim's choreographic phrases, that she created in our first rehearsal, in response to a writing prompt and meditation I led them through.“
Photo credit: Weiying Olivia Huang
About her choreographic phase, Flora shares:
"I was thinking preliminary about the sacred aspect of the land, ground, and the world that we are living in and the circle of life- how we are born as a human but we all go back to the dust and go back to the ground when we die rather we like it or not. I thought about how we are all connected to the earth. Also there were elements of pain, suffering and sadness that I was feeling from the pandemic- the loss of connection with other humans, community and the physical space, so there is a sense of longing for re-connecting. All these thoughts and feelings somehow brought me to the ground in my choreography and drew a circle on the floor while kneeling, which represents the sacred place, almost like a private prayer space, and then somehow the piece was called a graveyard from that specific movement. It's an intimate, sacred and humbling dance."
Behind the Scenes of Meditations on the Power of Community:
Pictured: Behind the scenes shots from Meditations on the Power of Community, dancers Naoko Brown and IJ Chan at Shen Wei: Painting in Motion Exhibition (Hostetter Gallery), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, December 3, 2020 – June 20, 2021.