Globe trotter

Though she currently resides in Los Angeles, Esther
Baker-Tarpaga is hardly here to stay. Baker-Tarpaga, a third-year
graduate student in dance, splits her time between Africa, the U.S.
and the rest of the world.

She brings this global perspective to UCLA in her latest
choreographed collection, “Grass Undone,” opening
tonight at the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater.

In the show, she addresses displacement, immigration, love and
the physical boundaries between violence and peace.

Baker-Tarpaga’s dancing journey began in childhood with
contemporary dance, which led her to study West African dance when
she was an undergraduate student at the University of Senegal for a
year. She found African dance exciting because it was so integrated
into daily life.

“For lots of occasions there will be dance, music and
food. If you have a party, there’s dance, music and food; at
a funeral, there’s dance, music and food; same with a
wedding,” Baker-Tarpaga said. “It’s not (just)
some ideal, that everybody’s dancing. Life is very hard, but
dance and music is a part of healing and also joy and
sorrow.”

In Africa, Baker-Tarpaga also studied Wolof ““ a Senegalese
language ““ in an attempt to further immerse herself in the
community’s culture and understand its hardships.

She has maintained her relationship with the West African
community, even dedicating her master’s thesis to Senegalese
hip-hop.

“In hip-hop, (Wolof) helped me understand the texts of
what the rappers were saying, which is often very political.
Hip-hop and contemporary dance are the voice of the new generation,
the post-colonial generation,” Baker-Tarpaga said.

Her artistry will be displayed in intense pieces such as
“Pretty Polly,” which tells the story of a group of
women murdered by their husbands and is inspired by an Appalachian
murder ballad.

“(The dancers) are fierce; they rush gravity,” she
said. “They are victims, but they are so strong.”

In “Quilinga / The Door,” Baker-Tarpaga collaborates
with her husband, Oliver Tarpaga, a choreographer and musician from
Burkina Faso. The piece narrates the couple’s first meeting
and reflects the intricacies and dilemmas concerning relationships
and immigration.

“There’s an overtone of struggle in all the pieces.
Especially with the state of the world now, it’s even harder
to cross borders,” Baker-Tarpaga said. “This piece
deals with the development of our relationship and some of the
struggles you have to go through when you’re an
immigrant.”

Baker-Tarpaga and her husband also perform with another dancer
and musicians in her title work, “Grass Undone.” The
piece centers on finding stillness in chaos and uprootedness,
according to Baker-Tarpaga, and addresses her ongoing difficulties
with immersing herself in other cultures and then returning to the
United States.

“(The United States is) an amazing country,”
Baker-Tarpaga said. “We have so much, but there’s a
void, and you can feel it coming back here. It’s this
uprootedness. Where is home?”

Along with the dancing and live music, two videos produced in
Senegal are set to be presented. “United Nations of Hip
Hop” chronicles the lifestyle of hip-hop artists in Dakar,
Senegal, and “In-Between Baobabs” focuses on dancing in
Dakarian streets.

Dance is often thought of as a provocative art form, and the
World Arts and Cultures Department in particular finds ways to take
dance to a new and deeper level. Baker-Tarpaga fosters this
boundary-breaking tradition in her new show.

“It’s very real. It’s not a tightly bound
ballet; it’s not about lines. There’s a raw reality, a
raw emotion,” Baker-Tarpaga said. “How do you find
peace in this time of war, of searching out spirituality? I know
it’s my personal experience, but a lot of people are feeling
this way. It is a reflection of what’s happening in society
now.”