Production highlights the ‘narratives’ of students

From May 8 to May 9, UCLA’s Department of  World Arts and Cultures and the Department of Dance will put on a production showcase featuring seventeen dance, film and spoken word pieces by graduating seniors at Kaufman Hall. Operating under the theme “Narratives,” the budding artists explore real life and societal issues through the creative use of various art mediums.

TRANSCRIPT:

ZHOU: From May 8 to May 9, UCLA’s world arts and culture department and the dance department will put on a senior production showcase featuring seventeen dance, film and spoken word pieces by graduating seniors at Kaufman Hall. With genres ranging from dance to spoken word, the aspiring senior artists seek to bring their life stories under the stage spotlight.

Fourth-year world arts and cultures student Jack Kaden is one of the artists who attempts to create a bridge between her own personal experiences and her love for filmmaking.

Kaden: My piece is called “Mariposa.” It is a film sort of reimagining some of my memories of my childhood up until the point I experienced a traumatic event. I think it is special because it is a film shot in still images, but I use audio and video editing techniques to make it feel immersive.

My piece tries to put the audience in a first person perspective of the situation, so anyone who either had experience with those types or situations or hasn’t can learn sort of what it is like.

Because I want to help break down the stigma surrounding sexual assault, and I also wanted to use it as a tool for personal growth to grow with this story rather than keep trying to run away from it.

ZHOU: Eyes lit with excitement, Kaden accounts how her interest in film is a summer’s love at first sight.

Kaden: I actually had a summer a few years ago when I wasn’t doing anything. I couldn’t get a job, and I had a little point-and-shoot camera. I was doing a video a week for a month. And so I learned to do filmmaking through that. I realized that creating this project film was the perfect medium for it because it  happens in real time. When you look at a picture it is a static thing. And so this event happened to me in real time, and I want to mimic the steps of that event as true to life as possible.

ZHOU: While some students used performing arts as a means to tell personal life stories, other students utilized various forms of the arts for social commentary. Fourth-year world of arts and culture and education student Nina Friedman uses spoken word to approach social problems.

Friedman: My piece is called “Notions of Normalcy.”It is a mixture of spoken word and video and audience involvement that explores my daily experiences as a white girl.

It is sort of deconstructing and encouraging people to recognize the presence of systematic white privilege and the pervasive nature of white privilege in our society.

I wrote a research paper last spring actually, and I was thinking about creative ways that I can present the paper, and it kind of manifested into this ultimate project that is very much spoken from my personal experiences with these privileges but really is talking about the unaddressed issue of the pervasiveness of whiteness as a whole, which I think is a conversation that is difficult to have, and I hope my piece encourages people to talk about it.

ZHOU: Friedman then moved on to explain her journey with spoken poetry.

Friedman: This is actually my first experience ever doing spoken word. I am also a member of the UCLA Sexsquad, which is also a WAC class. We use different art forms to address sexual health issues which kind of like race is hard to talk about. I was inspired by my peers and fellow WAC students to explore ways I can talk about this in spoken poem.

ZHOU: And future plans after college?

Friedman: I was involved with the UCLA Sexsquad. And we use humor and personal narrative to ignite dialogues of sexual health with LAUSD students. So I am hopefully going to continue to work with the art and global health center of WAC. I also just applied for a job at Planned Parenthood and am hoping for the best.

Hernandez: Wherever you go, people notice your skin color. Wherever you go, people always notice your ethnicity.

ZHOU: Robed in black dance gear, Johnny Hernandez, fourth-year word arts and culture/dance student, recounts his inspiration for his dance piece, “Wetback.”

Hernandez: The title of my piece is the word “Wetback.”Which is the derogatory term used toward illegal Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S. That term comes from Mexicans having to cross over the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the U.S. I am exploring the oppression from a country that is supposed to be the land of the free from different testimonies that I have been able to collect.

ZHOU: A former soccer player, Hernandez details how dance converges with his path.

Hernandez: I used to play soccer for my entire life. At a highly competitive level, and I unfortunately got injured. I came from a Latin background, we were born dancing pretty much. I have always grown up loving it but I just never pictured myself graduating from UCLA with a dance degree.

ZHOU: And the future plans of Hernandez are…

Hernandez: I am actually starting a collective dance company based here in L.A., with a classmate of mine and some members of this department. Our company is called Hype Lines Contemporary Dance. We are hoping to perform in L.A. and hopefully will be able to travel within the country to perform.

ZHOU: Sitting in his office, Professor of World Arts and Cultures and Dance Dan Froot addresses his hopes and expectations of this production.

Froot: I think part of the job of students is to really individuate themselves from each other so their works really stand out from each out. So I think we have got some really divergent pieces coming from diverse methodologies and diverse cultural backgrounds with diverse messages. And I think that is probably the hallmark of this year’s production, that there is just such a wide berth of approaches to storytelling.

ZHOU: After a year of careful planning and consistent hard work, the seniors of the world arts and cultures/dance departments are going to share the fruit of their labors with the UCLA community. Though the seniors are using different approaches to present their pieces, every tiny detail or segment is part of an intuitive effort to convey a universal message that cannot be overlooked. For Daily Bruin Radio, this is Connie Zhou.