Iris Professional Practice Blog

 A REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER PART I - JOY

Wow. It has only been a couple of months since we took our long Summer break and it feels like a lifetime as passed by. I want to talk about Covid, and BLM and the creative industry and so many, many things that have happened in such a short space of time but I'm going to talk about Joy.

Our lives have turned upside down, if feels like the world is burning and the foundations built under us are crumbling down at a fast pace. We went to sleep and woke up in a complete different universe. The concepts of learning, interacting with others, work and pleasure have been violently ripped apart and its anyone's guess if current society will survive such change, or perhaps the key word is "how" will it survive. 

Most of the teaching was transferred online. Many artists were resistant to teach online, since it loses so many aspects of our human communication as well as concerns over health & safety of learning body mechanics. Others started without a worry in the world (I think these were mainly the Instagram generation!) adapting to the "new normal" as required and being quite successful at it.

The creative industries have been put on complete hold and the nature of how essential the Arts is has not even been questioned. Despite being one of the largest contributors to the economy It was put at the bottom of the list of priorities, period. 

I've often questioned the meaning of my own work throughout the years. As we are living in an era of information/dis-information - knowledge is at the tip of our google and online fingers, so, what is my role as an educator really?... One of the greatest meanings that this crisis has showed me as a dance artist was how important it was to cultivate joy. Joy. Yes, just like that lovely character in the 2015 Disney film "Inside out". Remember how preciously she holds those balls of energy?... During the lockdown I aimed to cultivate a lot of Joy in my teaching delivery online. Where would people be without joy?... Can people cope without Joy in their lives?... How long can you live without listening to music, enjoying colours in a painting, clapping or swaying your head to a basic rhythm?...

It sounds like such a simple thing. Almost too simple to be truly important. Often the smallest and simplest things are. Yap. The virus is a very, very small "bug" but look at the amount of wreckage it has caused!... 

The amount of depression related cases and mental illness post lockdown has shown that human beings are true social beings. Of course, we already knew that, nothing new. The difference is that we are living it now. We are physically, emotionally and spiritually living this experience and the lived experience leaves far lasting impact than theories we study.

Cultivating Joy has been of the utmost importance to me in order to maintain a semblance of sanity and feed into faith, courage and hope in all areas. The revolutionary Summer of 2020 has been tough but it has helped re-assess the importance of Joy, the importance to connect with the basic elements of water, air and earth, and ironically this forms an integral part of the holistic way in which African and Caribbean forms are set up. Despite being used, abused and appropriated, these forms are probably best equipped to transform into the "new normal" of a new world.