Discover Dance, Digging Deeper
In July, Discover Dance transformed into a ritual of gathering wherein our featured guest engage in a discussion with our dancers. Company Member, Rachana Joshi has written about her experience of the August edition, with special guest Diana Reyes a.k.a. Fly Lady Di.
Rachana’s experience
Watching even the small four minute clips of Diana Reyes’ one woman show Third World on Youtube sparked an immediate feeling of joy and familiarity within me.
“I was drawn to Diana’s energy, humor, and grace in both her performance and the conversations we had with her during this month’s Discover Dance.”
Diana thoughtfully articulated the trials and tribulations often faced while navigating cross-cultural identities, encouraging me to evaluate my own relationship to my history and identity with a lens I had not considered before. She brought my attention to the conscious and subconscious ways we try to fit into a society running towards “success and perfection.” Many women in the call shared instances where they had their own experience of compromising on the pronunciation of their name to suit another person at one point in time or another and we could all relate, reflect, and laugh about the sentiment together. I soon realized that this exchange of our personal stories and experiences is our greatest strength, as we found comfort, humour and community in the parallels we had drawn together. The positive atmosphere and energy that was cultivated by the beautiful and diverse artists in the Zoom room echoed the idea that we are not alone, even in times where we feel we do not belong. Diana’s authenticity and courage serves as a reminder to be unapologetic about my identity and has encouraged me to find the humour in difficult situations. There truly are no boxes to fit into and the idea of belonging and success is never one size fits all. We are complex, beautiful beings and it is so refreshing to be reminded of that in times of doubt.
Discover dance with Fly Lady Di
August 11 and 12, 2020