September Edition - Discover Dance with Esie Mensah
We continue to create rituals of gathering, meeting in the virtual space with our featured artists to consider their work, inspirations and journey through dance and life. Rachana Joshi has written about her experience of the September edition, with special guest Esie Mensah.
Rachana’s experience
Listening to Esie Mensah speak about her work and story left me feeling inspired by her healing energy and radiant spirit. During our conversation about her piece Shades, Esie eloquently put into perspective where shadeism intersected with her life, and how skin tone has clearly created a divide in her community as a Black woman.
“Esie’s work has a very important message that must be shared as communities of colour. To overcome divisions on a large scale, we must overcome the divisions within our own communities.”
Esie's presence, and the energy of the dancers in the room, created a space for caring and vulnerability where we all could share our own personal experiences with the idea of "fairness" and our own skin tones as a group of women of colour. I immediately became aware of my privilege as a South Asian woman who is considered to be "fair."
I was reminded of compliments and comments directed at my skin colour that have deep-rooted cultural implications that are often dismissed. The subconscious cultural understanding that "fair = better" has been engrained into Indian popular culture including music, movies, advertisements, and more. Even in South Asian mythology, Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology, is described as having a complexion as dark and beautiful as the night sky. His name directly translates to “dark”, “black”, and “the all attractive” in Sanskrit. Yet, when depicting him in mythological stories, images, and films, he is predominantly shown as blue or light-skinned.
Orissa Pattachitra Painting, artist unknown
Esie's work has a very important message that must be shared as communities of colour. To overcome divisions on a large scale, we must overcome the divisions within our own communities.
Discover dance with Esie Mensah
September 15 and 16, 2020