Concept/Choreography: Diana Sabri
Performers: Hais Hassan, Robyn Young, Vicky Anderson, Edward Ganung
(Guitar), John Magnus McBride (Clarinet)
Text: Strange Fruit by Nina Simone
Sound and Voice: Edward Ganung, Hais Hassan, Diana Sabri
Lighting: Diana Sabri
Nina Simone’s ‘Strange Fruit’ being a core point of reference as musicians and dancers hang around in the process of making this piece, creating a world where the collective memory of Black African slavery lingers in the lives of the present. How history hangs in the air unnoticed and denied by those who continue to write it.
In the process of making this piece, dancers and musicians improvised together to explore the potential of building a dialogue between music and movement. The movement responding to music and vice versa, created a basis for me to choreograph a structure for the dynamics that had occurred between these two disciplines, sometimes contrasting each other and at other moments flowing in a similar tone. I was primarily interested in this relationship between music and movement as it was something I had never practiced before.
Furthermore, I was interested in exploring the possibility of creating different tenses of time through this relationship, past and present, as 'Strange Fruit' was recited by the performers in sound recording and the lighting techniques used (which I was studying at the time) created an atmosphere of looking back to the 'past' whilst performing a 'present' situation.
I was compelled to follow this practical approach to making a performance about such an injustice towards Black African people because I believe, as well as the performers who took part in the creation of this piece, that racism towards black people is still ever so present, although taking different forms of violence and discrimination in today's world, it still does matter.
