Dancers Laura Valentine (left) and Marissa Dunsmore from The Story Collective's original dance performance, "The Dollhouse."
Photo courtesy of The Story Collective.
Published: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 3:14 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 3:14 p.m.
Human trafficking – the sale and abuse of women and children for
sex – shows up, occasionally, in some cable-news documentary or
investigative report, usually late on a weekend night. Despite the
resources and time devoted by reporters and new organizations trying to
help those trapped in this modern-day slavery, it remains just under the
radar for most of us.
What better subject, then, for artistic expression?
That question is posed with every ounce of sincerity possible. Bear with me.
The
Story Collective, which is based in Wilmington, consists of
choreographers and dancers, a composer and local musicians, a poet and
writer, a sculptor and a photographer, among others, who have made the
modern sex-slave trade the focus of their artistic expression. On Friday
and Saturday night, audiences at the Brooklyn Arts Center in Wilmington
will witness the group's first original production, "The Dollhouse."
Abigail
Printy is the collective's director. In her office at the Glory Academy
of Fine Arts near Castle Hayne, Printy sits behind her desk between a
photo montage of happy faces on one wall and a wall that functions as a
floor-to-ceiling blackboard chalked up with greetings and affirmations.
Printy said from the cool distance between us, unequivocally, that The
Story Collective creates work with one purpose in mind: the abolition of
human trafficking.
"The
Story Collective is a project of mine and two other women – Melanie
Haulman and Laura Valentine. We created the organization and the show
together as a personal project," Printy said. "The Story Collective was
formed to gather artists together to raise awareness of and provoke
involvement in the issue."
"The
Dollhouse" is the first fruit of this collaboration, with choreography
by Haulman and Valentine. Haulman is Glory Academy's artistic director,
and Valentine is a teacher there.
"What
we wanted to do was give people a glimpse into the world of
trafficking, but do it a way that wasn't terrifying," Printy said,
emphasizing just how overwhelming the subject can become.
Printy used the phrase "dark whimsy" to characterize the way in which the story is told.
"It
follows a young girl who gets trafficked into the sex trade industry
and follows her as she grows up through that," Printy said. "But then
(it) also shows a story of redemption and rescue out of the industry."
"The
Dollhouse" is a dance work, first and foremost. About 14 dancers will
perform. Haulman's choreography, mostly steeped in ballet's graceful
lines and poses, introduces the child at the beginning of the story,
sketching out an innocence soon to be lost.
Valentine
brings in modern and contemporary movement to express the emotional
conflict and degradation that wears away at the girl as she grows up in a
seamy netherworld.
"The
dancers impacted the way the story developed, the way the choreography
took shape," Valentine said by phone last week. "The choreography is
more technical than most modern dance. It's more about connecting with
the audience, so it's more raw, more emotional, creating a relationship
between the dancers and the audience in order to communicate a concept."
That
Printy, Haulman and Valentine should all become interested in this
issue separately at about the same time, according to Printy, is
remarkable on it own. But that it should begin to attract other artists
to the project appears as testament to both the power of the message as
well as the pervasiveness of the problem.
And
here we get to the question of, "What better subject, then, for art?"
For this trio of artists and their collaborators, art never happens in a
vacuum and this issue "burns" them, as Printy put it, prodding them to
confront the questions, "If not now, when? If not this work, then how?"
"It
is possible to end slavery in our lifetime if we work to do that.
Ignoring it doesn't help fix the problem," Printy said. "Being aware and
becoming educated about the issue, we can make a big difference."
All
money from ticket sales will go to support Love 146, an organization
dedicated to focusing attention on human trafficking, as well as efforts
to eradicate modern-day slavery in the United States and abroad. More
information is available at www.love146.org.
Features: 343-2343
Source: StarNewsOnline.com
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