On Folkdance Fusion 2

So you might be thinking “Well, Irina admitted her privilege! Boy is she off the hook! We can all go home and rest easy now! …NOT.” To try to get a “free pass” to cover whatever subject matter I want to by highlighting my variously intersecting privilege areas is not the issue nor my intent here. The statement is that sometimes I might choose to play with some imagery, and it might end up accidentally grossly offending hundreds of people…but, I’m making a concerted effort in my studies not to do that. Sometimes I might choose to play with some imagery or movement, and it might offend 20 people but really blow away and amaze another 300. Sometimes I might choose some imagery or movement, and no one will speak a word against it, many will be impressed but…I’ll feel like it was really full of safe, boring and unchallenging choices.

So goes the art.

I’ve never really known what it’s been like to belong to a group that’s been systematically reviled or denied privilege in society*…but I have felt like an outsider at many times in my life. One does not replace the other, but there may be a point of connection within that feeling. Let’s work on extending a hand of compassion to those who are trying to tell the story of identity.

Addendum as of 12/27: Let's honor and *not* marginalize cultural voices authentic to those cultures as well. That's always going to be its own experience and will pretty much always be different from the artist who portrays a folk culture from cultural distance. I was hoping that this statement would be assumed, but after reading the collection of essays "All Change" (Le Bas/Acton), I think it bears repeating.

I also grew up American-born within an immigrant community comprising mostly Eastern Europeans, Arabs, Greeks and other Mediterranean people. So that is a lens within itself.

*I actually do belong to some but completely socially pass for not being a member of them.

Reprinted with permission from the BFLA blog here: http://bellyfusionla.com/wp/2013/08/on-folkdance-fusion-2/