Exploring identity

By Lauren Forsythe
​Lauren Forsythe from JAMpress Management here again! Recently, I got the chance to observe a ME VS. rehearsal (by Jamie Erin Murphy). During the rehearsal, Jamie directed her dancers to portray different identities that people may identify themselves or others as, things that can label us as who we are (sometimes not by choice). Not only did the dancers represent these identities through dance movements, but also symbols (i.e. holding up fingers to represent the age of 30) and interactions with each other. This exploratory exercise highlighted that there are so many ways that we as humans can identify as, and even if we identify in the same way as someone else, our identity is still unique to us- we should not be confined to one identity construct. This concept of uniqueness could be seen as each dancer "performed" the same identity, not one of them executed it in the same exact manner, individualizing themselves within the  structure of the exercise. 

Check out footage from the rehearsal on JAM's YouTube channel, JAMstation, ​https://youtu.be/wrnrjwkQYrQ