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Dancing Solidarity with Al Evangelista
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Season Two, Episode Three: This month’s guest is Al Evangelista and we are discussing Filipino/a/x American diaspora, queer identities, and bringing history into the room with technology. Al s a performer, choreographer, and educator. His creative works have been performed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, American Theatre Company, Links Hall, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, and Moss Arts Center. Evangelista’s work focuses on community-engaged practices, queer performance, social justice and Filipina/o/x-American diaspora. He also works in theatre, documentary-based work, and improvisatory collaboration.
Evangelista has danced in works for Dance Exchange, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Inconvenience, and performed at Chicago Opera Theatre, Adventure Stage Chicago, among others.
He is an affiliate faculty member of Oberlin's Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and a faculty fellow in the Center for Communicating Science at Virginia Tech. alevangelista.com
Dancing Lab Developed by Al Evangelista is a Part of the National Center of Choreography at the University of Akron August 23, 2023
Al Evangelista is one of three dance artists whose work is being supported in 2023 through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron. Evangelista's project, developed in partnership with Daring Dances (Ann Arbor, MI), is part of NCCAkron's Dancing Labs residency program.
OhioDance A State of Dance is a six-part series coming out the fourth Friday of each month through November 2023.
This podcast is driven by the OhioDance mission to secure the foothold of dance in Ohio through increasing visibility, firming viability, and elevating the position of dance in Ohio.
In 2016, a five-person team set out on a mission to capture the achievements of persons and institutions who have shaped the intricate diversity of dance history and practice within the state of Ohio and weave them together in an easily accessible digital format. This we call the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection. As of 2024 we have highlighted 37 individuals and institutions. The team has traveled over 5000 miles and interviewed hundreds of individuals in all five regions of Ohio. vdc.ohiodance.org
If you like what you are listening to and are not a member of OhioDance, you can go to ohiodance.org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership. You can also donate through our purple donate button.
Transcript
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to a State of Dance, sponsored by Ohio Dance and hosted by independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Rodney Veal.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello, everyone. My name is Rodney Veal, and I'm the host of Ohio Dances State of Dance Podcast. And today we have with us Al Evangelista. He is the Assistant Professor of Dance and Comparative American Studies at Oberlin College.
00:00:38
Speaker
in the College of Arts and Sciences. He's an affiliate faculty member, member of Arbelin's Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and a faculty fellow in the Center for Communicating Science at Virginia Tech. You've got a lot on your plate. I know. Welcome to the podcast, Al. Thank you. Thanks for taking time for us. Thank you so much for having me. It's absolutely our pleasure. um it's I'm going to dive right into the questions, but it's really great to to have this conversation with you. The first question I have is your work focuses on community-engaged practices, queer performance, social justice, and Filipina OX American Diaspora.
00:01:19
Speaker
Some of your work is helping to mediate the lost lost histories of both queer and Filipina OX American identities through movement. Tell us something about the work you do with a special interest in your work on that diaspora. Can you explain that a bit for our listeners who may not understand it? I mean, so we have given a little bit of context here as well.
00:01:40
Speaker
It's a definitely a huge range, right? It's a general Filipino, Filipina, Filipinaex diaspora overlapping with American history can lead or mean anything from Spanish colonization to the present day. So that's like,
00:01:56
Speaker
600 years of history, but I'll get specific just to give us an example. So my last project at Oberlin with the students um had to do with the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. So the 1904 World's Fair, they had what they called quote, human exhibits.
00:02:16
Speaker
um And the human exhibits, the people on display, were from the Philippines. right So I had um dancers look through this history, talk about this history, and then we choreographed a dance. The first act was like a regular old dance show. You would see dancers on stage. The second act, audience members were given a QR code, a website link.
00:02:37
Speaker
um And then they watched the performance through their phone. So it's kind of the opposite of what we usually tell audience members to like put away your phone during the show. They watched the second act through their phone. The second act was the same exact choreography as the first act.
00:02:50
Speaker
but they were watching the histories, the objects, some people from the 1904 World's Fair. So in the first act, you kind of got the notion that dancers were moving around or avoiding something or moving with something. But in the second act, with the ah mobile phone interface, you could actually see what they were dancing with or against. And it was the history um from this particular World's Fair.
00:03:15
Speaker
That is amazing. so what was the I mean, the fact that you you chose 1904, is that kind of one of the recorded last moments where they had that sort of humans on display, which is already problematic from a cultural standpoint? What what was the feedback from the students and what was and what was the feedback from the audience on that?
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah, and so it was interesting because for some, well, with the students, it was hard, right? It was, are we allowed to dance these histories if we ourselves are not Filipino, Filipinx, Filipino-American? And just like anything else, I think who is in solidarity, who can help tell these stories, right? Just because you don't claim it as your identity, you can still help support these stories. So that was with the students.
00:04:03
Speaker
With the audience members, it it was a mixed bag because you were watching the same dancing for the first and the second act. If you're not good with technology, if you thought, you know, this gimmick for five minutes, I'm okay, right? So it was hard to see. I want to try it again is what I'm trying to say with augmented reality to to make it more engaged throughout the whole second act.
00:04:26
Speaker
Wow. Wow. This is an incorporation of technology. Is that a, you're obviously using all the tools in your, in your toolbox. did you And so you're wanting to do it again. Is there a chance and an opportunity to kind of bring this back?
00:04:37
Speaker
My newest project is called Places I Can't Dance, and people on their phone can bring up like an avatar of me wherever they are and place me to dance so I can be dancing wherever you are. But for live performance is where I'm trying to think. We're recording now in February. i My next performance in May will be at Movement Research at Judson Church, and I'm going to try and do a solo version of this augmented reality.
00:05:03
Speaker
Wow. This augmented reality, ah it's from my own personal standpoint, has come up in conversation in regards to creating worlds for the visual arts to have to expand just beyond the static into just more dynamic presentation. So, I mean, that just sounds pretty pretty darn amazing, but it just it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort. But that technology is, even for the practitioner, it's still a novel usage versus just not just as an audience member.
00:05:32
Speaker
Exactly. Some companies are starting to use it more. and like Amazon started to use it more in terms of place this furniture object in your living room to see what it looks like. It's a great tool for trying to imagine what it could like look like, but it's not really there. So for something like history, Filipino American history,
00:05:52
Speaker
We dance with history or things around us all the time that we don't see. And so that parallel is what I'm trying to bring it out in performance. So you're one of three dance artists whose work is being supported in 2023 and 2024 through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron.
00:06:14
Speaker
Now, in partnership with Daring Dances, Ann Arbor, Michigan, I'm a lover of Michigan, I went to school near Ann Arbor, ah you led a ah cohort from across the country engaging with similar questions regarding queer Filipina ex-American diaspora, social justice, and performance study. And so you gathered in June of 2023, beginning on Philippines Independence Day for a week of dancing, cooking, conversation, play and more. Can you give us a synopsis of that week and what you covered obviously about the dance, but also about the food? I mean, this is this is expanding out the notion of dance placed in the context of culture and history and and just your daily daily lives. And so talk about that. It was a really ah really exciting dancing lab is what they call it.
00:07:04
Speaker
We come from different areas in the US, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and we dance around the same general theme of queer, PhilippineX American history. As you just heard, it could span so much time. um And then also our dance training and practices were completely different. So the week was a chance for us to actually physically be in one space together.
00:07:28
Speaker
and see what each other were doing. We all led a practice one day um and then ah so both a physical and a creative practice. um And then we also wanted to engage the local Filipino community. um So that's where the food came in.
00:07:44
Speaker
um And then also members, there's the Filipino American Historical National Society. In 2020, I helped co-found the 30th branch, so the Ohio branch of the Filipino American National Historical Society. And so we invited local members to come by and eat food with us as part of this dancing lab.
00:08:04
Speaker
Talk to us about setting up that you did the the Ohio branch. I mean, I think i don't think that people really think of Ohio being as much of a melting pot as it actually is, and that that phrase, but it's just, I think it's a convergence of cultures more so than melting pot. And so this convergence of cultures, I mean, it's a strong population. where I don't think people realize we're the fifth populous state in the country.
00:08:27
Speaker
and so I didn't know that. It's one of those situations of um living here in Dayton because we are an immigrant-friendly city. um We have from the African diaspora, the Asian diaspora, just a multitude of races and cultures coming together. And so well what was it like starting that society? Did you work with a group of people or was it just your brainchild? I mean, kind of curious about that. The credit actually goes to folks at the Ohio State University, Lisa Combs and Mark Guerrero. There's a national branch of Fonz is the shortened name of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
00:09:08
Speaker
And we have different chapters around the US. s So we realized there wasn't Ohio. Some states have like 20 or like five um chapters. Like California has a bunch of Fonz chapters, right? So Ohio had nothing.
00:09:25
Speaker
So we were like, this is probably something in the pandemic, right? We were like, as people are gathering online, we can actually make a statewide Fonz so that we can all gather on Zoom um and start to talk about what it means in Ohio ah to be Filipino, Filipina, Filipinax American.
00:09:44
Speaker
So when you put, yeah, so you're bringing people together in this way with COVID. How far does the membership reach in the state of Ohio? I'm kind of curious about all of the components, because it's like, like I said, we're fifth populous state, so I can imagine we're in all corners. To reach um Cleveland, and then all the suburbs surrounding Cleveland, Columbus, suburbs surrounding Columbus, Cincinnati, suburbs surrounding Cincinnati. There are some in Dayton that are trying to join, but it reaches, I feel like, the entire line. Wow. It blows a lot of people's minds that were that large, that state of Ohio is actually bigger than we think. It truly is. It's more diverse and bigger than we um let on, so to speak. And I'll leave that. I'm kind of curious about this. In 2021, you celebrated the first day of Asian and Pacific Island Heritage Month during Erbilon College Day of Dance. ah You shared the framework of Tatlong Baksak. You got it right. You got it right.
00:10:41
Speaker
yes Okay, but not bad. A physical practice used by Filipina ONX and American Community Organizers to embody, celebrate, and recognize the complexity of labor and solidarity. ah How do you engage the students in this kind of work today? Because that's a big It's a big question. Yeah, I think today the most recent example when thinking about solidarity most recently, so I regularly teach hip-hop at Oberlin and last semester we talked about, especially during the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, what it means to be but so practice and dance hip-hop in solidarity with Black with a capital B.
00:11:20
Speaker
dancers and hip-hop makers. So we not only talked about that, but it's also how do we practice that in a physical way, right? Solidarity wise. And then also I ask, and I hope students think of solidarity with their own identities and communities. So some students create their own projects with the communities that they work with more closely. So for example, pandemic being a theme here now,
00:11:44
Speaker
is there were group student orgs that went away during the pandemic that some students wanted to revive. So that was one act of solidarity. There are some that try to start the history making process, so oral histories of student orgs on campus. So there's different kinds of solidaries that might not be specifically movement-based, but then I try to say like, what are the physical practices that you can start to document as well?
00:12:12
Speaker
ah Very much so. They're are culturally influenced. I mean, do you get a sense that students are really eager to kind of jump into that embodied practice, the physicality of the connective threads between different genres, different groups, different backgrounds? I mean, I feel like it's contrary to the belief of division that this is really about the more connective threads. Was that it kind of exciting to go to watch these students kind of make these interesting connections? Yeah. I feel really lucky, especially Oberlin as a liberal arts college, but they start to see that it's not just communication with their bodies, but it's a way of living and understanding themselves, each other, ways that can be in terms of potential. Once they get the the sense that it's an experiment or question is when it gets really exciting.
00:13:03
Speaker
Okay. So I got to ask this question but because this podcast does reach people who are at all ends of the spectrum of their connection to dance. And so we try to explain as much as we can. So explanation of Tatlong-Baksak. Can you explain what it is?
00:13:18
Speaker
so that people know what it is, so they can i so they can actually really understand it. So, that long bak sak means three claps, but isang bak sak is one clap. Iksang bak sak goes back to the labor movement that happened famously around Cesar Chavez, um but part of that ah labor movement was a contention of Filipino-American migrant workers.
00:13:39
Speaker
And as part of ending their union-ish meetings, they would do Isang Baksak, which would be like a slow clap into one final big clap. And today, um in particular for folks that are working in communities and trying to do some um work of solidarity, they've tried to develop into a new practice called tadlongbaksak. So it's three claps. The first clap is to think about the work that we've done. The second clap is to think about the work that's in the present. And the third clap is the work in the future. So everyone takes a deep breath and does three claps together at the end of a meeting. I like to end my classes with three claps, but that's what tadlongbaksak is.
00:14:23
Speaker
I love it. There's such a unique through line to other cultures, especially with that West African dance and Caribbean dances. There are these rituals, these things that are just kind of become kind of ingrained in your practice. Is there anything that happens in particular at the beginning of the class that sets it up? Because we do a lot of libation ceremonies and sort of kind of acknowledgments in Western and African dance. And so I'm kind of curious if there's a similarity. I haven't that's specifically ah Filipino American. um The name of the group at NCC Akron when we had that dancing lab was magma chosmosa, which means gossip girl. So part of the gathering together would be like, what's going on? How are you? A check-in of some kind, but also with this like flirty, how's it going? What's the, give me the gossip, right? So I like to start classes like that sometimes just to check in, but also make it low stakes. I love it, I love it.
00:15:20
Speaker
So um what kind of music do you listen to? And what do you play in class? I mean, if you're if you're making these bridges and through lines to other cultures, um especially hip hop,
00:15:31
Speaker
What are you listening to? what do you How are you, what movement are you creating towards sound? I guess the sounds get used to it. It's a bit, it's a big range. Um, sometimes my students are like, you need to update your music. So lately, lately I've been doing a lot of line dancing. I guess this can help, um, answer your previous question too, is line dancing is not surprisingly for some, but surprisingly for others, a big part of Filipino American culture. Um, so we'll do a lot of, um,
00:16:00
Speaker
like the electric slide at the beginning of class and Beyonce's new song has been perfect for that. So texas um yes so I think that's the latest one that I've been jamming um when I've been starting class recently. I love it. So we're going to take a little bit of a break and then we're going to come back and we're going to dive into now is the this is your life out sort of questions. sweet So um stay tuned, everyone.
00:16:34
Speaker
We want to remind you that if you like what you're listening to and are not a member of OhioDance, you can go to OhioDance dot.org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership. You can also donate through our purple donate button.
00:16:59
Speaker
All right, we're back in a conversation with Al Evangelista. I did promise that we were gonna dive into a little bit of the personal background, because I'm always curious about that, about what leads someone to to the dance world. Based on your bio, i I'm assuming you're not a native Ohioan, so let's talk about where you're from. I mean, that's ah that's kind of important.
00:17:18
Speaker
I actually grew up in in the Bay Area, California. Ah, what led you here? So I wanted to perform in an artist community um that I knew a couple people in, but wasn't New York. And so after my undergrad, I moved to Chicago, and I started a company there with a couple of folks. um And so after Chicago, I went to grad school at Michigan, and then I went Virginia Tech and then I went to Ohio. So, I've been making the circular path around the east east and midwest for a while. ah So, making it in that circuitous pathway. I mean, how, what do you think are some of the the things that you've kind of discovered along the way about how you are bringing yourself and
00:18:03
Speaker
your personal history and how you've evolved as an art maker and a dance maker and a generator of art in that journey. I mean, the themes have remained the same. What is the community work? What is the solidarity work? What's the performance work? But it's also been a question of Who is doing the work here? How can we put them together with this person? So there's is a new initiative with Daring Dances, and we're calling it the East Midwest Project, of trying to link up all the dancers that are in Chicago, Ohio-ish area.
00:18:38
Speaker
um everywhere in between Michigan. It's been a journey. I know we're only doing audio, but I'm older than I look. i'm it's just It's great to see what resonates and what keeps consistent and where the in where the work is.
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a huge part of, I think a lot of the Midwest, like I said, is ah people have a tendency to think of it very monolithic, but it's definitely regional characteristics, and I'll put it in air quotes, personalities, ah regional personalities. And so this this this notion of, I get a sense that you you're all in on like, let's bring people together and see what happens. is it kind of like almost like a and In many ways, it's the word that's been stuck in my head recently is the word salon.
00:19:26
Speaker
this sort of sense of Hey, everybody come to the party and let's see what develops and unfurls. What has surprised you most about pulling together these salons and this challenge of bringing these folks from Chicago and every point in between together? That's a really good word for it. In fact, there was a performance series for a while in Chicago called Salon-a-thon, which brought in a bunch of groups together. I think there might be and a version of it still, but it was at a place called Beauty Bar. It was an amazing night every week.
00:19:56
Speaker
It's definitely a Philippine ex-American practice to try and see what it means to like, the Filipinos bring food to everything. It's how we show our love. um It's also like, how do we, how do we show friendship or kapua, like siblinghood.
00:20:14
Speaker
two strangers as a practice so it's definitely both of how is this something that definitely at this time we need more of and also how do we cultivate it while thinking of what some people like to call boundaries or even with the students it's thinking of perception and conversation physically. Right. It's so hard to find those words to describe this sort of, because it it feels like it's limiting. It's not just a connection. It's more than just a convening. and You don't want to say it's just is because it just opens up to like a cop out. But I don't know, it's just there's a rich meetingness to this notion of ah Filipino, Filipino, O and X.
00:20:57
Speaker
culture coming together with hip hop, and then in African American culture, food is paramount, it is king, the barbecue is real. um so we But you understand this notion of like like that personal versus the responsibility of your practice. And it just seems like it's all one and the same. I mean, so as as we're coming towards the end of it, it's like, what do you think your future your future practice is going to be? And I know haven't talked about the queer identity, but let's talk about it. I think let's not to like step around it. That's a huge part of yeah of anyone's identity. And how does that weave itself into the historic plus the contemporary end of the now? and And as you move forward into the future, how do you see it resonating even further? It's definitely a practice, right? So some people think of queer as like just a label um or way in which some people identify, but for me it's definitely a practice. So what are the ways in which queerness is a physical practice? What are the ways in which queerness becomes something that is a way to bring people together?
00:22:01
Speaker
So when I bring people together, queer social responsibility also means to think of those that have the least and how can we help them have a louder voice rather than us speaking, right? So asking the questions of who needs what and then stepping back, right? Rather than assuming what people need. um So I think of ah my queerness in some ways that way. um And then also just like, have a great time.
00:22:34
Speaker
ah We don't have to be serious all the time. Let's like have a really good night, y'all. Let's have all the food. Let's have the food. Let's have the great conversation. Let's have the gossip because it you know it just informed. Your queerness and queerness informs versus then making a hard state. like It's like it a weight. It's not a weighted thing. It is a freeing, liberating thing.
00:23:00
Speaker
presence, which is much more interesting, I think, ah personally. I mean, it can be weighted, right? But it's also in dance, we think of the opposites all the time, right? How do we push into the floor and reach it towards the ceiling at the same time? So that's how I like to think about both of those. And that's such a hard concept to get to beginning dancers.
00:23:19
Speaker
ah You know, you can have two things to be the truth at the same time. it's It's just like when we try to talk through in terms of sounds, um when we're giving the combination, it's just like, it's like a hoof and a ah. And they're like, that both of those sounds do not help me at all. move ah supplement So it's it's set finding that finding that kind of balance and that sweet spot, which is, I love that. I love the fact that it can be weighted, but at all times, sometimes it's just fun to bring people together. um So what do you what do you think you're going to be doing now? look look If you could look forward into the crystal ball into the future, what do you think you're going to be doing going forward? but You know what? I wish I could know. I'm trying to focus on the now.
00:23:59
Speaker
ah i am I'm also, I'm working with this technology, right? So there's, and especially with AI, there's been so much innovation in what's possible. So I've been working with the different types of augmented reality software that's been developed. And there's some pretty cool apps that have started to come out. ah Of course it's paid because it runs a lot of um computer power. It takes a lot of computer power for it to work.
00:24:29
Speaker
um And before it used to take three cameras or three phones pointing at you in order to develop an avatar. But now it's like one phone, if you get it at the right distance, will be fine for your avatar. So I'm hoping that there's some sort of ease of use and um a way to make it so that it's a community base. Like if you want to make your avatar dance with some sort of history, this is an easy way for you to do it.
00:24:54
Speaker
Right? So that there are those like historical signs. I'm hoping for some sort of dance version of that through technology. I love that. I've always said about technology and dance. It's like for us to embrace the technology industries. Hey folks, we have some people who want to do some cool things with your toys. I'm like Al's here. Go to Al. and I love the notion that it that is that sort of it used to take so many cameras, now it's down to one in ease of use. so With Ohio kind of trying to stake its claim in the technology field, you'd be the perfect person for these tech companies to reach out to and say, hey, I'm just saying. yeah Please reach out to me. I'm on the advisory board for the Institute of Creative Empathy at Virginia Tech, which is looking at expanding technology narratives, so please let me know. Wow. Talk about that. How did you get on that advisory council? because that's that That's really interesting. my fellowship so My fellowship after grad school was at Virginia Tech. um I got the gig at Oberlin, so I went to Oberlin, but then they were like, we still want you to be a part of this institute. Tyisha Thompson is one of the people that are leading the institute there. and
00:26:06
Speaker
It's really looking at ways in which we can help people tell their stories through technology and they have some cool toys at Virginia Tech. they um And they've really seen the range of VR, virtual reality and augmented reality. They have a little cube you can step into and it's like a 3D model around you that you can start to like walk around in. We're thinking about the way that we can equitably distribute those resources so people can tell their marginalized histories. Oh, that is you're leading the way. That is super cool. I mean, you really are. You're a part of it. And so you know I love ah love hearing what you're doing and hearing about what you've kind of connected to. So that's amazing. Thank you. You're absolutely amazing. Al, that was a fun conversation. I love it. So thank you so much for sharing time with us today. Thank you. It was my pleasure.
00:26:57
Speaker
Absolutely awesome.
00:27:04
Speaker
A State of Dance is produced by Ohio Dance and hosted by Rodney Veal, executive producer Jane DiAngelo, editor and audio technician Jessica Cavender, musical composition by Matthew Peyton Dixon. Ohio Dance would like to thank our funders, the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio State University Dance Preservation Fund, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Columbus Foundation, and the Akron Community Fund.