Artistes who don’t fit labels
■ Whether artistes fit boxes or not, whatever is worthwhile will be appreciated
Performing Artists who don’t fit labels The majority of performing artistes, like most people, fit in clearly labeled categories: Bharatanatyam dancer, Kathputli puppeteer, ballet dancer, jazz musician. Within each category there is a wide range of ability and the creative aims to which the artist aspires, but generally there is a simple designation that satisfies both the presenters and the man on the street with “what they do”.
This week I recalled the challenge of being an artiste who doesn’t fit a known category when a remarkable performing arts couple arrived in India, Annie Hickman and Allynn Gooen. Annie is a dancer and sculptor who doesn’t call herself a dancer and doesn’t exhibit her sculpture in galleries. At the age of five, a ballet teacher said her ankles were too weak to be a ballet dancer and this crushed and discouraged her from dancing until she reached college. Performing modern dance in college, she felt she could design better costumes and this was the beginning of her journey. After a foundation studying sculpture and classical western mime in NYC, she added 5- 8 years of jazz, ballet, tap and gymnastics with New York’s top teachers before she found her true artistic calling when she entered a pet store, Fang and Claw. The tree frogs, lizards and bugs she discovered were more beautiful than any art she had seen in a gallery. She decided to bring this beauty to life with costumes and movement. Her costumes are created with intricate basketry macramé and takes a year each to complete. She then exhibits her creations in performances that bring them to life through dance.
Allynn Gooen gave up teaching at a university when the head of department said “no more balloons in class”. He took the plunge to full time puppet shows and presenting balloon animals to children for a few years until the fateful day when he arrived at a venue with 500 children waiting, only to discover that he had left his puppets behind. This was the beginning of a new kind of performance as he told the organiser that the children were the puppets and the balloons were the costumes, sets and props and proceeded to make it so.
He’s not “just” a balloon man or storyteller and no sponsor of children’s performance series in the US would book him into any of the categories they want to fill until they saw a showcase performance, but he said, “If you like what you see you gotta get me, because there aren’t any others!” This actually has worked, as he has managed to present thousands of performances worldwide over a few decades. Annie, Allynn and I had connected originally through puppetry, though none of us are currently practicing puppeteers. I had left puppetry when I came to India to study classical Indian dance, turning down an offer from Jim Henson of the Muppets. When I returned to the USA after five years in India, George Latshaw, whose puppet productions I had been in with several symphonies, was the director of the Puppeteers of America 40th Annual Festival at Kent State University, Ohio and invited me to perform in the only non- puppetry perfor- mance.
Allynn was at the puppet fest, though committed to creative storytelling performances with balloons and an ex- puppeteer like me, we stayed in touch through our shared passion for great puppetry and common friends. He has helped me to stay connected with this community even though I’m not there. Annie also had a puppetry background but evolved her passion for dance and sculpture into a performance art. Most of her performances are for children, as are Allynn’s, since performing arts specifically for children is a significant genre of presentation in the west.
Even with creating only one new costume per year, she has performed variations of the All- American Bug Show at least 4000 times for schools, children’s art festivals and art museums. With her husband, Allynn, they have combined their two unlabeled art forms into productions like the Lizard of Oz and the Love Bug’s Hug. Eight cases of costumes and one bag of balloons!
I’ve always been amazed by the multitude of challenges all artists overcome to share their art. These two world- class performers for children reminded me of the challenge is being recognized when you don’t fit into what is expected. I think of Narendra Sharma and Bhoomika struggling for a rightful place in the world of Indian dance because they were virtually unique in continuing the tradition of Indian modern dance established by Uday Shankar. Bhoomika is not traditional yet also not western modern dance and not fitting into an established category for recognition and sponsorship continues to be a lifelong uphill struggle.
It is easy to forget that there were significant challenges faced by Odissi, Sattriya, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Vilasini, Andhra Natyam, Bharata Nrityam in their individual struggles to gain recognition as classical genres of India alongside those recognised at the time of Independence; Bharata Natyam, Manipuri, Kathak and Kathakali. Till the 1970s and 80s, with a few exceptions like Jon Higgins, a vocalist, and my dance, non- Indian performing artists were simply considered students.
It took six Videshi Kalakar Utsavs spread over 1989- 1994 and the receptivity of audiences to change labels based on their own experience. Ultimately, whether artistes and their arts fit the boxes or not, we find easiest to put them in, whatever is worthwhile will be appreciated. Being unique is not the worst challenge an artist can face. Sharon Lowen is a respected exponent of Odissi,
Manipuri and Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chau whose
four- decade career in India was preceded by 17
years of Modern Dance and Ballet in the US and an MA in Dance from the University of Michigan. She can be contacted at sharonlowen. workshop
@ gmail. com