Photo credit: www.mendancelife.com
Written by | Ray Cornelius
For artistic director, founder and dance choreographer Daryl L. Foster, LIFT is more than just an all-male dance experience. But, it’s an opportunity to provide mentorship and support to young men who often face a number of issues within a female dominated arena.
Having danced professionally for over 15 years, Foster often found himself helping male dancers cope with homophobia, male identity and a lack of parental and community support because of their chosen profession.
RC had an opportunity to talk with Foster about his dance troupe as well as see this year’s performance, which tackles the subject matter of masculinity. Audience members are taken on a journey through seven meticulously choreographed works that address issues from gays in the military to the crabs-in-a-barrel syndrome within corporate America to hip-hop’s influence on the black male identity.
RC: What made you decide to create an all-male dance company?
DLF: For me it was about creating a community that services a need of support, education and mentorship to male dancers.
RC: Why the name Lift?
DFL: The funny story is that I was assisting Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the artistic director for the all-female dance company Urban Bush Women, on a piece for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. While there, I set a piece on the second company entitled, Lift. I entitled it that because it was about the aerodynamic term “lift” which allows planes to get off the ground but figuratively I was looking at escaping the gravity of a difficult situation. Years later when I started this company, that is what it was all about—escaping the gravity of a difficult situation and that being all of the issues that men deal with in dance.
RC: There is a lot of hip hop music in the show. Was that intentional?
DLF: Well, Atlanta is a hip hop city. It’s the capitol of Hip Hop—well, a particular type of hip-hop and you can’t ignore it. As a contemporary choreographer, I decided to join it rather than fight it. So I’m taking my brand of contemporary experience and melding it with the nature of the hip hop that Atlanta has become. You either ignore what is present or you work with it. And I decided to work with it.
RC: You’ve mentioned before that Hip Hop is the new contemporary dance?
DLF: it is! Contemporary dance started as a rebellion or outcry of modern dance. And that’s what hip hop is. It’s a rebellion or outcry of establishment. It is dance and improvisations that aren’t always completely choreographed. A lot of people don’t recognize hip hop as contemporary dance but I do.
RC: What is Lift’s biggest misconception?
DLF: Some people say “I’m not going to that show with all those men.” They think its gay and won’t support us. But there are married men and heterosexual men with children who dance with us. But I think you have get behind the curtain in order to see that. It’s like anything else in life; you either prejudice it or sit with it and get to know it.
RC: What is the one thing you want audience members to walk away with?
DLF: I want every audience member to walk away with whatever touches them. As an artist, you don’t prescribe art to an audience with one intention in mind. You prescribe art to an audience that it may touch each person in their own individual way.
You can catch Lift TODAY at 2pm and 8pm at The Hertz Stage in Atlanta’s Woodruff Art Center. Tickets and additional information are online at www.mendancelife.com
