danah bella - Bridging Movements: Creating Dance Education from Historical Knowledge and Social Justice

In this captivating episode of the SLANT podcast, join Dana Tai Soon Burgess as he sits down with dancer and educator, danah bella. As the founding chair of the Dance Department at the Peabody Conservatory, bella has transformed the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance program with a focus on interdisciplinary studies and social justice. Her impressive career spans over two decades, featuring roles as an artist-in-residence, award-winning choreographer, and artistic director of d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks.

bella shares her journey from her early days learning dance and history to her current work in reclaiming evocative movement as social practice and her connection to her Filipino Heritage. Learn about her unique approach to dance education and her creative practice to break disciplinary boundaries through sound and movement.

Additionally, Bella discusses how her Filipino heritage influences her work and shapes all aspects of her life including her perspective on dance and education. She reflects on the cultural narratives that inform her choreography and the ways in which she incorporates her cultural identity into her teaching.

Tune in for an inspiring discussion on the power of dance to foster social change, the importance of interdisciplinary learning, and bella's vision for the future of dance education. 

danah bella's photo by Salvador Barajas

Find us on www.slantpodcast.com and follow us on social media @theslantpodcast

Transcript

Burgess 0:24

Welcome to slant podcast. This is your host, Dana Tai Soon Burgess. This podcast is an ongoing conversation around the Asian American experience through the lens of artists and luminaries. Thank you for tuning in. Today's guest is Dana Bella. She's a Filipino American dance artist and educator. Dana is an acclaimed modern dance choreographer, as well as the founding chair of the dance department at the Peabody Conservatory. Since its launch in 2018, Dana has led the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance program with an intentional focus on interdisciplinary studies, social justice, And a wide variety of movement, performance, and choreography opportunities for every student. She has worked in higher education since 2002, teaching modern dance technique, dance theory, and history. Welcome, Dana. It's a pleasure to have you on Slant Podcast here today. Dana, I'd like to start at the beginning to understand an artist's journey. How and where did you grow up?

danah bella 1:33

Yeah, thank you so much, Dana, for having me on the podcast. I really appreciate you asking me to be a part of this. I grew up in Oxnard and Ventura, California, which is about an hour north of Los Angeles. And I started dancing when I was five. I used to take recreational dance classes. And then my mom put me into a mostly ballet studio when I was seven. And to be honest, I've been dancing ever since. I have never stopped training or dancing since then. At first I really wanted to be a ballet dancer, but then quickly realized that one, especially at the time in ballet, things were not quite as Open as they are now. And I didn't have the right body type. I didn't have the right height or the right extension, skin color, all of those things. And so then I decided to go to college and that's when I first started doing modern dance and I've been doing modern dance since then.

Burgess 2:41

And I know that we met years ago, interestingly enough when My dance company had our Asian American youth program at the Kennedy center. And you were such a talent. It was great to see you there. And it's such a pleasure to know that your journey has really manifested in such a beautiful way with dance that we'll talk about more in terms of your Filipina identity, how has that influenced your work?

danah bella 3:08

I, it influences, I would say everything I do, not just my work, the way I decide to raise my child. The way I decide to walk through life every day. But in terms of my work specifically, when I first started creating work, I used choreography and movement as a way to have agency because I'm the only daughter, youngest of three kids. And I didn't really have a voice in my house, especially because I was a girl and 10 years younger than the oldest sibling. And so I used dance and movement as a way to deal with all of that anxiety but the very first piece that I choreographed was about my grandmother, who was a comfort woman. And that sort of began the journey of how I started to create movement, incorporating my Filipino identity and history. And the stories that I thought were important to tell. So my first piece was about that as well as my second piece was a continuation of that. And after that, upon graduation from UC Santa Barbara, I chose to seek out companies that the directors were Filipina. And also they were incorporating Filipino history, whether that was History about things that happened in the Philippines or things, a Filipino American history into their work.

Burgess 4:27

And can you explain for our listeners the history of what a comfort woman was? What does that mean?

danah bella 4:36

Yes. During world war two the Japanese soldiers would take these women and girls from their homes and they would put them into a home or a certain location and they were basically used as sex slaves. And until this day, they still aren't recognized. There's a whole movement around it. But it's, they've never received an apology. So it's a part of history that's not spoken about very often.

Burgess 5:04

Right. And being Korean American, that's very much part of the Korean experience as well.

danah bella 5:11

Yes. Yes.

Burgess 5:13

And so how do you think this trauma from generations ago has moved through different women in your family and has? Somehow shifted so that it is place of empowerment that you can voice and explain to people what have happened.

danah bella 5:35

Ooh. We all know that trauma is passed down genetically. So there's that part, but I think the women in my family in particular I think The further and further we get away from that generation. We've all become more willing to use our voice. And we also have more resources, access to resources, to find information, to talk to people to get the word out into the world. And I think we've all taken advantage of that.

Burgess 6:06

You're a trailblazer in many ways, because you have built a dance program at the Peabody Conservatory, and within that program, you do have a focus on social justice issues. Can you tell us about the journey of creating an actual program in an academic institution, which is no easy task, and then about focusing it on social justice perspectives?

danah bella 6:36

I will say I was very lucky. In building this program because I did have a lot of support from the upper administration. So that's in terms of asking for resources and access to certain things, made it a little bit easier. But you're right. It is incredibly difficult to build a program from scratch. And so one of the things I knew I had to do was I had to be able to convince people that. Coming to Peabody would be worthwhile for their children. Especially considering the tuition costs and knowing that they could possibly go to a state school and get a very good dance education as well. So one of the things that did and continue to do is to make sure the program stays. Small so that we can give those students undivided attention. And Also give them lots of performance opportunities with a small group of students. So right now we only take between nine and eleven and each cohort. So they get a lot of performance opportunities, a lot of time to network with professionals, just a lot of individualized time in the program. And I think that makes it worthwhile in terms of price tag. And the other thing that I really wanted to do is I wanted this program to have the things that I felt were missing for myself when I was going through, my undergraduate education in dance, as well as my graduate education in dance. And one of those things was just having people that looked like me in the program as faculty. When I graduated many years ago from UCSB, I was the only person of color in my class. And there weren't any people of color who were on faculty. So that was really important for me to have that for the students. And I fought really hard also to have a pretty robust scholarship offering for our students as well, knowing that, especially if I wanted to have more people of color have access to this program, that the cost might be problematic because of resources and things of that sort. So I really fought for that as well. And then in terms of the social justice aspect I had been already doing this decolonization work for myself. And I found it to just be so important that I wanted to embed it into the program from its beginning. Especially with Western classical dance, once I realized The violence that was happening. I felt it was important to share that with students and let them have that knowledge. One of the things that happened to me that kind of Made me realize that long ago, but it took me years to understand it was I went to a summer workshop. I will not say the name of the school, but it was a ballet intensive and at the end of the workshop, they were having a final showing and we had to audition for different parts. And there was only two people of color in the entire ballet portion, and everyone got chosen for the ballet pieces, except for myself and the other person of color. And then immediately after that, the next part was the audition for the jazz piece, and we happened to be the very first two people chosen for that piece. And at the time I was staying in a dorm and there was a grad student who was our resident advisor, and she had talked about how she felt like that was racism and all these things. And we didn't quite understand at the time, but then as I learned more I realized what she was trying to teach me at that moment. And that has definitely made an impact on how I've moved forward. In my professional career,

Burgess 10:14

It's interesting, even years ago, I remember having a conversation with Janet Shibata, who danced for American Ballet Theater, and she was a soloist at the Washington Ballet, and danced for Chusango for many years. And she just said, she had to find a place where these ballet blancs, these Traditionally white ballets where she could move her career forward because she wasn't going to be cast at Giselle at that time period, I'm hoping that the field with trailblazers like Misty Copeland, et cetera, will change now more rapidly, but it is a tough aesthetic for sure for people of color.

danah bella 10:52

And one of the things I'm realizing is that even though, we're doing this work where we are at Peabody, but we're so isolated and when students go out, or even when I go out to different places, I realized that they're not talking about it at all. So the next thing is, how do we get that information outside of Peabody? Of course, my hope is that our students, when they graduate, they go out and they start to have these conversations with their peers. With their choreographers, with their directors, with their students. But I've been grappling with that a little bit. How do I, as the gatekeeper of this, how do I continue to get it outside of Peabody addition to the students? How can I do that?

Burgess 11:29

And it's difficult in a sense, too, because I think there's always been a schism between academia and quote, unquote, the arts field, right? What's out there, what's inside, what's out, right? And yet there is such a natural connection because a choreographer really utilizes the same Skills as any good academician does in writing a book, for instance, right? And it's like having people understand this transference that really is pretty seamless and how that can affect the field. But I agree with you. It's one student at a time. And what I appreciate about. Your program is that it is unique in that student teacher ratio is smaller than a lot of universities, and also that you've chosen to not only be a mentor yourself, but to bring in mentors of color and knowing how important that is.

danah bella 12:27

Yeah I think it's so important for the students to see people that look like them standing in the front of the room.

Burgess 12:33

Now, you are obviously a skilled professor, but you're also a practicing artist. And how do you bridge those two things and move between those two worlds, so to speak?

danah bella 12:47

to move between those two worlds. It's very difficult. I just recently performed in Washington, D. C. about about a month ago now. And this is the first time I've actually performed in maybe four years. And The last time I performed, was chairing this program, but we didn't have as many students. Because we only had our first cohort of dancers and possibly our second. So there's only about 20 students, 22. And now there are 30, 34 people plus all the faculty that I'm managing. And. Trying to find the time to practice, to find my own practice was, I will say very, was difficult, but I found it. I realized I had to, as much as I didn't want to, I had to rehearse, give myself class, rehearse at eight 30 in the morning.

Burgess 13:37

Right.

danah bella 13:38

Which is difficult. It's difficult when you're in shape, but it's even more difficult when you're not in shape. So I found that, but at that moment it was quiet at Peabody. There weren't students running around. I didn't feel like I needed to be in two places, three places at one time. And I was really able to just be in the studio and use it as a meditation practice as well. And I realized the things that I. Was having difficulty doing, I started experimenting with and trying to find ways to teach those things to my students in my technique class. So that I was also discovering at the same time. And it was interesting in terms of the more performance part Of the piece, I'm the co director of our Peabody Dance Ensemble, which is our pre professional company made up of all of our fourth year dancers. So I'm constantly in rehearsal, asking them to do these things. And so I had to start asking myself to do those things. If I'm asking the dancers to do this, I have to do this, especially because I knew that the majority of our students were going to be at this performance, I felt it was really important that I demonstrated the things that I was asking of them.

Burgess 14:53

situations, there's this added sense of accountability, isn't there?

danah bella 14:58

Oh, absolutely.

Burgess 15:00

What do you think is the most challenging part of your job as a dance educator?

danah bella 15:08

Wow. I think the most challenging part, it's probably just being able to meet every single student where they are every single day.

Burgess 15:17

That's beautiful.

danah bella 15:19

It's different every time they walk into the door. And even when I see them in class, then I might see them again in my office. 10 minutes later. And it's different. So really trying to meet them where they are and serve them in the way that they need each time.

Burgess 15:32

And it's interesting because a young dancer. A young adult, they're going through just trying to understand where they are within life itself. Right. And then you compound that with, they're trying to be the best dancer or young choreographer that they can be. So there are a lot of issues there.

danah bella 15:52

So many, lots of issues lots of imposter syndrome and then I think one thing that. Makes it a little bit easier for them is that at Peabody, we really talk about how there isn't one way to do anything and that we are giving you tools, but you can get to this place. In so many ways, you can do a straight line and you can do diagonal, you can meander and you will eventually get there. So I think because there's no expectation to get to a certain point in your skill level or in your choreography, I think that's helpful because they don't really compare themselves to other dancers in the program. They're really comparing themselves to themselves a lot of the time.

Burgess 16:40

And through your work with these young aspiring dance professionals, what do you see as the future of modern dance in America?

danah bella 16:49

What I see is just more informed dancers. And when I say informed I think it's not just in terms of the work they do and being a little bit more conscious about things like semiotics, but I think also just the way things can be done in the studio, the fact that they can have a voice that they can speak up if they feel like something isn't right. That they can ask for what they think they're worth.

Burgess 17:14

That it's not a dictatorial environment that, can be abusive, right? It's just the opposite. It's interesting. Dance is such a field of mentorship, right? And it's handed down generation after generation, but what do we celebrate within the tradition and what part of that history do we need to revisit? So that we can be more honest about the canon of the history of modern dance, right? It's like, how do we differentiate at this moment in time?

danah bella 17:44

Think you can celebrate and revisit everything at the same time.

Burgess 17:48

I think that's true,

danah bella 17:50

And I think things should always be revisited in my opinion. Cause you know, there may be things that we feel right now that we're doing in quotes, right. Five years from now, we'll have new information. The dancers will have new information. And so we have to continuously reflect and look back and analyze,

Burgess 18:09

definitely. Will you tell us a little bit about danah bella Danceworks?

danah bella 18:17

Oh, yeah. So Dana Bella Danceworks started originally when I was teaching at a school in Southwest Virginia called Radford University, and it was just a way for me to create and work with other dancers and be able to pay them and travel. It was a way for me to get my work out there. Originally that's what that was. And then I started collaborating with a few sound artists and poets in Richmond, Virginia. And we started doing more performance art type of work, which I really enjoyed. And so danabella Dancework was starting to do more of that kind of work. for a while. And we would do things where the poet would go into prisons and show some of our videos, and they would come up with their own poetry. And we would use that for one of our pieces. And now it's more just myself at the moment. And I still collaborate with one of the sound artists quite frequently actually. And everything we do is focusing on researching. So the last piece I did was about weathering and weathering in terms of the body. And this last piece I was doing was using short Filipino poems that are called Tanagas. They're similar to haikus. a Tanaga is a four lines with seven syllables each, and I was using that as inspiration to create this last solo I did. And then as I was going through having conversations with my collaborator, I ended up being the dramaturg for the work. I realized that I was also grappling with this idea of being now an elder and having responsibility with sharing, being the gatekeeper not only for these stories, but also the stories of my own family. And then, of course, became something different stories of dance. The things that we're doing at Peabody, those kinds of things. And out of those conversations and after doing the solo, my next project that I've decided that I'm going to work on is a creative work. I'm not quite sure what that's going to look like yet, but just documenting Filipino Filipina X, Filipino X American choreographers.

Burgess 20:34

Oh, interesting. What are you watching and reading and listening to these days that inspire you?

danah bella 20:43

Oh one person I'm watching all the time right now is my son.

Burgess 20:48

Oh, that's great.

danah bella 20:50

Yeah, just watching him mature and, he just graduated from eighth grade and so seeing that transition happen in the body. In the maturity I've been really inspired by that. And knowing, when you're in this awkward stage where You don't realize how tall you are anymore or how loud your voice is or how strong you are. You still think that you're this, little thing. So that's been really fascinating. To see. And what I've been reading lately I've been doing a lot of research on the Tanaka. So I've just been reading a lot of poetry right now. And actually going back to some journals I had. From years ago. I keep the journals that I've been writing in and looking back to see if I even was thinking about this at some other point in my life and to see how it's changed my perspective on it.

Burgess 21:41

And as you read those journals and you go through this process of self reflection has there been anything that surprised you?

danah bella 21:52

Yes. I think the thing that's most surprising for me is that the work that I'm doing now, especially at Peabody, I was already thinking about these things when I was 17 or 18. I didn't know. And I found that to be really interesting because, I've always thought that. Part of my trajectory was taking classes at UC Santa Barbara and Chicano studies, Asian American studies, black studies, right? I thought that's where it began. But when I really looked back, that is not where it began. And in fact, I think back to my childhood and it really began with my mom.

Burgess 22:28

I think there are these moments for people of color that they suddenly realize that they are the other, or there's a moment of othering that then somehow Makes them contemplate their own identity and different places that they either want to be moving towards in society or they feel that they're being forced into within our society. And did you ever have a moment like that?

danah bella 22:58

As soon as you said that Dana, it made me think of this one incident. So just. A little bit of background where I grew up in Oxnard the neighborhood that I grew up in. If you were Caucasian, you were the minority. Yeah. So in my neighborhood. There were a lot of Filipinos and a lot of Mexicans. And then I, when I went to my freshman year at UC Santa Barbara, I remember going there and my first couple of days I was looking around and I recall calling my mom and saying, mom, there are no Filipinos here.

Burgess 23:30

Right.

danah bella 23:31

Everybody here is Caucasian. I said, I can't find any of the Filipinos. I can't find anyone who's Mexican. that was the first time I felt maybe as if I didn't belong. I'll never forget it. It was such a strange feeling. So funny when I remember being on campus and obviously it's not a ghost town because there's a lot of people around, but I felt like it was a ghost town because I didn't see anyone that looks like me in

Burgess 24:04

And how do you think Asian Pacific Islander Americans are positioned in the dance scene in the United States right now? And also academia, too, as well.

danah bella 24:16

the dance world. I think there's a lot more of us. And I think. We're being seen a lot more. But honestly, I feel like there were a lot of us before, but we weren't saying that we were Asian Pacific Islander, we were just dancers. We were just choreographers. And I think partly that may have been because we just wanted to fit in. And now we're claiming those things, reclaiming the space, if you will.

Burgess 24:45

So you feel hopeful about it. Yeah,

danah bella 24:48

Yeah. Yeah. I feel hopeful about it. Absolutely. Especially. When I'm seeing things like for instance last year in the dance studies association academic conference, there was a panel just with Filipino dance artists. And for me, that was amazing to see and hear about. So even in academia, it's the same thing. It's slowly changing. I think it mirrors what's happening in the professional world where we were there, but we just weren't talking about it because we wanted to belong.

Burgess 25:20

I think that's so important. I remember reading an article recently about how in academia, the numbers of Asians and Asian Americans in leadership is actually extremely low. And I thought that was fascinating because there's such a push within a lot of academic institutions to recruit exchange or international students, I should say from Asia and also To recruit Asian American students. And yet where it drops off is at the leadership level that's where the inequity starts.

danah bella 25:53

Yes, absolutely. Starts as even lower than the upper administration, like as chairs as well. Yeah. And that is actually slowly changing as well.

Burgess 26:03

Which is great to hear. I remember being a chair and feeling very alone in a lot of those leadership meetings, for sure. What should we look for in the future from you? What are you thinking about in, say, three years from now, four years from now?

danah bella 26:25

Four years from now as I mentioned earlier I'm going to start working on this project on Filipino choreographers, dancers, and I'm thinking it's bigger than just a performance. I'm thinking it's some kind of documentary. But yeah I'm seeing it as a much bigger project than just a concert. And I feel like in order to do all of those things it's going to take. Three or four years for that to really come to fruition. So I'm planning on working on for the next few years.

Burgess 26:55

Oh, that's exciting. I know we're all looking forward to that journey that you'll be taking and to see the end product. So thank you so much for joining us today, Dana. It was such a pleasure to speak with you and you're such a generous person. So the best of luck with all you do.

danah bella 27:13

Thank you, Dana. Thank you again for having me. I appreciate it.

Burgess 27:17

Thank you for tuning in today. Please rate the podcast on your listening platform and tell your friends. Feel free to contact me at slantpodcast. com. It's always great to hear from you, our listeners. A special thanks to our sponsors, the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, the Cherry Blossom Giving Circle, and the Deddy Liam Gunawan Hickory Legacy Fund.