Ep. 14 - Deciphers: language and identity

PuSh Play

Jean Abreu and Naishi Wang discuss how language shapes and reflects identity. See Deciphers at the 2024 PuSh Festival from Jan 24-26 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Co-Presented with New Works.

Show Notes

Gabrielle, Naishi and Jean dive into the development of this piece and how it was influenced by language and digital technology. They also discuss how their work tackles loneliness, the migrant experience, the transforming nature of human identity, and other questions including:

• How does this piece expose the underlying motivations of the body’s movements?

• What are creative and digital technology’s influence?

• What does it mean to be in and out of the work?

• How can internal processes translate to external performance?

• How is developing a piece like this about learning how to share with others and with oneself?

• How would you describe each other’s bodily-linguistic identities and how have these changed throughout the project?

• How can precise language sometimes hold art back?

• How does this work tackle loneliness, the migrant experience, and the transforming nature of human identity? How are these themes present in the wider bodies of the artists’ work?

• How do we highlight “nonsense” in order to discover and translate not knowing into something else?

About Naishi Wang

Based in culturally diverse Toronto, and born in Changchun, China mixed with Chinese, North Korean and Mongolian ancestry. Naishi Wang observes and studies the underlying motivations of the body’s movements and the emotions it conveys. Renowned for his exceptional improvisations, which he turns into incarnations of bodily meaning, Wang is also a practicing visual artist. His drawings, which take the form of dances on paper, echo his work in dance.

Part of the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) program in February 2019 and also presented in Halifax and Hamburg, Germany. His solo Taking Breath demonstrated his interest in intimate forms of bodily communication, a subject he takes up again in the duet Face to Face which focused on our new modes of virtual communication and the factors that act in concert to convey our intentions in even the simplest exchanges. Naishi is currently collaborating with UK-based artist Jean Abreu entitled Deciphers and a trio named Eyes, Wide Open. He is an artist in residency at the Citadel, Harbourfront Centre and TO Live and has been awarded Les Respirations du FTA (2021), Small Scale Creation Fund from CanDance (2021) and Chalmers Arts Fellowship from Ontario Arts Council (2022).

About Jean Abreu

Born in Brazil, Jean Abreu moved to London in 1996 after receiving a scholarship to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance. Jean Abreu received the Jerwood Choreography Award in 2003 following the creation of his first choreography, Hibrido. Since then his work has toured throughout the UK, Europe, Brazil and China including performances for Dance Umbrella, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Royal Opera House and Southbank Centre in London. Jean Abreu’s movement practice comes from his ongoing interest in utilizing the body as a powerful tool to articulate arresting emotional and complex ideas through dance. Creative & digital technology has consistently featured within and challenged Jean’s varied performance work.

In 2009 he founded Jean Abreu Dance and has since collaborated with influential artists across multiple art forms including rock band 65daysofstatic for Inside (2010), choreographer Jorge Garcia for Parallel Memories (2011), visual artists Gilbert & George for Blood (2013) and Brazilian sculptor and visual artist Elisa Bracher for A Thread (2016). His work Solo for Two toured across the UK in 2018 with further performances in China and Portugal in 2019. Jean has taught extensively in the UK and abroad in renowned dance organizations and Universities including London Contemporary Dance School, London Studio Centre, Dance Base (Scotland), International Festival of Morelos (Mexico) Roger Williams University (USA) New York University (USA), Balance Arts Centre (China). He is currently a regular guest artist at Bath Spa University, Portsmouth University, University of Bath, Greenwich Dance and Beijing Dance Academy.

Land Acknowledgement

Jean joins the podcast from the east end of London, UK, where he acknowledges both the migrant peoples of the area and the original inhabitants.

Naishi joins from Toronto, Ontario, which is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Gabrielle hosts from the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver.

It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.

Show Transcript

A complete transcript of this episode will be available soon.