This weekend Esther Baker- Tarpaga of the US and Hind Benali of Morocco present a collaborative work, “Her Other Side” at the Highways performance space in Santa Monica, CA. Esther creates work influenced by her site-specific explorations in West Africa.

 “Her Other Side” is an interactive performance art project that reveals stereotypes of the female body in Arab versus American society. “We are interested in how stereotypes of the Arab and American society condition our bodies, and how what we embody is both a reflection of ourselves and the media’s influence upon us”.

Esther explains that the piece employs “opposing imagery that continues to decay throughout the piece”. For example, Hind wears a 20lb skirt for the entire performance, intended to evoke imagery of covered women in a burkah. Esther changes blonde wigs and costumes throughout the piece as an example of the many female stereotypes women in US society are encouraged to embody.

 Throughout the piece, the physicality of the dancers reflects the theme of violence. Esther says that the piece “explores how violence is manifest in the physical body”. The piece begs the questions “What is violence in the physical body? What is a violent dance or solo?” Esther says that her and Hind have found it interesting to uncover their own physical understandings of violence and how this relates to societal conditioning and identity as a woman.

Esther and Hind met at the Contemporary Arts Festival in West Africa. Since then, they have choreographed several pieces and performed internationally. “Her Other Side” was developed in spaces throughout West Africa (particularly Burkina Fasa) and the US, which Esther says gave the piece site-specific influences, as it needed to be adapted to each unique location. The moving, international nature of the piece thus reflects the themes of border crossing and transnational identities. Esther says,” As women navigating different societies, the piece shows how our border crossing influences our movement and physicality”.

 Esther participates in dance anywhere® yearly as she is inspired by the geographical range of the project. She says “this transnational sense of dance is something that is missing from a lot of dance projects”. Particularly, in some of the West African communities she has worked in, she perceives that there is little sense of dance beyond the community, as a more global force. She says “dance anywhere is really relevant in our times. In the US the arts are continually more and more cut and restricted to certain spaces and times. In Africa art really is everywhere, and this is an important lesson we can learn by broadening our understanding of dance on an international scale”.

For more information about the upcoming performance of “Her Other Side” visit the Baker & Tarpaga
Dance Project at: http://www.btdanceproject.com/content/new-works-beautiful-struggle-declassified-her-other-side

For tickets to “Her Other Side” visit Highways Performance Space & Gallery

http://highwaysperformance.org/highways/event/her-other-side-esther-baker-tarpaga-and-hind-benali/

For more information about Esther and Hind’s work view Esther’s dance anywhere page and website.