From September 11 to 14, choreographer, performer and teacher Ashley Colours Perez will present her solo Generating Dancein collaboration with Danse-Cité, on the stage of La Chapelle. A tribute to the origins of several dance styles, such as vernacular jazz, hip-hop and waacking, as well as to their creative power.
Early in her childhood in Calgary, Ashley Colours Perez developed a relationship with dance, particularly with Caribbean folk dance. “I would dance with my mother and grandmother and we would learn soca, dancehall, certain dances together. African,” she says fondly. As a teenager, she became more interested in pop and street dance and immersed herself in the era of music videos on television. “From there, I did every audition I could. I wanted to be in those videos!” she continues.
Ashley Colours Perez then focuses on waacking, a dance that appeared in the 1970s in Los Angeles. The LGBTQ+ community is at the origin of this dance, which was practiced at the time to disco music, in clubs. During her research, Mme Perez didn’t find anything on the subject, but she discovered that Brian Green, in New York, was teaching it with the intention of bringing back the pioneers and creating a real place for the style. “So I decided to do a master’s degree in dance to further my research into the true form of waacking, the people and the queer community that were behind it.”
Throughout her career, Ashley Colours Perez discovered that often, the practice of a dance style does not work with its theory, the history that has been made of it. She then made it her mission, as much as possible, to “deconstruct its myths”. “Hip-hop, for example, there is very little research on it. People do and say things and it remains stuck on the Internet, as a truth. However, a lot of things have evolved over time, so you have to be careful,” she warns. For her, it is also essential to qualify the contribution of research. “We can’t be everywhere, all the time, and theories can also be questioned. It is important not to offend people and their experiences, but it is also valid to have your own experience and to want to share it.”
And it is all of these experiences, research and observations that she wanted to magnify in Generating Dance. “All of these styles allow me to be myself, not just as an artist, but as an individual,” she says. “Not all dancers have experienced what I’ve experienced, so I thought it was interesting to share it, almost as a gift, like a journal to share about my journey with dance. I’ve pushed all of these dances in my life, but I’ve never done them all together, in one hour.”
In addition to movement, Ashley Colours Perez also incorporates video and audio recordings into this solo. For her, technology allows for a real connection between humans. “Even during the pandemic, when we were dancing together on Zoom or watching videos on our phones, it still released endorphins in me. I was excited, I was sweating the same, I had the same energy,” she says. “And with all of that, you can create relationships, meet pioneers of dance. So, I love technology!”
The power of dance
It was precisely during the COVID-19 pandemic that Ashley Colours Perez decided to create Generating Dance. “It was a very difficult time for the dance community, which no longer had space for her, and for the first time in my life, I felt loneliness, isolation,” she says. In addition to the mental and financial difficulties, the artist also felt that she was losing her physical abilities during this period. “I didn’t dance for two years, my body couldn’t jump around anymore. I continued my research, but I didn’t perform anymore,” she continues.
Dance must be kept in the body and in the mind, always, as a gift. It is important to continue to practice it, to live it.
But the dancer who taught, choreographed, and performed for nearly 20 years needed a new challenge. “I decided to bring my mentors together, we sat down in the studio, talked, exchanged, and let them see what [nous] came [à l’esprit]. These people know me well, we have been through a long dance journey together, they have known my ups and downs, and I wanted to bring them together to cook up our ideas together.
In addition, Mme Perez also wanted to show that a woman who is almost 40 can still dance. “You age quickly in dance. Normally, at 40, it’s over. So, I wanted to push myself, take up the challenge, embody on stage a black body of almost 40 years old who moves and surpasses herself,” she says. Because, for the creator, dance, whatever its form, contains within it a “real power.” “I don’t know exactly how to define it, but the power of dance is linked to that of life. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don’t. For me, it’s with me every day, and dance, you have to keep it in your body and in your mind, always, like a gift. It’s important to continue to practice it, to live it even without a contract, without a goal. For me, it helped me get through time,” she explains.
With Generating DanceAshley Colours Perez hopes to pay tribute to these marginalized and sometimes overlooked or misunderstood dance forms while highlighting their importance in our lives. “I hope that the audience will let themselves go during the performance, not take what’s happening too seriously, that we will share a moment together, have some funshe concludes. I also hope that people will understand the magnitude of the work involved in this piece, my life and my experiences through my body.”