HAMAPAH/THE MAP DANCE-ON-FILM

We decided to create a dance-on-film version of the stage production of HAMAPAH/THE MAP (2010) because we discovered that a multi-camera filming of the live stage piece did not capture the intimacy, immediacy, or vibration of Adam W. McKinney’s physical, spoken, and sung story-telling.

We worked with cinematographer Laura Bustillos Jáquez in 2015, prior to the filming HAMAPAH/THE MAP DANCE-ON-FILM, on a project at the Texas-Mexico border where she was inspired to “dance” with the dancers, freeing the camera from the tripod and becoming part of the movement. Because of our closeness as a creative team and her connection to the themes of identity, heritage, and otherness, Bustillos Jáquez captured a side of McKinney dancing that a seated audience would not experience. And her editing built on this connection. The hand-held filming adds a feeling of vulnerability and the search for stability— both the dancer and the film walking the fragile tightrope of self-identification.

In each location we visited, we partnered with community organizations, led workshops, held gatherings and meals, spent time to listen and get situated, and invited others into our process. We welcomed community members to be present while we filmed, brought refreshments, danced together, and listened to their stories and responses to what we were doing. In one beautiful moment, an observer took leadership and redirected traffic so we could film safely. This process was marked by many moments of precious serendipity: we reached out to a dance company in Krakow, Poland, to offer our services while we were there, and they requested that McKinney choreograph a new dance performance work for them. After arriving and starting the process, we discovered that the father of our contact at the company was the contractor in charge of the adaptive reuse and renovation of the Kolbuszowa Synagogue where McKinney’s great- and great-great-grandparents once prayed—and he gave us access to the building during construction. In Arkansas, McKinney was intuitively guided to attend a Sunday morning church service in the town of Palestine, where he met a woman who led him to his long-lost McKinney family in Forrest City. We believe that these moments of serendipity underscore the unique quality of the film.

We typically lead community storycircles after screening the film, during which we ask audience members to share their own stories of family, heritage, and identity. The storycircles often last longer than the film itself and relationships have emerged from audience members encountering one another in such an open space for sharing. We lead these community conversations because, as our friend and mentor Yavilah McCoy states, it is critical to “create spaces for people to fall in love with one another.”