As a white, Globally Northern, U.S.-based applied theatre practitioner and researcher, I have found myself returning to Smith’s words in my work with Starfish as I have developed the Vocal Empowerment program and worked to integrate Ajchowen’s theatrical techniques into their school. At the outset of working with Starfish in 2009, I couldn’t have known what our relationship would become but I knew I wanted to find out.įollowing her research with Maori people of New Zealand, Indigenous author Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) asked of researchers in Indigenous spaces: “Is her spirit clear? Does he have a good heart? What other baggage are they carrying? Are they useful to us? Can they fix up our generator? Can they actually do anything?” (1999, p. As Weber-Pillwax (2009) advises, “to engage in PAR, a researcher has to trust, has to have faith, has to be able to say, ‘I want this’ without knowing the end of the journey” (p. Applied theatre researchers often turn to PAR because of the similarities to Freire’s (1993) axiology (McCammon, 2007). PAR is a transformational research methodology it is community-based and seeks to create a horizontal relationship between researcher/participant in which both learn from each other and work collaboratively toward a shared solution to a proposed challenge/problem (Walter, 2009 Weber-Pillwax, 2009). Beth Osnes of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Starfish to develop a Vocal Empowerment program for Maya girls. When I first met the performers of Ajchowen, I was engaged in a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project with Dr. I have been working with Starfish since 2009 as an applied theatre consultant and researcher. It was then that Norma, Ajchowen performers and I began to imagine ways in which their unique theatrical abilities could be shared with the young Maya girls that Starfish served, planting seeds for a partnership that has continued to grow for the past four years. Ajchowen’s art illuminated their world in a way discourse alone could not. Watching the performance, I bore witness to individual and collective embodiments of Maya women’s experiences that were grounded, physically expressive, and deeply personal. My long-term colleague and Executive Director of the girls’ educational organization Starfish: Her Infinite Impact (Starfish), Norma Baján Balán, had taken me through a cornfield to a local cultural center to see the play Ixkik by an all-female Maya theatre company called Ajchowen. Director Murnau brilliantly cast and directed this amazing drama-proving to one and all what a profound loss silent movies became when they were overtaken by those noisy talkies.In 2014, in Sololá, Guatemala, I experienced what Fels (2012) would call a stop: “a stop occurs when… we recognize absence, a gap, a dissonance, a possibility newly perceived” (p. Although released in l930, this film confirms how incredibly smooth and profound silent movies had become. She only died recently at the age of 92 She was matched by silent screen great Charles Farrell who had t difficult role of Lem, who was also simple, sweet but manly, too. The movie's great loss is that she made only one other movie, 'Morning Glory" before leaving the screen to marry millionaire polo player. She was a sweet, young girl who was also feisty and was so believable and likable that she became someone you'd love to know. Mary Duncan as the 'City Gir' was absolutely enchanting. Each scene simply glowed with amazing grays and whites and charcoals. #City girl life como mudarmre movieFor one thing, the restoration of this forgotten classic was so stunning it was like watching a black and white movie made an hour ago. I was so astonished by this movie that as soon as "The End" came up, I started watching it all over again.
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