Marc Bamuthi Joseph put on an impressive show over two dates at the Emmett Robinson last week. His poetic speech and movement was combined with hip-hop music, conversational “travel diary” monologues, video interviews shot by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi and a large moving lighting rig choreographed by James Clotfelter.

Yet for a really intense experience, I went to Bamuthi’s two hour workshop at the Avery Research Center, part of a free “Spoleto at the Avery” program” that ran last week.

At the Emmett Robinson Theatre, Bamuthi shared the stage with all those bells and whistles. In the workshop, there were no such distractions. The performer’s work was a lot more powerful in the intimate classroom environment, and he got to show another side to his work – he mentors teen writers through a “Youth Speaks” literary arts organization.

The workshop was part writing class, part dance-off. Bamuthi began with a demonstration of what he does, switching from hip-hop speech to regular talk about his partner’s pregnancy and a planned natural birth. As he spoke he moved, creating visual images with his physical being, his expressions and his breathing.

Bamuthi also talked about definitions – of hip-hop, of his work and of himself. What was the difference between a technician and an artist? (The latter, he decided, isn’t afraid of using the heart as well as the head). Did he perform ballet? Hip-hop jazz? Or a fusion of different elements? And how did it feel to be defined at all? “During this workshop,” he said, “I’ll be talking about defying boundaries and using them when necessary.”

Bamuthi was amiable, cracking jokes, patiently making sure that the younger attendees were following him (although the Spoleto box office said the workshop was for trained dancers only, skill levels were variable and ages ran from mid-teens to 60-somethings). He got us to write something heartfelt then showed some graceful dance moves. At first, we were able to keep up; as he continued (and started spinning around the floor), only the trained dancers were able to continue without looking like complete idiots.

As we took a breather, Bamuthi asked us to write painfully honest truths about ourselves. Then we put the movements and the sentences together, and several brave and talented souls performed 45 second “plays” that told a story through dance and words.

I wasn’t that brave. After watching a few of the plays I took a back seat. I justified this by telling myself that the kids should get their turn before I stuck my size tens in; perhaps I’m not ready for to stick my neck out as far as Bamuthi does so merrily. But the kids did good and our teacher successfully made his points: hip-hop is about more than shouting in a microphone, and he’s a hard man to keep up with.

- Nick Smith

Tags: Dance, hip-hop, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Spoleto

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Around Town, Dance, Music, Performers, Theatre, Video.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.