Anita Vallabh:<\/strong> Wendy, why did you choose Benin for \u201cThe Birds\u201d intensive?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy Jehlen:<\/strong> Benin is both a spiritual and historical crossroads\u2014home to rich Voudoun traditions and deeply tied to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. It carries stories of extraordinary trauma, survival, and cultural continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also one of the most important places in the world in today\u2019s cultural zeitgeist\u2014the birthplace of one of the world\u2019s most influential religions, which spread from West Africa and shaped music and dance across the globe. The rhythms and movement traditions rooted here have influenced nearly every popular form\u2014hip-hop, breakdance, jazz, even Bollywood\u2014all trace their lineage back to Benin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t ignore that Benin is also a construction of colonial history. The dispersal of its people came through extraordinary violence, and yet much of our shared culture today comes from that root. Every diaspora touched by Benin\u2019s has been influenced, and in turn, influenced Benin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now, the world\u2019s attention is on Benin in a way it hasn\u2019t been before. Museums in Europe and the U.S. are being called to return cultural treasures stolen during the colonial period, and this debate is exposing the racism and colonial attitudes that still persist. Add to this the visibility brought by The Woman King<\/em>, and we\u2019re at a moment when people are finally paying attention to a country whose significance has long been overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there\u2019s the practical side\u2014Benin has one of the most favorable visa policies in the world, which makes it possible to bring together artists from around the world. Plus, ANIKAYA has a base here\u2014Multicorps<\/strong>, a contemporary dance and performance centre founded by one of the Birds, Marcel Gbeffa\u2014which makes it a artistic home for this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anita Vallabh:<\/strong> Given the challenges of raising funds for travel, accommodation, and logistics, what motivates you to bring Conference of the Birds<\/em> to different countries and host the intensives? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy Jehlen:<\/strong> Conference of the Birds<\/em> is a project that brings together people whose stories need to be told. It speaks to the necessity of telling every story as part of the larger human story\u2014because every life matters, every story matters, and every perspective is essential for our understanding of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is that many stories are ignored, misunderstood, sidelined\u2014sometimes deliberately\u2014and eventually forgotten. Conference of the Birds<\/em> is a remembering of those stories. It\u2019s a vessel for them to live again. The Birds Intensive expands this work to include even more voices, inviting people from different countries, with different dance languages, spoken languages, and sign languages, so that we can keep holding as many of these stories as possible, and explore how they intersect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For that reason, it\u2019s essential to have a truly diverse group. In Benin, we had seven dancers from the country itself, ten from other parts of Africa, and the rest from across the world. That range of perspectives and embodied languages keeps the work alive and continually evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anita Vallabh:<\/strong> How many dancers participated in the Benin intensive? And how many are in the Conference of the Birds <\/em>ensemble?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy Jehlen:<\/strong> In Benin, we had a wonderfully diverse group of ten dancers\u2014 from outside Benin, six from other parts of Africa, and four from the US, Europe and Palestine. It created a truly international space for exchange, where local traditions met global perspectives in the studio every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Conference of the Birds<\/em> ensemble has nine dancers from nine different countries\u2014Taiwan, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, Benin, Egypt, Turkey, the United States, and Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anita Vallabh:<\/strong> What does social justice mean in the world of dance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendy Jehlen:<\/strong> There are many facets to it. For me, dance can support and empower any ideology\u2014because dance is a direct mode of communication. While there are many languages in dance, and even codified forms that might not seem codified, the ways of telling stories aren\u2019t a universal language in themselves. But the human body moving\u2014the emotion in that movement\u2014is instantly understood. It can reach people in a way that convinces them to question and even uproot their understanding of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the issues that prevent us from reaching justice are ideas we\u2019ve absorbed since childhood\u2014ideas about race, hierarchy, history, and even what we believe is in our genes. One of the ways we can begin to transform is through embodied practice\u2014moving together, reflecting together\u2014and using dance as a way to step outside those inherited positions.<\/p>\n\n\n
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