Nearly 50 years ago, social scientist Margaret Mead and author James Baldwin sat down and recorded a conversation about the issue of race. Much of what they talked about is still relevant today. Inspired by that iconic discussion, Donald Byrd, artistic director of the Seattle-based Spectrum Dance Theater, and MacArthur Award-winning actress and playwright, Anna Deavere Smith, co-created a performance piece, A Rap on Race. Here, Byrd, who choreographed the performance and plays Baldwin, talks about how dance can help open up a productive dialogue on race. A Rap on Race makes a tour stop for one-night-only at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on Nov. 16. // 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax; cfa.gmu.edu; $29-$48
What was the inspiration for A Rap on Race?
It was the conversation itself between Margaret Mead and James Baldwin in 1970. This idea of having a conversation about race, which I think is a challenge for people now. So looking at that conversation, I thought we might look at it as a model for how we might have a conversation about race in this country. And so I wanted to put it in front of people as a kind of inspiration.
How do you use dance to effectively express the message of this story?
The text and the conversation between Mead and Baldwin is the part that communicates really very specific things because it’s words and it’s language, and so people can understand that. Dance actually provides the sense of mood, the tone and the period that the conversation is taking place in. The dances create the context.
How do you hope that audiences will receive the show?
My hope is that the piece will contribute to people thinking about alternative ways to consider race and other issues that appear to be intractable and challenging and difficult. We tend to with language, with only language, we just seem to listen and then, well, not listen. We wait until we can respond as opposed to actually being engaged in authentic conversation. Perhaps this production and productions like this that take on these kind of issues might provide alternative ways of considering the subject matter, the issue—in this case race. My hope is in the D.C. area, there’s a more receptive audience than there might be someplace else.
What role does performing art have in today’s society?
How we say it at Spectrum, and it’s in our mission, is to educate the community about dance as an art form and as a social civic instrument. I look at this place where social civics issues converge with aesthetics, and that is really the thing that I am interested in, that I’m inspired by and that’s what I share with audiences through the work that I make.
