April 15-21, 2004

art

Caribbean Crusader

Home body: Tania Isaac's latest work, home is where i am, fuses biomechanics with traditional island music and dance. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Tania Isaac, the Painted Bride's first resident artist, debuts her own company and finds herself perfectly at home.

by Deni Kasrel

Tania Isaac moved to the United States a decade ago; even so, sometimes this dancer-choreographer’s heart, mind and body still belong to her birthplace: St. Lucia, West Indies. Culture, after all, is partially genetic, and it doesn’t come out in the wash. As Isaac relates in text for home is where i am, her latest creation opening at the Painted Bride this week, "Even if I were naked and alone, I carry compact memories in every cell of my being."

Innate remembrances form the basis of home is where i am, a dance-theater piece in which Isaac reflects on her immigrant status. Each segment represents a specific episode in Isaac's life. Some of these episodes are humorously poignant, like the one about her trying to cope with the bitter cold of her first stop in the U.S.: Madison, Wis. Other sections, such as those where the cast gets down to the sounds of soca and zouk music, pay homage to a laid-back island attitude. The full scope of movement incorporates facets of Isaac's formal training in the States -- ballet, postmodern, contact improvisation, kinesiology and biomechanics -- with Caribbean dance forms. "I gave myself permission to use whatever I felt like," she says.

This is one of several permissions Isaac has allowed since coming to America. The real biggie came when she opted to make a career of being a dancer.

Growing up in St. Lucia, young Tania was exposed to dance, music and other creative outlets, in school and through cultural customs such as Carnival. However, she says, "While art is so much a part of everything that happens, it's not considered a separate occupation. Most people in the arts have other careers as well."

Isaac enjoyed physics and "was good at structural things" in high school, so she planned on pursuing a degree in engineering when heading off to the University of Wisconsin. Perhaps it was fate, but the dance department was housed in a building two blocks away from the engineering school. Soon Isaac was dividing her time between art and science, until the former overtook the latter and she finished with a bachelor's degree in dance. She went on to earn a master's degree in dance from Temple University.

Isaac's performing career includes stints with Anita Gonzalez/Bandana Women, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Urban Bush Women and Rennie Harris Puremovement, all of which have influenced her choreographic outlook. From Chiao-Ping she picked up the notion of "envisioning ways of executing movement that might seem impossible, but you end up trying them anyway." Bush Women and Puremovement offered insight into how to convert that which is personal into social commentary.

Along the way Isaac created short pieces of her own making, and now she's ready to take the plunge, with the debut of Tania Isaac Dance Projects, which presents the full-length home is where i am at the Painted Bride Art Center. Lisa Nelson-Haynes, associate director for the Bride, says that Isaac is a fine choice for its first residency because "she does a good job of mixing modern dance with social dance, and that's going to be really good for attracting an audience. I think sometimes people are put off by modern dance because they don't understand where the artist is coming from. Tania does a great job of creating dance that engages people."

Isaac has definite ideas about how she wants to engage with viewers. She intends to use her company to expand upon the West Indian cultural heritage by "playing with a lot of the imagery and life metaphors." This mindset appears sporadically in home is where i am, and it will be even more prominent in a follow-up production, Standpipe, named for a central source of water in the Eastern Caribbean.

In between, Isaac will keep busy with outreach programs linked to the residency. In the coming weeks she'll lead workshops on contemporary and traditional dances, including quadrille, calypso, reggae, zouk and soca. Later on, Isaac plans to host classes in dominoes, cricket and steel-drumming. She's excited about having an opportunity to spearhead these programs "because there's a really strong Caribbean population here. There's a lot that they do in their own subculture, and I think it needs to be brought more to the forefront. Also, in general, I like the nurturing that happens when art becomes bigger than the theater and the artist."

This particular artist is on a crusade to dispel common misunderstandings of her native land. "One of my big beefs is conceptions of the Third World," she says. "Because I grew up in a what is considered part of the Third World, I think there is so much more there. There are so many incredible things about it that don't get noticed."

home is where i am, Tania Isaac Dance Projects, April 15-17, 8 p.m., $15-$20, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914. Caribbean Culture and Dance Workshops with Tania Isaac, Mondays, April 19 and 26 and May 3 and 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m., $10, Painted Bride.