the dancer as storyteller

Pictured: Novek Ii (Image)

Dancing Dialogues began when …

… fellow dancer, Amanda Cantrell Roche, introduced me to Narrative 4, a global organization that seeks to “build a culture of connection through the power of storytelling.” The core methodology of Narrative 4 is the “story exchange,” in which two people pair up and share stories from their lives. Then, each person tells their partner’s story in first person in a group setting. In November of that year, I became a certified Narrative 4 facilitator. Almost immediately, I began to think about how I could weave Narrative 4 and the “story exchange” into my work as a dancer and choreographer.

I got the chance in May of 2023, when Carolyn Dorfman brought her dance company to Chattanooga from New York City. Four dancers from Caroline’s company, along with four dancers from my own, spent two short but meaningful hours together – pairing up and exchanging stories about their lives. The stories were deep and deeply felt. All eight dancers then shared these stories in front of a live audience.

Here’s how it worked: The dancers took the stage in pairs. Each dancer relayed their partner’s story in first person. At the same time, the dancer, whose story was being told, danced.

The experience was electric.

It’s not often that dancers use their voices on stage. It’s not often that dancers embody someone else’s story or dance their own. And it’s not often that a live audience witnesses this most intimate exchange…

My hope is to bring Dancing Dialogues to other dance communities around the world.

-Ann Law, Founder of Barking Legs

Pictured: Beth Markham Herring and Khalid Dunton

Photo by: Tanqueray Harper (IG: @truecapture423)

Filmed by Tané Hopper

“Dancing Dialogues was an astonishingly powerful collaboration between Carolyn Dorfman Dance and Barking Legs led by Ann Law, a brilliant and inspiring improvisational artist, educator, and creative thought leader. The 90-minute collaborative session, led by Ann with four members of each company, was one of the most gratifying connections we have made on tour. My work embraces the uniqueness of each individual existing in relation to others. In the end, it celebrates the essential individual experience as well as our profoundly collective humanness. Through both process and performance, the dancers and audiences grew to understand the power of the individual story, erasing the concept of ‘fear of other’ and replacing it with true empathy, understanding, and love.

This is dance with a capital “D”. It underscores my firm belief in Walter Stegner’s words, ‘There is a sense we are all each other’s consequences.’

In the end we listened, watched, heard, laughed, cried, and grew together.

Thank you, Ann Law and Company. We are better for having been with you.”

-Carolyn Dorfman, Founding Artistic Director Carolyn Dorfman Dance

Pictured: Khalid Dunton and Jarred Bosch

Photo by: Tanqueray Harper (IG: @truecapture423)

Creative collaboration; empowering dance

Because of its creative energy and outcomes, Ann would love to share Dancing Dialogues with other dance communities, allowing creative collaborations to make empowering dances.

From beginning to end, the purpose of Dancing Dialogues is to encourage a more wholistic dance community.

Contact Ann

“I went to a Dancing Dialogues performance and didn't know what to expect. I recognized some of the dancers from Barking legs — dancers I loved, but I didn't really know them.

I began to hear their stories, those I knew as dancers but had never known as individuals.

Their stories, their journeys, their conflicts, their fears, and now they danced it while another dancer, one from out of town, told their story.

Clash! Clack inside of me!

I was pulled in, drawn by the power of movement and words to imagine the inner world of dancers I had known and loved for a long time. I felt the camaraderie, the creativity, the collectivity of this moment.”

— Eleanor Cooper, May 2023

FACILITATED BY ANN LAW

ANN LAW engages in the creative process daily. She began making dances with a yardstick and her cat, Panther, in her Southern California backyard when she was four years old. She has also made dances in Ventura, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, New York City, and for the last 30 years, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She received her M.A. in Dance Education from UNC Greensboro and her B.A. in Dance from Mills College. She is also certified in Pilates and Kinetic Awareness, a form of somatic education.

Ann has received many awards including Chattanooga’s Ruth Holmberg Arts Leadership Award, UNC Greensboro’s Distinguished Alumni Award in Dance Education, Tennessee Association of Dance Outstanding Dance Educator, and Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship Award.

An improvisational dancer, dance educator and arts activist, she is Director of Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga (CoPAC) and Founder of Barking Legs Theater.