The Title Search

I'm struggling with my new dance work. Not with the music, which I found the components of over a year ago and to which I recently did a killer edit. And not so much with the movement, which crystallizes further with each rehearsal. My challenge is in deciding on what to call this new dance work - in giving my creation a name.

I started off calling it "Surviving Survival" after its inspiration, a broadcast on Public Radio International of the program "Sound & Spirit" with Ellen Kushner. This episode was called "Surviving Survival" and Ms. Kushner's intro include the following:

" . . . how do you survive your own survival? Because it's a blessing to live through something, to escape the body's or the spirit's destruction. But what about those you left behind - the ones who didn't make it?"

The program then delves into survivors of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, surviving the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles, etc. I was particularly struck by the segment on J.S. Bach's 'Morimur' which contains musical references to beloved choral works about the resurrection. Some scholars also believe that Bach encoded the name of his late wife, Maria Barbara, within 'Morimur's' Ciaccona.

But the more I called the work "Surviving Survival" the more I feared that audience members might be drawn into "ableism". (If this term is new to you, here's a quick definition, borrowed from Wikipedia: ableism reflects "a view that the able-bodied are the norm in society, and that people with disabilities must strive to become that norm.") This new dance work is definitely not about my dancers 'surviving' their disabilities. So that title got tossed.

I then settled on the lengthier "A Matter of Space Between Two Points", drawn from one of the interviews contained within "Sound & Spirit". I was relatively happy with that until I realized it was uncomfortably close to CORE Performance Company's new work "The Point". Since these works will be sharing a program at the upcoming Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, out went that title as well.

So I'm back to having an 'untitled work'. I'm seriously considering posting excerpts on our website and YouTube and seeking suggestions. Hmm. I wonder what's the last possible minute I can delay the printing of the MAD Festival program?