Helanius J. Wilkins is an award-winning choreographer, performance artist and instructor. He is also artistic director for Washington, D.C.,-based Edgeworks Dance Theater, which is premiering “the determining factor,” a multimedia dance performance that examines the issues of gender, tolerance, sexuality and homophobia in the Black community.
The Commonwealth Times: “Where did the inspiration for ‘the determining factor’ come from?”
Helanius J. Wilkins: “The inspiration behind ‘the determining factor’ initially stemmed from a conversation I had with a close friend of mine from about 11 years ago in Washington, D.C. He was going through a very difficult time in his life in the way of dealing with his feelings towards church and his personal life. He had kids and was going through a divorce and was finding difficulty coming into his own as a gay male. He didn’t like how he felt being in a church setting, and it spawned a series of conversations.
Ultimately, I started writing, because I found the conversations very interesting, and it led me to create a description for a project. It was a project that was looking at how the issue of homosexuality was being addressed in America and looking at it in part through the lenses of churches and schools. Both are institutions that are perceived as homophobic environments.
I knew I wanted it to be a project that involved community collaboration—hearing from community and peoples’ experiences. At that time, although I thought the description was great and the project was fascinating, I didn’t think it was the right time to tackle such a project, so I filed it.
Ten years later, I received a phone call from Stanford University, and they asked me to be a part of a project they were developing that was exploring the issues of sexuality and gender. I said, “Sure.” Long story short, I eventually was made into a lead artist in the development of the project. So I pulled out the project description and read it to see if it still resonated with me and why. I felt like I had validation and more information that this was truly a national issue that more people were willing to talk about.”
The CT: “Why would you describe the performance as multi-faceted?”
HJW: “It’s multi-faceted in the way that it incorporates video. There’s an original score, a very elaborate set, and at the center of this is choreography and dance. There is also live singing and acting. It’s a full, theatrical experience, and it reflects an integrated project. The pieces could function on their own, but it’s designed to be truly integrated. I see each aspect as a piece of a larger puzzle and, when you put them all together, you have the full picture. I wanted to really ground the work, because dance-in itself- is often viewed as being abstract. This is a very topical, very tangible matter, and I wanted to bring elements together with dance to really give a direct, clear journey for the audience.”
The CT: “Who did you get to compose the score?”
HJW: “Sven Abow has been a resident composer for Edgeworks for – gosh – the duration of our existence—eight years. We met here in D.C. He is a native of Frankfurt, Germany, and we have been collaborating actually for longer than eight years now.”
The CT: “Will the dancers, themselves, perform the live singing or will you be bringing in musicians to position themselves on stage or in the wings?”
HJW: “We have a guest performance artist who is part of the project—a very talented artist who goes by the name Monstah Black. He’s actually an alumnus of VCU, and he is based in New York City. He is a multi-talented dancer, singer and writer. I thought he was a perfect match for the project.”
The CT: “How do you use Monstah and your dancers to allow the project to unfold for the audience?”
HJW: “The way the project unfolds or develops is as a fantasy that was part of my vision to deal with illusions and fairy tales. Often such a project comes out being like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ meets ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’ But at the same time, it sort of goes wrong. Fairy tales generally have a happy ending, and this sort of goes on a different journey. In the course of that, we have Monstah Black as the ringmaster or storyteller.”
The CT: “Why do you feel it is so important that we address these issues of gender, sexuality and homophobia?”
HJW: “I think it’s something larger than that. One of the things I have walked away with, and am living with as a result of the process of developing the work and creating a final product, is that to tolerate is not enough. The biggest thing I’ve walked away with is that we do live in a society where we are often taught to tolerate, because we have to. To tolerate is simply not going to bring us closer to creating a more socially just environment. I think that is the bigger picture.
I think we are in a national crisis dealing with several issues, and the issue of homosexuality is just one of them. The bigger question is, ‘How do we create a more socially just environment?’ That is going to require us looking within and figuring out what it means to be agents of change or becoming the change that we want to see and really doing some work.
This project doesn’t have those answers, but it puts the information out there and the experiences and the ways that we perceive from different viewpoints all on the table. You can hear all the parallels and the right/left-wing things going on at the same time. How do we get beyond being satisfied with just tolerating?”
The CT: “I feel like that last question should be written all over the program.”
HJW: “Yes, and it actually is in my notes. (laughs) I generally don’t include notes from the artistic director, but I feel for this project, it is absolutely necessary. It comes up in the last part of the project called ‘Bruised but not Broken.’ It goes into a video piece that captures some of the stories and information shared in some of the discussion groups I held in response to that question. The results were inspirational obviously.”
The VCU Dance ’08-’09 Season begins this weekend with the premier of “the determining factor.” The performance takes place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Grace Street Theater. Tickets are $20 for the general public and $5 for VCU students with a valid I.D. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Grace Street Theater Box Office at 828-2020. ATTENTION: This work contains adult themes, strong language and sexual content.