Thursday, May 7, 2009

Silvino da Silva, Director of Marketing

"When in Rome – do as the Romans!" These were the words spoken to us by our young and energetic guide in Shanghai, Alex, as we traveled from the airport to our hotel. How appropriate, I thought. How cool. Leave our Western crutches behind and take that leap of faith into the unknown. Immerse ourselves in the local.

We're here to explore and share ideas of culture. Not only the kind of culture that deals with the arts, but the culture that also embodies a people. Concepts of "us" and "them." How we think. How we act. How they think. How they act.

CDI has a dance in its repertoire called "Meetings Along the Edge" which will be performed when we have our concert in NanJing next week. In a great sense, that dance embodies the entire trip. It's choreographed without actual counts. Which means that while all the movements are set, the dance can alter slightly from performance to performance based on how the dancers interact with each other. A metaphor that explores the subtle and not-so-subtle nuances of cultural influences, leaving each slightly altered from this contact, "Meetings" used a fusion of Iranian music and a collaborative composition between Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass.

Just as each dancer is influenced by moments of contact from another dancer, I'm expecting that each one of us on this trip will also be influenced by this new outside contact. How could we not? Already I am seeing how we have started memorizing more and more of the language, using it in new (and probably to the dismay of the Chinese) innovative ways. Last night at dinner the only way that we could remember the name for "hot sauce" was to incorporate it into the children's nursery rhyme of "three blind mice." And, the phrase for "no, thank you" is strikingly similar to our own colorful phrase for when we think something is definitely not true – "bull shit."

We've been putting that last saying into action on a regular basis. Overly aggressive street vendors have discovered just how creative we can be with language-blending.

Ah, the sweet freedom of immersion!

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