DEDICATION M Visualizing political and spiritual power Honouring strong leaders Deryck Murray May 2, 2005 Essentially a dance

about honouring strength, Dedication M has been inscribed in the bodies of dancers performing with Dance Strides Barbados by M. Sheron Trotman. She choreographed this piece during a period turbulence and instability in her life. A period of intense reflection on how to hold the forces that formed the foundation and touch stones of life in place long enough to experience the stability and tranquility it brings, even if only for a short time. The dance is a study in the birth of power through forces. It can almost be certain that MST did not set out to write a political dance. But politics is about how the weak grows strong, so it is not surprising the Dedication M turned out to be political. Appropriately, the entire dance is done to rhythms that draw upon the mystical power of the Nyabinghi drums. It makes manifests this invisible word power of the drum. The first part of dance then presents a succession of images that suggest the alignment of forces, their dissolution, and their subsequent realignment. One dancer is possessed, another reinforces, and then another, and so on until a formation, made strong by each dancer contributing their own small force, in the same direction or for the same purpose/goal as the group, makes the group strong. But this strength is ephemeral and quickly dissolves before another arrangement, started by the next creative impulse, is seeded. It then grows by adding more and more dancers to increase its force. But occasionally, these rapid transitions are punctuated by short periods of fragmentation and disorientation when everyone is moving purposeful, but not together. These are periods of weakness. Is this not how we all become strong? Is this not how all things become strong? Groping tentatively for an arrangement that aligns allies, friends, and associates so that each of them can contribute a little of their strength to make the group, and us, strong. In the end though, without leaders, strong groups are unstable. When MST descends from above, a leader has arrived. She arrives from a position above the details and differences that lead to fragmentation through power struggles, competition and jealousies. She comes from that position that we all sense when we turn our attention to the spiritual and away from the mundane; to God and away from people. She arrives with a mission of holding together unstable forces that tend to combine and disassociate far too frequently and far too easily. But she is no more powerful than anyone else. She arrives with the same power that everyone arrives with; only that small amount with which we are born.

However, she is more powerful than any of the others because as soon as she arrives, all of the small forces contributed by all of the others are lined up behind her. She is backed by lines of force and they all agree to lend her their strength. You can actually see the energy flow from each dancer until it detonates in MSTs body. She does not own the power, but she represents all of those who have lent her theirs. As long as she is the only one who speaks for her crowd, she has strength. If the others speak and say the same thing as her, then she remains strong. If they speak and say the opposite, then she is weakened, her lines of force will falter and her power will evaporate, except for what she has when alone and naked. Dedication M honours strength honestly by giving credit to the crowds. It is from our allies, friends, and associates that we gain our strength and from whence comes our potency. It is from those whom we constantly try to align. When MST is held aloft by her lines of force, she is at her most powerful. She forms a cross, a dense spiritual symbol in both European and African religions. Perhaps a suggestion of the spiritual realm to which one is catapulted through the masterly manipulation of the magical power of images and sound to bring the forces of the universe and the forces of people in alignment. Certainly, this is the experience of a powerful ritual. In the beginning, the dance was caught in a time in instability. Each new formation gave way just a quickly to another one. Nothing was being achieved. Time was standing still. At the end, the time of instability has passed. MST, arriving from a higher plane of existence, is able to hold the forces together, speak on their behalf, and control them. She is strong and at last can inspire peace, stability and tranquility. Time will pass now and things can be achievedfor a while.