Laughing in the Face of Waste: Cadence Whittier, "dancer environmentalist" stereotypes, and humor in choreography

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview one of my professors, Cadence Whittier, about her work as a dancer and choreographer. Although I have known Cadence for several years and had the opportunity to work with her last semester on the Finger Lakes Dance! Concert, it was great to have the chance to talk to her more deeply about her work as a choreographer. Cadence has created dances on many different subjects, but recently she choreographed two environmentally themed works that appeared last October in the Finger Lakes Dance! Concert. She was also the artistic director of the concert this year. The overall theme of the concert this year was ReFuse: Recycle and Reuse. 

Why work with environmental themes?

When I asked Cadence why the environment provides motivation for her choreography, she responded, “well, we live in it! It’s a part of my livelihood; my daily experiences in my world are essential to my ability to be happy and my ability to survive and my ability to form relationships in my community. It’s all environmentally based.” I loved this answer; of course the environment should be a motivation for all of us; we live in it!

Cadence also mentioned the connection between environment and community—something that Collen Culley and I discussed at length. The environment brings people together, it is something we all have in common, no matter who or where we are. And it goes both ways: if we live in a polluted environment—either literally or metaphorically—that can prevent communities from forming successfully. 

Cadence also talked about how in the past her experience of backpacking through natural environments has been an inspiration for movement that later turned into choreography, however she didn't identify those particular works as falling under the category of having environmental themes.

Discussion on the implications of being a “dancer” and an “environmentalist”

As with all the artists I have interviewed thus far, I was interested to see what Cadence thought about the stigma behind the term “environmental dance.” When I asked her why she thinks this stimga exists, she stated:

 “I think your taking two words that are stigmatized. If you say you’re a dancer, that’s already a stigmatized word, at least in my experience. When I was in college and I said I majored in dance people assumed it was an easy, a blow-off major. And I think environmentalism has the same stigma. To say you’re an environmentalist people assume you’re chaining yourself to trees..."

I agree that the term “dancer” is regularly stereotyped; dancers are often seen as unintelligent or shallow. I feel this is especially true with regards to majoring in dance at college, as Cadence mentioned above. Although in some ways I feel like being a dancer is looked down upon, I also think people tend to romanticize, sexualize, and even become envious of the very idea of being a dancer—dance is seen as sensual, passionate and fun. 

As opposed to most of the world that study at desks using solely their heads, as dancers we are of course constantly using our brains, but we also learn through moving, breathing, feeling, and listening—in short dancers simultaneously utilize more of their senses to create a fully embodied creative learning experience! Even though on a superficial level some people may stereotype dancers as being unintelligent, I believe that whether it is consciously or subconsciously, many people realize that kinesthetic knowledge is valuable.

I also agree with Cadence’s statement that the term “environmentalist” is often linked to extreme images of early environmentalists who chained themselves to trees and stubbornly laid their (sometimes naked) bodies in front of bulldozers to prevent environmental damages. In this regard I agree with Colleen Culley’s statement that the root of the environmentalist stigma is due to the fact that environmentalists are often perceived to not acknowledge the big picture; our energy does have to come from somewhere, and “if it’s not in my backyard it’s in someone else’s” (Culley).

Humor in environmental dance

I have always noted and admired Cadence’s incorporation of humor into her choreography. Certainly the two pieces she choreographed for the Finger Lakes Dance! Concert included humorous elements, although I would not say that humor was the heart and soul for either of these works. Cadence did not state this explicitly during our interview, but it is my personal opinion that her use of humor in her recent environmentally themed choreography helps the audience appreciate the message she is trying to send without getting “preachy” or making the audience feel ostracized.

I realized that humor is often used to address difficult or controversial subject matter in many different contexts—not just in art or dance and not just with regards to the environment. We can use humor to bring awareness to a serious issue without pointing fingers. With regards to the environment in particular, we are all to blame for a certain amount of environmental degradation, and I believe this is another reason why some people might feel uneasy about the terms “environmentalist” or “environmental dance.” No one wants to be preached at or told how he should be living his life.

During my interview with Cadence it became clear that she is very aware of her audience and of the possibility that they might feel preached at if viewing a work with a strong and specific environmental message. Cadence described how this awareness caused her to alter the theme of one of her recent works:

Initially it [my interested in creating an environmental piece] started years ago with a interested in plastic water bottles… I started wondering, if we’re distributing all this water in plastic water bottles, then were are all the plastic water bottles going? It just seemed like a really unnecessary aspect of our culture… Then from talking to my husband, his interpretation of that idea was that if I only used water bottles I might ostracize a large portion of my audience because a lot of people find that plastic water bottles are necessary [under certain circumstances]… So I decided to broaden my idea and I thought ‘well what if I just look at trash?’”

When discussing the possibility of ostracizing her audience, Cadence didn’t mention her use of humor, but I believe that the incorporation of humor might not only prevent this kind of reaction but it also can help the audience enjoy the choreography if they aren’t accustomed to viewing abstract modern dance. Using humor in some capacity doesn’t mean there can’t still be a serious underlying message. I’m also not trying to say that everyone should be creating funny dances all the time… but I think it can be a really useful tool and something to keep in mind. Plus we all like to laugh!