Inside the Fishtrap

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Notes

1 Building a Better Fishtrap is iterative work. There are changes in the performance of each iteration. For the world premiere at the Bronx River, the title was expanded to Building a Better Fishtrap: From the river’s mouth to acknowledge the river as a collaborator.

2 The term ‘locs’ refers to a way of wearing one’s hair that has origins among Rastafarians.

3 Adia Whitaker is the founder and director of Às.e. Dance Theatre Collective based in Brooklyn, New York.

4 ‘Chairs’ is a choreographed segment of Building a Better Fishtrap during which dancers move while sitting in chairs. They rise from the chairs and carry movement forward and backward toward the chairs through improvised sequencing. Paloma developed this choreography after witnessing her father’s daily exercise while seated in a chair in her home in Harlem when he was living with her temporarily.

5 Sankofa is a principle expressed in the Twi language of Ghana that translates to, ‘Go back and fetch it.’ It corresponds to the Asante Adinkra symbol that is represented by a bird turning its head backward as its feet face forward.

6 Hurricane Maria did extensive damage to Saint Croix in September 2017. The efforts to rebuild continue.