I take a modern dance class at school, and it is very enjoyable. I find it a fun way to relax, get some exercise, and be creative during an otherwise stressful day filled with academic subjects. I never thought my dance class would be a way to explore social issues and health issues, but last week I discovered I was wrong!

Marie Garlock wrote a dance/storytelling performance piece called {it is in you}: Health Justice Performance in Tanzania.  It was based on her experience living in Tanzania and working with HIV peer health educators, performing artists and health justice activists and experts. She did a residency at my high school last week, and she taught two class periods of my dance class. She also performed the piece in its entirety for the entire school. Working with Marie was an absolutely amazing experience. I learned about HIV/AIDS and other health issues in a way I had never done before: using performance and dance. Marie describes what she does on her website:

Garlock journeys forward with "{it is in you}: Health Justice Performance in Tanzania," exploring the politics of development, HIV and the body, and seeking to honor the insights of East African friends and educators, through storytelling and movement.

In our class, Marie asked us to stand in partners and react to questions using our bodies and creative movement. She asked for a guy, what the primary purpose of sex was. She then asked for a girl. Once we moved and took a certain shape, she explained how the answers, on average, differ between cultures. The answers vary a lot between men and women, no matter the culture. They also reveal a large problem. She told us that globally, the primary reason for a girl to have sex is for an exchange for a marriage proposal. For a guy, it is to know for sure that the girl belongs to him and will not cheat.

She then did a similar exercise about violence in relationships, and what a girl should do if she experiences violence from a boyfriend. The sad truth around the world is that many girls often do not have anyone to go to, and they end up HIV positive along with facing violence. Experiencing this through movement was so intriguing, and I left the class with a very different perspective on the issues of sexual health cross culturally. 

We face certain challenges here at home, and in Tanzania youth face challenges that are sometimes very similar. Male dominance in relationships is a problem both where I live in North Carolina and in Tanzania. This similarity is important because it unites us. Both in developed parts of the world such as the US and in developing places such as Tanzania, there is a pressure for men to "show strength" and "be masculine" without necessarily thinking about protection and safety. For women, there is pressure to "be in a committed relationship/marriage before sex" before all else. One of the most exciting goals of the {It Is In You} project is to link across cultures to understand our common human experience and common battle against AIDS. Many of the same kinds of issues confront young people where I live in NC and in Tanzania or East Africa. The reason for asking us questions and seeing how we react was to see what the differences are between young men's and young women's motivations for relationships. The exercise helped me see the connections between what we think at my high school, what our national culture thinks, and what our friends in Tanzania think.

I had learned about these sorts of issues before, but experiencing the emotions and scenarios that Tanzanians experience made it real for me. I felt that I could relate to a person in Tanzania with HIV and think of them as an individual, as opposed to a statistic. I think this is a problem that activists face in the United States. We want to help, but it can be hard to think about life from the perspective of someone living in a place so different.

Doing the dance performance work helped with this. When we were asked questions and answered them with movement, I was fascinated by the discoveries I was having. Internally, I simply felt how culture around sexuality could be degrading and harmful.  The idea that I could think about issues that I care about just by moving my body was very new and interesting.  I learned that thinking intellectually can only get us so far, and relating to others and figuring out how we really feel sometimes needs to be done through art and dance rather than just intellectualizing and trying to think through everything.

The piece was performed in Tanzania with peer health educators, and the work that Marie is doing in Tanzania is truly amazing! The performance also touched on US AID funding, PEPFAR and the right wing abstinence-only policy that was exported to Africa, and wisdom from the traditional cultures in Tanzania.

I recorded some video from Marie’s performance, and I will be uploading this to Amplify sometime next week. She lists other performance dates on her website, if you live in any of these places I encourage you to go to the performance.

Marie is also a co-founder of Triangle Dance Festival for AIDS, and the Teen Health Now youth advocacy group will have a booth at this event!  To keep up with Teen Health Now and come to our trainings and events, become a fan on Facebook!