IXOK’

I think for many of us, the stories that we feel most passionately and intrinsically drawn to are the stories of our ancestors. This is especially the case, I think, for those who feel as though their culture represent a minority of their current population and/or if the people whose voices the artist seeks to reclaim have been oppressed or persecuted.

IXOK’, a one woman piece performed by Mayahuel Tecozautla, at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace as part of the 2010 Summerworks Festival is an example of theatre that seeks to share an historical experience that mainstream Canadian society may not be familiar with. Using exquisite dance, choreographed by Olga Barrios, and vibrant percussion, performed by Brandon Valdivia, IXOK’ takes us to Guatemala and tells of a woman’s struggle to survive the military conflict that plagued this country between 1978 and 1996, specifically the Mayan genocide that took place between 1978 and 1984.

There is much that I liked about this piece. Firstly, Tecozaultla is one of those performers who can stand on a stage and draw the audience in simply by beginning to move one finger. Her dancing is fierce, filled with intensity and has all the heightened emotion of an opera singer. At times her movements alone tell the story so eloquently and powerfully that when words are spoken overtop of movement they seem empty and redundant by contrast.

The challenge in telling the historical stories of our ancestors, I think, is finding that which make these stories unique. It is a sad reality that the pillaging of villages, the murder of human beings based on their ethnicity, color, religion, sexuality, gender and an array of other qualifiers and the rape of women at the hands of soldiers is nearly universal across the landscape of the world, through the ages and unthinkable as it may appear, is nowhere near extinct in human society. Artistically, this means that these stories have the ability to transcend the specific and to speak effectively across cultures and communities. IXOK’ tells the story of one woman and her husband, yet it seemed to be using this couple as representative of all of Guatemala, as opposed to really rooting the story in the complex individuality of these characters. For this reason, although the dance and the drums were used to visually and aurally stunning effect, the story still seemed like one I already knew, and that it didn’t offer me anything new to tether my heart to.

That being said, the way that Tecozaultla throws herself into her dance is mesmerizing, and the way that she interacts with the drums, as though they are engaged in conversation together, works nicely to give dialogue to the one woman piece. There is a lot of creative storytelling going on in IXOK’ and I am interested to see what comes next from Mayahuel Tecozaultla, she is a dancing force to be reckoned with for sure!