Daniel Phoenix Singh’s Unlikely Source
The AIDS epidemic was the catalyst for a "hopeful" dance piece by Daniel Phoenix Singh
Through his latest work, dancer and choreographer Daniel Phoenix Singh aims to provide a sense of hope and uplift, drawn from the most unlikely of places: the work of poets lost to the AIDS epidemic.
“These writers, they were dealing with tremendous difficulties in their lives,” Singh says. “But they were still focused on finding the creative spark and keeping it alive, keeping it moving forward.”
Presented through his company Dakshina, Singh performs his multimedia, multi-genre piece Mortal Tongues, Immortal Stories with three other dancers, two spoken-word/poetry artists and light and digital projections by Todd Mion and Adrian Galvin. It’s intended “to remember those who we’ve lost to AIDS, but also to look at the hope that’s in the poetry and in the creative process.” Singh got the idea for the piece in 2010, after a Rainbow History Project reading of Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS, an anthology edited by David Groff and Philip Clark. First staged last year at Dance Place, Dakshina presents the work again as part of this year’s Atlas Intersections Festival. A critic for the Washington Post called it a “moving piece for some powerful verse,” singling out Chris August and Gowri Koneswaran as “terrific poetry performers.”
But AIDS isn’t the only unlikely source of recent inspiration for Singh. The Indian-born artist’s next big project is shaping up as a response to Donald Trump and other xenophobic politicians.
“I feel it’s important to address the privilege I have of living in the U.S. openly as a gay man — which I would not have had in India,” says Singh, himself an immigrant. He’s currently interviewing refugees and immigrants for a piece called Sanctuary that will contrast political rhetoric with lived reality. Sanctuary should be ready for a company debut in July of next year.
Of course, by then the anti-immigrant rhetoric might be even more vitriolic — ratcheted up as a key agenda item of a Trump administration. Singh is struggling even to think of Trump as the official Republican Presidential nominee. “It’s too depressing,” he says.
Dakshina performs Mortal Tongues, Immortal Stories on Saturday, March 5, at 1:30 p.m., at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $30. Call 202-399-7993 or visit atlasarts.org.
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