Choreographer, documentalist, dancer-choreographer and RD Créations artistic director Rhodnie Désir, describes her work BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek as a demonstration of our “capacity to walk forward by walking backwards at the same time.”
Demonstrating Désir’s choreographic documentary methodology, the full-length performance piece enacts her journey of self-determination, together with testimonies of the fight, resistance, and enduring identity of what she terms “Afro-descendant” cultures in the Americas. The hour-long piece is presented by Dance Immersion with support from DanceWorks at Harbourfront Centre Theatre on April 4 and 5, in a co-production with RD Créations and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.Sesaya Arts recently sat down with Désir to discuss this solo performance, which calls for amplifying the Afro-descendant voice and cultural heritage, and takes up battle against the enduring discrimination and colonialism of our society.
To delve into the full-length BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek, it is necessary first to understand the show’s origins. Between 2015 and 2021, Désir embarked on a journey (BOW’T TRAIL) to different Afro-descendant territories in the Americas: Matnik (Martinique), Ayiti (Haiti), Brasil (Brazil), Halifax, Mexico, New Orleans and Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Her goal was to increase her understanding of the slave trade, the cyclical conversation of colonialism and decolonialism, and the Afro-descendant knowledge recreated on those lands of rhythm, resistance and spirituality.
During her time in each territory, she gathered more than 140 different local testimonies, and translated them into dance, music, and performance elements unique to their culture. For Désir, this fieldwork enabled “the main transcription of the choreography documentary” – which was effectively a constant conversation of realities. The methodology pursued by Désir in each location passed from interviews conducted, to their transcription into the body (the choreography), to orality translated by local musicians, and finally, to the process of giving the work to the public (the local people) as an exchange. For this reason, each BOW’T TRAIL is unique and not repeated.
In 2020, Désir created BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek, which captures the essence of her experience in the BOW’T TRAIL territories – at once a spiritual, physical, and emotional journey and the “DNA of the message received” that must be manifested, generation after generation. Thus, BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek 2025 is a distinctive choreographic documentary piece that illuminates the cultural heritage of Afro-descendant people, merging art, knowledge, and experiences in an empowering and realistic manner.
For Désir, the work is not only a way to give back to the people who shared their knowledge and experience with her – it is a way to write a conversation with the land itself. “The land is my body,” she explains, reshaping the idea of ancestral knowledge about the land as a reflection of ourselves. By walking the land, we understand who we are spiritually, culturally and politically. It is at once an internal memory of body, mind and soul, and a constant conversation with the geography in which we move. Thus, BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek itself is unique every time it is performed because the piece is directly related to Désir’s body: her dreams, visions, battles and the emotional weight of her journey through different lands. “The structure of my piece is done in milestones,” she explains, “which means that it permits me to always make it evolve at the moment where I feel it.”
BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek is also a form of resistance to colonialism, whose legacy still permeates today’s society. “We’re going backwards right now,” Désir observes darkly, noting the ferocious patriarchal rollback of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in the US, which is further diminishing the rights of Afro-descendants, women, and other resilient minorities. “Me being on a stage is like a revolution by itself, because of what we’re living now”.
In this light, Désir explains that the pieces comprising BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek are contained in a “liminal space” on stage, and are portrayed as “ritual without escape.” Their uncompromising intensity is necessary: it’s “a matter of bringing the weight to the stage and not hiding anything.” Yet the performance conjures its complex journey from the simplest of elements on stage. The audience will experience Désir’s solo performance accompanied only by Engone Endong and Jahsun, two musicians from Montreal. And the performance will feature a projection of images filmed in the BOW’T TRAIL designed by Manuel Chantre, with lighting designed by Juliette Dumaine.
BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek has been a life-altering experience for Désir. A major part of her education, it has established the foundations of her documentary and Afro-contemporary choreographic signature. And the greatest reward has been completing the entire BOW’T TRAIL, sharing it with people, and bringing it to the stage. Undaunted by the risks she has navigated in pursuit of her research and documentation, she remains keen “to continue passing on this morality”.
Ultimately, the choreographic work is a retrospective of what Désir has experienced and documented in the BOW’T TRAIL. At the same time, it is proof of “the capacity of going backwards to situate yourself in the now”. Her work is both a body and a spiritual journey that highlight resilience, resistance and the replanting of new paths in our society: paths of equality, justice, tolerance, and the celebration of the cultural identity of each community.
Désir closes our conversation by cautioning that audiences who come to experience the work must be prepared, sooner or later, to feel the testimonies she has gathered. “They should ask themselves if they are able to connect – since it isn’t necessarily what happens in the theatre [itself]. Maybe it’s a week later, or in their dreams.”
BOW’T TRAIL Retrospek and Désir’s pioneering memoir journey BOW’T TRAIL won two Prix de la danse de Montréal awards in 2020. The full piece will be presented at Harbourfront Centre Theatre on April 4, at 11 am and 8 pm, and on Saturday, April 5, at 8 pm. Each performance is followed by an artist talk of approximately 20 minutes, moderated by Nicole Inica Hamilton. The matinée on April 4 is presented in partnership with DanceWorks. Reserve tickets here.
Ahead of the performances, DanceWorks is also presenting Rethinking The World: A Duty of Remembrance, a free conference discussion by Désir on April 1, 2025, 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET, hosted and facilitated by Nicole Inica Hamilton at YWCA Toronto (Nancy’s Auditorium). This is a free event, but due to space limitations, ticket reservations (using this link) are recommended.
© Alejandra Jimenez, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2025
