Sweat, Truth and Survival

In understanding physicality as the basis of Shange’s art, I realize that she equates dance with both truth and survival. In “why i had to dance//” Shange calls attention to a critical moment in her development: “when I decided that dance was as important to me as writing/ that in order to write, I had to sweat/ to reach some sort of endorphin high to get to the truth/ which was the word/ this would change over time” (56). She recalls this relationship between sweat and truth in “movement/ melody/ muscle/ meaning/ mcintyre” as she elaborates on McIntyre’s work, committing dancers to “the rubrics of sound and sweat” and, by doing so, upholding a dance company “that does not lie” (62). These moments led me to ask, how does sweat lead to the truth?

Then, throughout the readings, Shange relates dance to the formation and maintenance of her afro-identity and consciousness, particularly in “a celebration of black survival/ black dance america/ brooklyn academy of music.” Here, she not only articulates how choreographers are addressing “the many ways we’ve avoided death, insisted on living,” (74) but also insists, “We must sing and dance or we shall die an inert, motionless, ‘sin ritmo’ death.” I have two additional questions: in what ways does Shange characterize truth and survival as “one”? What does Shange’s statement, “this would change over time” (56) add to our interpretation of truth and survival according to Shange?

Shange discusses her experience with dance, endorphins, and writing in the following video:

A Conversation with Ntozake Shange and Dianne McIntyre from BCRW Videos on Vimeo.