Interview with Pam Tzeng - "Hazy Days"

I was very fortunate to work alongside Pam Tzeng, and a group of other creators, to bring a few music video’s to light for new musical tracks. “Hazy Days” is the first in this series. Below Pam elaborates on her process, her past, and conceptual direction in this insightful interview.

How do you self-identify as a human/creator? 

I'm a Canadian Taiwanese artist, choreographer, performer and movement educator. My practice is interdisciplinary. It crosses different forms of live art, and also on the back end involves producing and community organizing within the art sector. Values of anti-oppression and anti-racism permeate everything I make and do. I was born and raised on Treaty 7 Territory, I am a settler to this land, a person of the Chinese diaspora, with familial roots and traditions passed onto me from generations of ancestors who called the sweet potato shape island of Taiwan, home. My lens and lived experience as a woman of colour deeply inform the art I make.

What do you love about your artistic medium of choice?

My practice is grounded in the body. I think the body holds this unconscious wisdom that we are not often encouraged or taught to listen to, to acknowledge, and to express. What has been essential to my growth as a person, and artist, has been the ongoing journey of learning how to tune into what is true for me, honour my impulses, and negotiate the way the external world and my inner life meet. What I love about dance, and really just embodiment, is the value it offers beyond the aesthetic form and visual experience of it. Through being present in the body, you gain access to the complexity of being a person, of being in relationship with land, people, plants, animals, to the energy of life in general, and through the medium of dance and movement, you can express liberation. For me, to have the agency to transmit that energy is really vital, and to share that through art, I think, is important for visioning and transformation. 

 What has been interesting about working on this series of music videos with artists who work primarily within different mediums? 

What has been interesting is that I've never approached music and choreography in this particular way. I think it is worth acknowledging that you and I have had a relationship since we were in junior high school, so there's something about building from a foundation of experience together. It's amazing to hear your music from then until now, actually, it is a really heartening experience, and one of the things that compelled me to participate in the project. To feel trust, and to be able to experiment in something that's a little outside of my wheelhouse. Often as a creator within dance, I listen to the music that is in my body first. I work in silence, then begin to invite music to that relationship, whereas with these music videos, the music was upfront and present, and asked for a different approach of letting the songs flood my body. For some of the pieces, I absorbed what the spirit of the work was, and then for others it was more conceptual/abstracted. Other starting points began with costume, or a gestural idea that was born from the lyrics of the piece. It was stimulating and challenging to work within a short time frame, and to see what my body was able to metabolise and ready to encapsulate. It was a challenge, but really lovely because we did it! 

Also, there is the added relationship to film. We worked with the intersection of music and dance, ultimately translating and framing something kinetic into a small screen, and it takes an awesome team to be able to capture the energy of the movement. It's amazing what you can do with really invested folks, and the craft of a video magician like Landon. We started with raw uncontextualized dance video material, and it transformed into something that you could never really imagine. During the pandemic, the shift from live performance to film for dance artists has been interesting to witness and experience. It's not easy to capture the energy and kinesthetic exchange that happens between a person and a dancer during live performance. To manifest that energy on film, closer shots and moving the camera in a way that enhances or amplifies the spatial and emotional dynamic of the dancing helps. In some of the work, like in the close up special shots we captured for each of the pieces, we were able to play with moving shots, and to see that transformed into the videos was magic. 

During the editing process I discovered different ways to communicate my perspective on composition and aesthetics. Every discipline has a very different language, and the fun of collaborating is learning about what each artist is tuning into. Seeing what you, Clea, tune into in the music, and seeing how that matches or is in contrast to my intended movement, has enriched how I understand the relationship between music and dance. 

What steps did you take going into this project to move from music or lyrics to choreography and movement? 

 I took some deep listens to the album. It's funny, I'm actually someone who grew up without a profound relationship to music. My appreciation and intimate love for listening to music with stereo earphones, came later in my life, and has been a growing practice. Working on these music videos, I listened to the album and really just tried to let it permeate my body. That process was really important. You gave me creative freedom with it, but I also wanted to interview you, and we had a beautiful conversation about where the works came from. I think that helped color the sensations and emotionality, especially with specificity in certain works. This helped give context within my body and I could express more of where the root of the song came from. Also, the colour palette you envisioned, and costumes for each track, really influenced where the movement came from. 

 I'd love to know if there’s anything creative you’re excited to be working on or simply enjoying right now that you want people to know about? 

I am an alumni performance ensemble member of the organization Making Treaty 7 - an Indigenous led, settler supported arts and cultural organization based in Mohkínstsis (Calgary). Making Treaty 7 has started a new initiative called Istotsi Workshop Series, bringing together young and emerging artists of all backgrounds to learn various indigenous and artistic processes from MT7 Elders, Alumni and special guests. I’m really humbled and excited to participate as a guest of Istotsi, streaming live on MT7’s Facebook on Thursday March 4th. I’ll be sharing a little about my experience working on the original production and offering some insights on performance creation.

I highly encourage people to check out Making Treaty 7. It's a beautiful organization doing the meaningful work of uplifting indigenous artists and stories that deserve and need to be seen and heard. If you feel so inclined, donate, and engage in their programming which is currently accessible via their Facebook and other social media. Also learn more at http://makingtreaty7.com/.

How do you feel about “Hazy Days” as the first video being released from this collection of works? 

It's nice to have Hazy Days as the first sharing of a collection of works. It brings energy into a season that feels really still, because the track feels like sparks from embers. There's something about Hazy Days, this heartfelt acknowledgement in the song, a forward movement within it. I don't mean speed racing, but like a longing to acknowledge and traverse something which feels pleasurable. When I think of moving into 2021 the year of the Ox...into, just like a whole new world, that is essentially new every second... we are really moving into a new space as a society, and as people. Listening to Hazy Days, gives me a sensation of hope in going onward with a gracious momentum. 

You can connect with Pam Tzeng @pamtzeng on Instagram.