“Tiny Dancer” emerges as a compelling percussion piece from the “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” initiative, curated by Emily Salgado to champion female percussionists. Drawing inspiration from the iconic Evelyn Glennie and the captivating Korean Samgomu dance, this composition reimagines the percussionist’s role, inviting them to channel the essence of a dancer through the medium of sound and motion.
Embodied Hearing: Glennie’s Profound Influence
Evelyn Glennie, a celebrated percussionist, speaker, and writer, stands as a pivotal influence on “Tiny Dancer.” Her seminal “Hearing Essay” challenges conventional notions of hearing, presenting it as an embodied sense extending beyond mere auditory perception to encompass tactile and visual experiences. Glennie articulates hearing as a “specialized form of touch,” where vibrations are not just heard but felt throughout the body. This concept of holistic, whole-body listening, deeply resonated and became a cornerstone for the conceptualization of “Tiny Dancer,” encouraging a perception of the percussionist as more than just a sound creator, but a dancer of rhythm.
Samgomu: A Dance Woven with Sound and Movement
A vivid childhood memory of the Korean Samgomu dance further enriched the piece’s development. Witnessing the Samgomu performance at a Korean culture festival in Los Angeles, the composer was spellbound by the dancers’ vibrant costumes, synchronized choreography, and the resonant drumming. Initially interpreting it as purely a musical performance, the Samgomu revealed itself as a dance form where movement and sound are intrinsically linked. The dancers generated sound, and then responded to it through dance, anticipating subsequent sounds through their movements. This dynamic interplay between sound and motion became a foundational element in shaping “Tiny Dancer”, emphasizing the dancer-like qualities inherent in percussive performance.
Tiny Dancer: Percussion Redefined as Dance
“Tiny Dancer” ingeniously adapts elements of Samgomu to delve into Glennie’s concept of embodied hearing. Although the performer is fundamentally a percussionist, not a dancer in the traditional sense, the piece endeavors to make their body an indispensable component of the auditory experience. By employing a diverse array of membranophones and progressively intricate rhythms, the music cultivates dynamism and subtly crafts a ‘dance’ for the percussionist. The overarching aim is to perceive the percussionist’s physicality as a crucial facet of the overall sonic and expressive panorama, effectively blurring the boundaries between musician and dancer, and highlighting the inherent dancer within the percussionist.
“Tiny Dancer” ultimately invites audiences to experience percussion in an innovative light, where the performer’s physical presence evolves into a visual and kinetic dimension of the music itself. Inspired by the principles of embodied hearing and the vibrant interaction of Samgomu, this piece masterfully explores the dancer’s spirit residing within every musician, urging us to reconsider the performance space as one where sound and movement coalesce into a unified artistic expression.
