罗迪·德西尔每天开车往返于蒙特利尔市中心和她位于劳伦琴（Laurentians）地区（该地区山林葱郁，位于劳伦斯河北岸）的家，我们正是在途中遇见了她。这样的每日通勤已成为她生活的一部分，有如氧气一般不可或缺。“开车对我来说是一种精神上的释放，”这位魁北克的年轻女士对此表示，“开车对我极有帮助。一开上车，我便思如泉涌。”
可以说，正是种种辗转旅程，从零开始塑造了德西尔的人生。她自幼便随父母离开家乡海地，来到魁北克。成为一名编舞家后，她追随当初非裔美国奴隶们被迫迁移的脚步走遍了各大洲，这样的足迹助力了她创作出一个包罗万象且仍在不断演变的作品集。
如今的德西尔倍受尊崇，是首位获得加拿大最大艺术与文化综合体蒙特利尔艺术广场联合艺术家身份的人士。但她的成名之路是漫长的。十年前的她尚难以进入机构型表演场馆一展舞姿，因为这些场馆并不太接受她非洲风格的当代舞蹈语言。
© 凯文·卡利斯特（Kevin Calixte） 《屈从》最新版本《回首屈从之路》（Bow’t Trail Rétrospek）中的一幕，为创作这一舞蹈，编舞家罗迪·德西尔辗转多国，探寻流亡于此的非裔人民的韵律文化。
误解
现如今，德西尔的作品广受赞誉，尤其获得了联合国教科文组织的认可，于2015年作为“奴隶之路”项目（2022年更名为“被奴役人民之路”）的一项内容进行展演。然而，其最初却无法被世人所理解。在极富个性张力的独舞《屈从》中，她的身体随着海地特有的音乐节奏飘摇，借以象征非裔人民的悲惨经历，可在2013年时，观众却对这种表演感到极为迷惑。
“有人说这是一段传统舞蹈，没有人真正理解它所传递出的当代气息，”德西尔说道，“为此，我对自己产生了种种质疑。也正因如此，为了重塑这段舞蹈，我前往了非裔人民流亡的各个国家展开深入调研。”
为了找到适合舞蹈、歌唱和鼓乐的韵律，德西尔于2015年至2021年间开启了一段旅程，从巴西出发，在加拿大、美国、马提尼克和墨西哥多地辗转，最终回到海地。她在每个地方都会停留一个月的时间，以便充分了解该国，与当地音乐家、历史学家和社会学家交流，力求在最初版《屈从》独舞的基础上创作出全新的版本。
她长途跋涉，与不同的人们邂逅交流，使这段独舞得以丰富蜕变，最终成就了系列舞蹈《屈从之路》（Bow't Trail）。而她也在这个过程中挖掘出一种极具创意的编舞形式，即纪录型舞蹈编排。
“德西尔记录非洲的韵律，并将其融入自己的舞蹈之中。她将舞蹈创作视为一种去殖民化工具”
“我与那些用树根制成的鼓以及歌曲蕴含的节奏重新产生了共鸣，并与一位本土音乐家携手共同创作，而不是由我向他进行口述，毕竟他才是真正掌握相关音乐知识的大师。”德西尔记录非洲的韵律，并将其融入自己的舞蹈之中。她将舞蹈创作视为一种去殖民化工具，填补了历史叙事中缺失的内容。
隐含信息
“就当代非裔人民和其祖先们享有的韵律文化而言，我喜欢的一大概念是‘隐藏’，”德西尔解释道，“祖先们有意无意地在其韵律、舞蹈和手势中隐藏了一些信息，让今天的我们能够重新发现并予以解读。”
例如，德西尔曾在里约筹备过巴西版《屈从》，这段舞蹈原定于在2016年奥运会的开幕式上亮相。“我们将与喀麦隆歌唱家以及萨克斯管演奏家马努·迪帮哥（Manu Dibango）合作，呈现巴西的非裔文化。”这是一项艰巨的挑战。巴西的桑巴诞生之地有一个文化中心，建于曾经的黑奴墓地遗址之上，德西尔正是在这个文化中心构思出了这段作品。“我无法在每23分钟就有一位贫民窟的年轻黑人死去的背景下呈现这段独舞。”
德西尔第一次在里约北部的贫民区看到赤脚表演的“帕西尼奥”（passinho）即兴舞蹈时，便意识到自己必须捕捉这种舞步，并将其融入自己的创作当中。“贫民区的年轻人必须要有自己的一席之地，”她回忆道，“因此，我通过这段作品放大了这个群体的呼声，传递出更多丰富含义。”
坎多姆舞蹈、约鲁巴舞蹈和伏都教舞蹈
就在德西尔游历于各国期间，一种贯穿所有非裔文化的精神共同体悄然而生。“无论是巴西的坎多姆舞蹈、古巴的约鲁巴舞蹈，还是海地的伏都教舞蹈，非洲各类舞蹈的不同韵律之间都存在重叠的部分。不论身处何方，当我们汇集了世界上所有韵律之光，一盏巨型明灯便就此点亮。”
“当我们汇集了世界上所有韵律之光，一盏巨型明灯便就此点亮”
德西尔还用一部长达五小时的影片记录了自己的旅行经历。影片不仅展示了她的舞蹈作品，还记录了她所游历各国的人们如何生活、如何奋斗，以及非裔人民背井离乡后有怎样的转变。
目前德西尔正忙于其他舞蹈作品的编排，包括根据对医生和心脏病患者的访谈内容所创作的全新作品《心灵交响曲》（Symphonie de coeurs）。但她对《屈从之路》的创作仍在继续。她还将继续踏上冒险之旅，回到带给她灵感源泉的非洲，回到那个一切开始的地方。
治愈世代创伤
如何克服跨大西洋贩卖奴隶行为遗留下来的世代创伤？这是2021年出版的报告《治愈奴隶贸易和奴隶制的创伤》（Healing the Wounds of the Slave Trade and Slavery）中所探讨的问题。近些年来，研究表明创伤应激不仅会改变行为、认知和心理功能，其影响还会传递给后代。即使个人没有遭受任何新的创伤，这种情况也会发生；一个人未曾直接经历的事件也会对其产生心理和社会影响。
在《治愈奴隶贸易和奴隶制的创伤》中，作者认为奴隶制的基本特征是去人性化，并指出了帮助当前几代人从这一严重创伤的不同方面中痊愈的方法。
首先，必须公开承认奴隶制行为，并真诚地道歉并予以弥补。国家领导人应承诺进行赔偿，并应设立专门基金用于落实实际行动。治愈做法的核心则是铭记和纪念；重新找回人格尊严并恢复整体感。更进一步说，要通过打造安全空间、尊重地倾听和开展深度对话，治愈关系并促进和解。
《治愈奴隶贸易和奴隶制的创伤》展示了联合国教科文组织“被奴役人民之路”项目与全球人类促进和平研究所的主要合作成果。
链接：https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384447
Rhodnie Désir, dancing the past
In Bow't, Rhodnie Désir, a choreographer from Quebec, blends traditional dance with contemporary influences to tell the story of expatriated slaves. This intimate solo was enriched and transformed by research into the rhythmic cultures of Afro-descendant people, taking her from Mexico to the United States via Haiti and Brazil.
Frédérique Doyon
Cultural journalist and guest curator at Agora de la danse (Montreal, Canada)
We catch Rhodnie Désir as she is driving her car between downtown Montreal and her home in the Laurentians, a verdant region on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. This daily commute has become her way of life, her oxygen. “Driving is a mental release for me," the young woman from Quebec says. “It does me good. Ideas often come when I’m behind the wheel.”
Travelling back and forth, it must be said, has shaped Désir’s biography from the beginning. She was born to Haitian parents a few years after they moved to Quebec. After becoming a choreographer, she criss-crossed continents, following in the footsteps of forced migrations of Afro-American slavery – a motif that has nurtured her multifaceted, evolving body of work.
Désir now enjoys widespread esteem – she was the first to be granted associate artist status at Place des Arts, Canada's largest arts and cultural complex – but the road to recognition has been a long one. Ten years ago, Désir was still struggling to gain access to institutional performance venues, which were not very receptive to her Afro-contemporary choreographic language.
Misunderstanding
While her work is now celebrated – notably at UNESCO, where it was presented in 2015 as part of the Slave Route Programme (renamed in 2022 as Routes of Enslaved Peoples) – it was initially met with incomprehension. In 2013, audiences were baffled by her piece Bow't, a solo in which her body unfurls to Haitian rhythms, expressing the universality of exile, migration and deportation.
“I was told it was a traditional work; no one grasped its contemporary dimension,” she explains. “So I asked myself a lot of questions, and that's how I came to recreate this piece in the various countries where Afro-descendant peoples were exiled.”
From 2015 to 2021, she embarked on a search for rhythmics to be danced, sung and drummed. Her journey took her from Brazil to Haiti, via Canada, the United States, Martinique and Mexico. At each stop, she gave herself a month to discover the country, meet musicians, historians and sociologists, and recreate a new version of her inaugural Bow't solo.
Through her travels and encounters, her creation was enriched and transformed, becoming Bow't Trail. In the process, she discovered a creative method – documentary choreography.
“By documenting rhythmics and making them her own, Désir uses creation as a tool of decolonization”
“I was reconnecting with certain root drum and song rhythms, and creating with a local musician without dictating anything to him because he's the one who holds the knowledge.” By documenting rhythmics and making them her own, Désir uses creation as a tool of decolonization, filling in the missing pages of historical narratives.
Hidden messages
“What I love about Afro-descendant and ancestral rhythmic cultures is the notion of the mask,” she explains. “The ancestors consciously and unconsciously managed to hide messages in their rhythms, dances and gestures, messages that can be rediscovered and reinterpreted today.”
For example? In Rio, Désir was preparing the Bow't Brazil version for the francophone cultural programming of the 2016 Olympic Games. “With Cameroonian singer and saxophonist Manu Dibango, we were to represent Afro-descendant culture in Brazil.” A daunting challenge. It was in a cultural centre built over the vestiges of a former black slave cemetery, in the region where samba was born, that she envisioned the piece. "I couldn't present a solo work in a context where a young black man from the favelas dies every 23 minutes.”
When she discovered passinho, an improvised dance performed barefoot in the favelas of northern Rio, Désir knew she had to capture it and include it in her creation. “The young people of the favelas had to have their place,” she recalls. “Consequently, the work became an amplifier for their voice, taking on even more meaning.”
Candomblé, Yoruba and Vodou
In the course of her travels, the community of spirit running through Afro-descendant cultures took shape. “There are overlaps expressed in different rhythms, whether it's Brazilian Candomblé, Cuban Yoruba or Haitian Vodou. Regardless of borders, when you bring together all the rhythmic lights in the world, a huge lantern lights up.”
“When you bring together all the rhythmic lights in the world, a huge lantern lights up”
Five hours of film also emerged from these travels, showing not only her creative work, but also documenting the daily lives of the people in each country she visited, their struggles and the ways Afro-descendant communities adapted after their uprooting.
Although busy with other choreographies, including Symphonie de coeurs, a new creation based on testimonials from doctors and heart disease patients, she has not finished with Bow't Trail. The adventure will continue with a return to the source in Africa, where it all began.
Healing generational trauma
How can we overcome the generational trauma inherited from the transatlantic slave trade? The report Healing the Wounds of the Slave Trade and Slavery, published in 2021, puts forward a series of recommendations. In recent years, research has shown that not only can traumatic stress modify behaviour, cognition and psychological functioning, but the effects can be transmitted to subsequent generations. This can occur even when individuals are not exposed to any new trauma; an event one has not directly experienced can have psychological and social impacts on one’s life.
In Healing the Wounds of Slave Trade and Slavery, the view is that the fundamental characteristic of slavery is dehumanization, and the authors identify ways to help current generations heal from different aspects of this profound trauma.
Healing practices are centred around remembering and commemorating; reconnecting to human dignity and restoring a sense of wholeness. To take it further, healing relationships and fostering reconciliation is built through creating safe spaces, respectful listening, and deep dialogue.
The report maps the main approaches and practices for overcoming the heritage of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, based on expert and researcher input. It was developed by an international team collaborating under the aegis of UNESCO’s Routes of Enslaved Peoples programme and the Global Humanity for Peace Research Institute.
Link: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384447
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